First ice reports... no it's not good

[Chrisper4694]

...well the fishing was fine, but the ice was shoddy as hell! the ice formation absolutely sucked this year so far! We spent probably 30-40 minutes in full safety gear checking and marking just a small area to be able to fish saturday. Sunday we tried to expand out area and it was a no go! DO NOT go out unless you know what you're doing or are with someone that does, with full safety gear!! seriously!! we had 4-5" of half grey half black ice in spots, which was hard and ok, but then the black ice grew a baffling small amount even with the low temps we had.... i couldn't believe it. The worst part though were the seemingly ok areas (looked and felt while walking on it exactly the same as the other areas)... but you could put a spud right through 5 inches of it, it was so soft! yet it would hold you up.... so if you weren't careful you'd walk around thinking it's ok

anyway, now that the disclaimer is out of the way, we marked off a pretty safe small area to fish and had at it. Pickerel had me chasing flags most of both days while njsquatch wondered what spunk he had on his fingers that the fish wouldn't touch his stuff haha. you can see him in the background of one of the pics NOT catching jumbo perch! a few jumbo perch joined the party as well, but no bass, crappie, bluegill, or other anticipated guests!

sunday we had Nick come out for his first ice fishing trip and although he didn't have a ton of action he got his first 2 tip up fish, both pickerel! next time we'll have to get him some jigging action (we couldn't safely get to any good jigging spots)

All in all the forecast doesn't look great to keep this sketchy ice formation strong, but fingers crossed. I'll be checking it today later in hopes of jigging up some late day crappie if anyone's interested text me

[thmyorke1]

is that open water in the background
but worth it for those are nice perch and pickerel

[Mikey topaz]

At least you stretched the tip ups out and getting a few fish...A lot these places that are barely fishable right now had a lot of wind the previous days before it froze. That crap ice when the water blows up over the edge of the ice and freezes then with the snow mixed in it’s a recipe for disaster, ice before New Year’s Day ain’t so common in no anymore remember that guys. It’s early play it safe!

[Chrisper4694]

Originally Posted by thmyorke1

is that open water in the background
but worth it for those are nice perch and pickerel

no it was thin black ice. good right up to the edge though. like i said, we thoroughly checked the entire area we fished first.

[thmyorke1]

Originally Posted by Chrisper4694

no it was thin black ice. good right up to the edge though. like i said, we thoroughly checked the entire area we fished first.

nice, any tips on checking? I see that learning the spud bar and using it extensively is critical.
I doubt ill be going out by myself without someone experienced first, but curious on the process.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTCWg3zIOkw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2E3n4YtV2wo

[Mikey topaz]

Originally Posted by thmyorke1

nice, any tips on checking? I see that learning the spud bar and using it extensively is critical.
I doubt ill be going out by myself without someone experienced first, but curious on the process.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTCWg3zIOkw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2E3n4YtV2wo

Luke when your ready you let me know I’ll bring you out bud

[Chrisper4694]

Originally Posted by thmyorke1

nice, any tips on checking? I see that learning the spud bar and using it extensively is critical.
I doubt ill be going out by myself without someone experienced first, but curious on the process.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTCWg3zIOkw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2E3n4YtV2wo

def don't go alone. go with mikey or one of us, even if the ice gets better (which probably won't be til a few days after xmas)

[thmyorke1]

Originally Posted by Chrisper4694

def don't go alone. go with mikey or one of us, even if the ice gets better (which probably won't be til a few days after xmas)

believe me I aint stepping on anything without you guys, thanks for offering both of you two, Ill be in touch

[FASTEDDIE29]

Nice action Chris! You made the best of it before it melts dammit! We have some crazy roller coaster temps to deal with. Let’s see what happens!

[Chrisper4694]

Originally Posted by FASTEDDIE29

Nice action Chris! You made the best of it before it melts dammit! We have some crazy roller coaster temps to deal with. Let’s see what happens!

Def gonna be a full reset thursday unfortunately, but i was out yesterday, today, and ill be back out tomorrow!