Request: ATV Rack?

Wondering if anyone out there knows of a rear-mounted ATV rack that's capable of carrying a portable fish house?

I've got a runner kit, but with all the running around I've been doing (Including a decent bit of driving on asphalt to avoid thin ice in channels) it's still taking it's toll on both the runners and the sled.

So, if anyone's got any recommendations, or thinks they know what I'm looking for, please leave a comment or shoot me an email!

The pictures to the right seem to be what I'm looking for, but the website that sells these racks have very few details about them. I shot the guy an email, but haven't heard back quite yet.

Ideally, it would be something that carries the house off the ice while moving (See Picture 1), but can quickly be lowered to the ice so you can flip the top over and get to fishing (See Picture 2). If it were a perfect world, I'd also love it if you didn't have to disconnect the fish house from the ATV rack (Aside from maybe undoing a few bungie cords or something of that nature).

Little summary of what I've heard from this weekend. Fishing seems to be okay still. Could've just been my spots that weren't producing (As I said, Wayzata bay was pretty heavily pressured).

Some things that you may want to consider:

• The bite seems to be for a longer time period. I've heard fish coming in as early as 4:00 and as late as 8:00.
• Fish (may) have moved deeper. Had two reports come in of finding fish in water that was significantly deeper than 20'.
• As far as I can tell, avoid the crowds. Stick close to them and you'll undoubtedly catch fish, but you'll be weeding through 20 small fish for every 1 that's worth keeping. 

Looking to get out this week and put those theories to the test. Will report back as soon as possible!

Fishing Report - Wayzata Bay (1/26/2011 @ 4:00 - 7:00)

Got out again today. Another quick update since there's fish being fried right this second (Ended up holding off last time).

Not many new developments for you, unfortunately, but I can say that the bite is definitely still going.

(Almost forgot to take a picture, but I did snap one of my dad filleting the fish. If you want to see it, click here, but I'm going to refrain from putting it up on the page since it's not quite as nice to look at fillets as it is to see some fish.)

Still ~20' (19' exactly, this time). Tried to get onto a bit of a shelf this time as opposed to being on the transition, did just as well as I've been doing.

Got to bring my Dad out today, which was really nice. He's the one who got me interested in fishing way back when I was about 5 years old. He bought a house on Minnetonka specifically for that reason (As well as a boat, obviously). He's put more money and effort into this hobby then I ever could have, but has never had squat for luck with Walleyes on Minnetonka. Hearing "Oh man, this is awesome!" and "WOW, that was cool!" a couple times tonight made it all worth it. Walleye are, by far, his favorite fish to catch, but as I said, his walleye count on Minnetonka was at 2 (In a total of 17 years living on the lake) and one of which was a fluke (Caught it while targetting pike). After tonight, he's up to 5. Still no incredible feat, but to double your count in one night after 17 years, I think it meant a lot to him.

We totaled 5 fish, 3 kept (One was a little small, but it was the first of the night and my Dad was pretty excited about it), 2 went back, and a handful of perch like usual.

One thing that was different is that I stayed out a quite a bit later then usual due to a recommendation from a reader (Thanks Nate!) who said he was having luck from 6-7, and it seemed to pay off! We caught 4 from 5-6, then managed 2 more around 6:30. There was a quiet spell in between the two bites though.

I'll also advise to avoid days like today where the ice was noisy as heck. I know the fish count doesn't do that claim justice, but it's hard not to notice that the fishing shuts down when the ice starts talking.

The other two nights that I've been out have been conveniently timed with a rising barometer, and I've caught fish, today wasn't too much different: Pressure 29.74 in (Rising) (From WeatherUnderground)

Oh, one more bit of good news, bringing my Dad out to catch some fish finally convinced him it's about time to go get the wheel house, so I'm really hoping we'll have that on the ice by this weekend. For those interested, we also saw three pickups all around 1 house that was easily 8x16 (Looked like an ice castle), so if that doesn't convince you that people are out on Wayzata in "full force" then I don't know what will. 

Questions/Comments/Concerns, shoot me an email (holland.joe@gmail.com) or leave a comment.

Tight Lines!

Fishing Report - Wayzata Bay (1/24/2012 @ 4:00-5:45)

Got out to Wayzata again today, in the process of frying up some fish now so I'm gonna keep this one a bit shorter.

Got to my spot around 4:30 (This spot is a little further away then the last spot, but still very similar structure), sun was already on it's way down. Quickly drilled about 3 holes all of which were between 17-22'. Marked fish on all three holes but stuck with the 19' hole (Mainly because the ATV was close by, and I usually setup near it to block wind).

About an hour of pulling up nothing but perch (Again though, these perch were really nice sizes. Even bigger than the ones from the last outing. Biggest was probably 9". Still not much of a keeper, but nice to see.)

Then, just like the last time I was out, the instant that sun hit the horizon (Not that it was very visible in the first place, though..) the walleyes moved in. There was a good 10-15 minute period between the perch bite and the walleye bite, but stick through it and you might have some luck. 19 feet of water, on a hump rather then a hole, and using a Northland Tackle Moxie Minnow tipped with minnow heads (All the sponsor-hype about this jigging spoon aside, I've been having some really, really great luck with it. Lift it up 4-5 feet then let it flutter down and you'll usually get at least one fish that's somewhat interested).

The walleyes were both bigger and smaller then last time. Biggest one came in at 18", smallest was 9", with a couple between 9"-12". Didn't keep the smaller guys this time, got enough from the last outing for a meal, so I figured it'd be better for them to go back and grow a bit.

So again, similar things that have provided luck both outings now.

•  20 feet of water (Despite the guy at Wayzata Bait telling me people were finding fish out deeper)
•  Humps / Sunken Islands / Spines seem to be preferred to holes / bowls
•  SUNDOWN. SUNDOWN. SUNDOWN. Can't stress this enough. Again, my window of good fishing was a mere 30-45 minutes long.
• Stick around. Perch can be a good sign.

Lastly, I saw about 8 full sized pickups out there, as well as at least two wheel houses. So I'd say it's a pretty safe bet to drive out there. I was on about 14" of ice myself.

If you've got any questions, comments, or are even just looking to be pointed in the right direction, feel free to leave a comment below, or shoot me an email @ holland.joe@gmail.com.

Tight Lines!

Mille Lacs Fishing Report (1/6/2012 @ 7:00AM - 7:00PM)

Update: Apparently certain message boards no longer think that my content is suitable for their websites. I won't mention any names. Just a heads up for those of you who've been linked to this site from another, and want to keep following the blog. I appreciate everyone who's been sending emails and supporting the blog, as I've been having a great time (attempting!) to keep it up to date, and help people get on some fish themselves. As I've said before, I'd love for this to be somewhat of a "hub" for Minnetonka info, so if people have some reports they want to share, let me know!

Another update is that we're currently in the process of converting our old ATV into an ice machine. Think Lake of the Woods IceFox style ice machine. Oh yes.

Just got back from a pretty darn good day out on the ice. We headed up to Mille Lacs (I know, I know, it's a Minnetonka blog, but it's also a fishing blog ;) ) and rented a house through Lyback's fishing resort. Going to Lyback's has always been somewhat of a tradition for my family. My father and all his brothers have been going out there for going on 40 years now and despite having the capability of using our own house (As seen on the right sidebar) we still like to try to go out of Lyback's at the very least once every couple years. These guys go through hell and back just so you can have a smooth and worry free day on the ice even if you're not renting from them, so we figure it's always good to pay it back once and a while.

And with that being said, THANKS to Eddy (And his staff, I apologize for forgetting the guy's name who helped us out). Not only did you make the trip seamless, but you also managed to put us on fish, and point us in the right direction of fish when the bite turns off.

Got to the house at 7:00am, and I didn't last longer than about 30-45 minutes before I took to the portable. Drilled a good 10 holes in the Pope's Reef area and wasn't having much luck. Marked a fish here and there, and not many takers. Decided to head out towards the Graveyard since that's always kind of been our favorite spot out of Lybacks. Found about 20-22 feet of water and was hammering the perch one after another, but they were even smaller then the perch we get on Tonka! Couldn't stand losing that much bait for nothing, so I started back towards the house to see if my father and uncle were having much luck. Stopped at one last spot just south of the Graveyard and managed to find exactly what I was looking for. Got about 8 real nice jumbo's within roughly an hour window. I'd say from 9:30-11:00am, about 16 feet of water, and the structure that I was looking for was sort of an "underwater channel" so to speak. Eurolarvae were the ticket for me today. A Northland Tackle Moxie Minnow, tipped with a few larvae, and the perch would SLAM that thing. Minnows and minnow heads would get some real light bites, but as I said, larvae were the hot bite (All walleye came on fatheads, though).

The guys at the house (on Pope's) managed a few smaller perch, and some small eater eye's, as well as the biggun' of the day that came in around 5:00pm (Although, we'd swear this fish had been cruising around our spot for a couple hours because we'd seen him swim by a couple times). We didn't want to bother measuring and being disappointed that it wasn't keepable, so we didn't grab an exact length, but I'd guess around 24". The bite at the house, other than the one walleye, had almost shut off completely by about 3:00. Ice conditions were... strange, but for the most part, safe.

By no means a record breaking day on Mille Lacs, but seeing as we were told when we got up there that the bite hadn't been very good the past couple days, and that we "just missed" it, I'll take what I got!

Tight lines.

(Pardon my french :P - Also, I stop saying much of anything around 14:00, until the last few minutes of the second video. Unfortunately, as soon as I got around to re-rigging the camera mount and starting up the live stream, everything had quieted down.)

Quick Update

Quick update since it's almost 1:00am and I'm headed up to Mille Lacs tomorrow morning at about 4:30.

Got out on Cooks bay the other night. Still a slow night, but I did manage a walleye. Nothing worth bragging about seeing as he was only about 8", but I was marking fish and it at least let me know I was in the right spot. I got off the ice a little earlier then I would've liked (6ish), so I think I'll try to go out again soon, home down my spot, and give it a good 5-6 hours from sundown on.

Another new update is that we just purchased a new Honda Rubicon TRX500 about 5 hours ago. Can't wait to take it out on Mille Lacs for a good test run tomorrow! Got it so 1) I could be more mobile in the portable fish house, 2) our old ATV was a piece of junk, 3) to pull the big wheel house during those times before you can drive out there with a bigger truck.

We've already got an auger rack, GPS mount (Albeit unneeded since this baby has built in GPS-nav), and a rack for all your gear, so once I get those mounted I'll get some new pictures.

Here's to a good day out on the ice tomorrow! We'll be headed out of Lybacks as we rented a house from them, but I'll most likely be out and about in the portable the entire day. Check back tomorrow as I'll very likely have the live stream going a good part of the day provided I can get cell service out on Mille Lacs.

So Many Snakes

Well, I've gotten in a good bit of fishing lately. Not nearly as much as I would like, but I've been out probably 4-5 times already. Most of which thus far has been pretty strictly on Gray's and Wayzata Bay. I checked out a small local lake with no access the other day, but a local told me they had some pretty bad winter kill a couple years prior, and after walking the entire distance of the lake and marking no fish, I had no choice but to believe her.

When I've been out on Tonka, I've been on pretty steady pike action the entire time, whether I want to or not. I've pulled in a total of at least 12 northerns so far, most of which have been anywhere 20"-30", with the majority being on the lower end. Can't complain too much, but just like the perch problem, these aren't the fish I'm looking for at all.

First break, 12-15 feet of water, as close to a weedline as you can get. Drop a sucker and I'll almost guarantee a couple pike within an hour.

Been on the search for some crappies, but I don't think Gray's is gonna be worth my time too much longer. Planning on heading over to North Arm today if the wind dies down a bit and I can catch an early break from work.


Was out on Wayzata Bay last night at sundown and had absolutely zero luck. Didn't even mark more than a couple fish. By the time I got out there, there were a solid 15 people on the ice and the landing was bumper-to-bumper. By the time I left (Less than an hour or so later) there were 2 remaining guys out there. Sometimes it's a little comforting to know you're not the only one doing something wrong..

Every report I've gotten from Gray's thus far has been pretty equally as bad. Some of us manage to get some pike, but other then that, it's been perch and small sunnies. Not exactly sure the cause of it all, but it's definitely inspired my desire to try out some other bays. I'd also like to hit Gray's later in the evening one of these nights.

On another note, it sounds as though my father wants to take a couple days off work and head up to Mille Lacs for a night or two, so expect an update from up there in the near future as well.

Should have another report within the next day or so.

Fishing Report (12/23/2011 @ 11:00-4:45) - Wayzata Bay

Got out again for a good portion of the day today. Started on Gray's but was quickly in nothing but perch again and got tired of wasting minnows so I hopped the causeway and went over to Wayzata Bay. Had enough ice to walk everywhere I went, and I saw people walking/fishing around a good majority of the bay, including over by the Yatch club landing. The ice was a bit spotty though. I was on 8+" in one spot, then less then 6" in another. Never saw anything under 4-5", but as I said, it was definitely spotty.

Managed to get a fish worth mentioning finally. Pulled in this ~30" northern around 1:00. Saw another one on the sonar (and could see him down the hole) but he wouldn't bite not matter what was thrown at him. Was fishing in about 12' when I saw the northerns, later moved a bit deeper (As deep as 34') but never had much luck.

This guy gave me quite a run for my money. As soon as he hit, he snapped the tape that was on my reel (The tape that comes standard on a Frabill straight-line combo) so be weary of that happening to yourself if you hook into a nice fish. Spent the entire 5:00 fight holding the reel onto the rod with one hand, while trying to reel with the other.

With that being said, I don't think I've ever had so much fun pulling in a pig northern like this on the ice as I did with that straight line combo. The 1:1 gear ratio, and the fact that the fish can literally take a dive and spin the reel right out of your grip makes the fight an absolute blast. I've had a few issues with tangles so far, but I think that's mostly because I was trying to reel the line out backwards rather than just pull it out like normal fly fisherman do. Since switching to the pull-only method, everything's been just dandy. I really recommend grabbing one of these rods if you haven't already, or at least a fly reel. I saw a decent looking one at Dick's the other day for only $20 that I might go grab if it's any comparison.

Aside from the one fish, I spent most of the day hole hopping and trying to find something steady. I was marking fish every 15 minutes or so, but I couldn't get any of them to commit for the life of me. Also had more than one school of perch move in on me.

I'm hoping I'll be able to give the other end of Wayzata a try next. Probably not tomorrow since I have a family get-together, but maybe on Christmas day.

Still working on perfecting the video making, as I screwed up the audio again and the angle of the video is pretty bad, but literally as I hit RECORD the fish nailed my bait, really wish I would've got the audio of my reaction :/

Video of the fight with the Northern. Comes through the ice first @ 4:14

Fishing Report (12/22/2011 @ 12:00-6:00)

Finally got out in full force today, so to speak, and had a pretty good day on the ice. The fishing was pretty constant, but it was mostly smaller little perch. Got a couple good sized bluegills, and right at sundown I missed a good hard bite that I picked up right off the bottom.

The perch bite was so hot that I couldn't even keep them off my hook. Not that that's a good thing.. But I snapped the picture (below) of one fish, and in the background you can see my bobber already on it's way back down.

There were quite a few others out today, which was real nice to see. Probably a total of about 15 people came and went over the course of the day. Plenty of ice, so if you've got the itch to go out fishing and not go too far, Gray's is a good bet.

Snapped this picture near sundown to show a few of the other guys that were out there. I was one of the farthest people to the north, no one seemed to venture too far past the drop off into the main hole.

Didn't hear of anyone having a spectacular day out there, and judging by the amount of people coming and going and by how much hole hopping I saw going on, I'd say it's safe to say it was a pretty slow day all around. I got off the ice at around 6:00, and there were still probably 4 houses out there, a couple of which had been out there the whole day and hadn't moved much. Not sure if they were on fish or just some serious die hards. One house looked like a permanent because it never once moved and I thought I saw the guy leaving as I was coming on the ice, but I'm not too sure.

Also managed to test out my phone's streaming capabilities. The video didn't turn out great seeing as it was just a test. I plan on getting a mount for it, and hopefully get some decent videos up which people will be able to watch live (Stuck at work dreaming of fishing?) or on demand whenever you'd like. This is the first one, like I said, it's just a test, so bear with the horrible filming, quality, and sound. About half way through the audio cut out and never turned back on (I hit mute :P) too so it might get pretty boring after that, not that the first half is very exciting in it's own.

First Fish.. Ice Update (6-8")

Well, I finally got out and did some fishing. Didn't stay out too long though, details follow..

Got out around 9:30am, which was already a bit later then I would've liked. Sun was shining and it was close to 34 degrees as I was getting out of the car. Great weather for fishing, but not so much when it's still early ice.

With that being said, there's a solid 6-8" out on Gray's Bay already. Plenty of good clear black ice that you can see through, with a good deal of holes already drilled that you can follow on your walk out. A good amount of cracks too so you can pretty easily judge the thickness wherever  you are thanks to that clear ice. Another good thing about it was it made getting to the deep hole really easy, didn't even have to break out the GPS. Just look down, and as soon as you stop seeing weeds, go another 5-10 feet and you'll be in 16-20 feet of water.

The main reason I didn't stay out there was how noisy the ice was. I'm pretty used to being out in a big 2 ton fish house with only 10-12 inches of ice and hearing lots of settling at night, but for some reason when you see multiple cracks go right beneath your feet, you get a little on edge. Like I said, there was at least 7" of ice where I was, and the cracks seemed to only be on the upper 3-4" of the ice, not all the way through. But a combination of me, a good amount of gear, a brand new sonar, my 1 year old dog, and tons of cracks got to me and I decided to pack it in rather then moving spots.

There was one small spot (20 yards wide) that was still open water, somehow, about 3-4 days ago. If you refer back to my "Update on Gray's Bay Ice Conditions (12/9/2011 @ 2:00PM)" post, it's the small northernmost red circle on the map. I'd bet you have a few inches by now, but be weary of that area.

The fishing I did get done wasn't much. Maybe two hours worth, I was back on dry ground by 11:30. I managed three small sunnies and a medium sized crappie, all went back to be caught another day.

I wanted to get some pictures of the ice to show people how much there actually is, but my phone was giving me an SD Card Unmounted or Damaged error. But there's more then enough ice to bring portables out there, I'll just be waiting for a colder day, or at least a day I can leave the dog at home.

I also saw one guy out on Wayzata bay, about 50 yards out from the 101. So it seems there's some safe ice out on Wayzata already. I'm almost positive the main part of the bay is ice locked, and I plan on getting out tomorrow or the following day to check ice near the landing.

Apologies! ...and mods!

Extremely sorry about the lack of updates within the past few days. I'm on call for work, and this just happened to be a weekend that we were doing a server migration for a customer out in Spring Park, which ended up taking roughly 20 hours over the course of Saturday and Sunday (Plus another 4 on Monday..). Which also led into a 10 hour day on Monday, and a 11 hour day on Tuesday because of various issues we never got to over the weekend.

But, enough excuses. In the midst of all this working, I managed to get a few hours to myself to make some modifications to the portable fish house, as well as purchased a new GPS/Sonar. Oh, I also plan on getting on the ice on Wednesday, provided everything's held up alright over these warm days (I'm pretty confident it has, I've seen fisherman on Gray's everyday from Friday until Tuesday).

The unit I picked up is the Humminbird 385ci GPS/Fishfinder Ice Combo. I was lucky enough to snag the last one from the Gander Mountain store closing sale (5% off all ice fishing stuff, 20% off electronics, 10% off shelters, 30% off fishing stuff, 30% off everything in store unless marked otherwise, etc.) and despite being listed as $450.00 on their website, it was only $400.00 in store, and there was a orange sticker on it that brought it down to $350.00. That, plus the 20% off, gave me a $450.00 unit for just under $300.00 after tax, not too bad. Can't exactly give you a review of it yet, as I haven't gotten to use it, but my reasoning for picking it up (despite the sale) was a review from another guy who told me that he'd used the normal circular flasher dial his whole life, and since switching to a vertical display, he vows he'll never go back. Other reasons were to have a bow mount fishfinder in the boat, to have a GPS so I don't have to constantly steal my Dad's, so I have an extra flasher if I decide to bring a buddy out (still have my Ice-35), and because I figure even if I dislike the vertical display, I always have a flasher-mode. Like I said, no review yet, but look for it in the next couple days after I get out on the ice.

On to the portable modifications...

As you can pretty obviously see, I'm still using a rather old portable (It's next on the upgrade list), I believe ~12 years old. We've since replaced the tent and done a few upgrades, though.

A lot of people modify their portables and make them look a lot nicer. Me? Not so much. I'm for function over aesthetics. The modifications we've made are all quite simple, and the number one consideration going into each of them was weight.

The chairs that came with this unit eventually broke, so we took a bench press bench and used the two cushions to make a couple new sliding seats, I'm hoping to add a couple folding backrests this year.

The center console is simply a piece of wood about 16" wide and just long enough to go from the front of the sled to the back. All it is, is a hole for the bucket and a square-shaped hole for the cooler we most commonly use. Depending on the day (If we plan on being out a long time or not so much), the cooler slot is also used for our minnow bucket which has a very similar size thus allowing a nice snug fit to avoid any sloshes and spills during transport.

The "shelf" on the front was just added this weekend. It folds up for travel (Secured simply with the blue bungee cord you can see in the second picture), and down for use. All it is, or will be, is a couple cup holders, and a small place to temporarily place jigs/weights/depth finders/whatever.

The two red rod holders are simply these, cut down to size, and mounted with a simple bracket. They can move front/back, but are sturdy enough to hold your rod without tilting on it's own.

I also picked up a Fish Trap Organizer, and some Red Rope Christmas Lights. I see tons of new lighting options all over the place, but I've yet to see anyone who offers red (Aside from Chrstmas lights). Why'd I go with red? Well, many night walleye fisherman probably already know, but for the rest of you, it's simple enough. With the red light, you don't have to allow nearly as much time for your eyes to adjust to the darkness as you would if you're sitting in a fish trap with nothing but those bright-white LED lights. Typically, as the night comes, I'm moving less often, so it's not necessarily a game changer, but it's something I highly prefer over the white lights. The Organizer I picked up for pretty obvious reasons, to organize stuff. Simply a place to put my jig boxes and any other loose tackle. The selling point for me though, was the addition of the plastic hooks on the bottom of the organizer allowing you to hang up your coat, gloves, etc.

Aside from those few things, not much has changed, but that's not to say that the experience on the ice in this house hasn't changed. Simple upgrades like these (Cup holders, more space to place things aside from in the sled itself/on the ice, etc) make everything that much easier. We've all been in the situation where in the process of untangling your line, you accidentally kick over your pop then knock something down a hole, then drop the rod, and so on, when it rains it pours. It's small little mods like these that can help alleviate those frustrating situations. It's also nice to know that your rods and bait bucket aren't flying around loose in your sled somewhere while you're driving the ATV from spot to spot. Again, small things like these that just make everything else go that much smoother.

I've still got this itch that I haven't scratched quite yet, so here's to a slow work day and a full day on the ice! See you out there!