Slow Few Days (1/4/12 - 1/10/12 Report)

I'll keep this one short as there's not much to say.

It's been a pretty slow week. Aside from a grand total of 6 walleyes since the last post, two being worth keeping, we haven't seen much aside from perch, perch, and more perch.

We continue to mark fish around sundown, but it's getting increasingly difficult to get them to commit. I swear, we've had one fish that's been sticking around for almost a week now that does nothing but pop up, take a quick look, and head back down. Never once has he done so much as take a nibble even.

If you can't tell, it's been a little frustrating, but we'll get back in the swing of things shortly.

This evening there was an absolute frenzy right up until the rain began. If only it held out for another hour or so, because about 2 minutes before it started while it was still a bit light out, I managed to pull in 2 walleyes in quick succession (Both quite tiny, though. 8" and the other was even smaller). Right as I heard the rain drops hit the side of the house, the sonar wasn't showing a thing, and it - for the most part - stayed that way up until about 7pm.

I've tried staying out as late as about 10pm, and am still hoping to get an overnight in one of these days to see how things are at 2-3am, but I haven't heard too many great things from other anglers that I've talked to.

Looking at last year's posts, we never actually had a good day of walleye fishing until about the 15th of January, so I've still got a bit of hope left, but if nothing changes it won't be long until I start drastically changing things up.

As far as ice conditions go, we haven't lost anything, but I haven't really even seen a single inch gained over the past week either. We're still at a pretty solid ~12"-13". That said, who knows what this rain might do, not to mention a day of 40 degree weather. Hopefully things should be back to normal by next week, though, and we'll get back to making ice.

Best of luck.

Fish On, House Out (Ice & Fishing Report 1/3/2013)

Had a pretty good day today. After finally getting all the work we needed to get done finished with, we finally managed to get the wheel house out for the first time in almost three years.

We put it out on Wayzata after drilling well over a dozen holes and finding nothing but 12"+ of ice everywhere we went. Got it out in a bit over 20 feet of water.

(Edit: Figured I'd toss this in here, but supposedly the areas near Big Island only froze over recently, but because of the snow cover they look the same as the rest of the lake. Much of the lake is safe for vehicle traffic, but I would avoid this area even with an ATV/Snowmobile. As late as Christmas there was still open water, so take that as you wish, but be safe regardless.)

Afternoon till sundown was pretty action packed, but as you can guess, it was nothing but perch. Once sundown hit we managed a total of four walleyes and one loss. People like to embellish stories about "The One That Got Away" but I'll say with some certainty that, if what was on the other end of that line was a walleye, I've never heard a walleye peel line like that. It was non-stop for a good 10+ seconds. Oh well, another time.

We only managed one keeper, everything else was under ~10" and the one we kept was a 14"er. Caught that one shortly after the sky got dark on a Northland Tackle Moxie Minnow-Glo tipped with a minnow head. Two of the others came on the same setup, and the last on a Northland Tackle Glo Buckshot.

I also stopped by Mills Fleet Farm today to pickup a few Propane Tanks and found myself walking out with a new 10" Slush Inhaler. I've wanted to get one of my hands on these for a LONG time, as to me, redrilling and cleaning out the holes every time you get back to the house is far and away one of the most tedious parts of ice fishing. Well, without giving too much away, it's money well spent.

We got a new 10" drill bit for the auger this year as well, so we weren't looked forward to the added slush that comes with using one of those over our old 8"ers. Generally, we'd have one guy running around drilling holes and he'd be done with all 6-7 by the time the guy cleaning the holes was done with 1-2. Now, my father was drilling the holes, and I was always just one step behind him. Drill the hole, shovel the excess snow/ice outside, drop in a hole sleeve, plop the slush inhaler in, out, empty outside, take 1-2 scoops with the normal ice scoop to clear our the little bit of remainder, and you're good to go. Each hole took us less than 2 minutes, and we were setup and fishing within 10 minutes of putting the house on the ice, something that used to take closer to 30 minutes.

It's not at all a good investment if you only use portables, as it's way too large and inconvenient in almost every way, but if you've got a small corner or pickup truck bed that you can toss it in while you're out in the wheeler, I would highly recommend it. It'll save your back a lot of work since you're not constantly bending over to pull slush out, and it'll save you loads of time.

I was skeptical getting one, as all the reviews I've seen were along the lines of "Don't waste your time," "It's too big," and "Too heavy," but I'm extremely glad I bit the bullet and got one. Money well spent.

I also picked up a brand new rod & reel setup, a Thorne Bros Custom Med-Light Tripwire w/ Recoils, with a Tica Cetus LF500. It's only taken me about 4 hours of using it to confidently say that I'm in love. The rod is light enough to work just fine for panfish, yet rigid enough to be able to handle a 14" walleye with ease and make the fight that much more enjoyable. I've been sold on spring bobbers since the first time I used one, so having it built into my rod is a godsend. I also kept the rod in a rod sleeve over night (With the spring bent) and as soon as I took it off it went right back to normal. The amount of action the rod gives you is phenomenal, and the rod itself is so lightweight that even the slightest twitch from a fish and you'll feel it.

Like I said, it's only been 4 hours since I put it on the ice, but I'm sold. Had a hard time switching back to my St Croix Legend rod, and that thing is by no means a "bad" rod, but the Thorne Bros custom comparatively almost makes it seem like one.

It's On! (Ice & Fishing Report 12/27/2012)

Finally made it back out on to the ice again today for some real fishing, and found a good 6"+ almost everywhere I went.

I stuck pretty close to home, so I didn't venture out past Wayzata Bay, but both Wayzata and Grays seemed to be solid. Wayzata had more than a couple pressure ridges that I was a bit skeptical of crossing, but luckily we didn't have any issues. The spot we fished probably had a solid 8", and as said, the smallest amount of ice we've seen so far (And this was as of 2 days ago) was 6". I'm sure there are some channels to watch out for, but some of the main bays are shaping up a lot nicer than I expected.

The fishing wasn't really even worth mentioning. Over the course of two hours I landed 3 perch, and missed probably 10 more. I'm pretty certain all the fish I missed were perch as well, due to how quickly they'd dart back to the bottom (I rarely, if ever, see walleyes do that). We were in just over 20 feet of water, and fished the hours around sundown.

It wasn't until about mid-January last year that the specific spot I was on today started producing, so I'll try back in a week or two, but I'll definitely have more updates to come within the next week. It sounds like my father wants to make a trip up to Mille Lacs this weekend, and I'll be sure to have another Minnetonka update by this weekend, if for no other reason than to report current ice conditions.

Good luck out there, and stay safe!

Oh, and try to have better luck than I did ;)

First Ice!

As of today, 11/12/12, we've got ice in some of the back areas of the lake. With an expected low of ~20 tonight, I'd be surprised if we didn't see a little more in the morning.

That said, forecasted 40s this week aren't going to help, but either way, it's always good to see ice before Thanksgiving!

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!

Another day, another fish! (1/27/2012)

Got some eaters tonight while out with my brother. Should have some more detailed reports coming in this weekend, stay tuned!

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!

Walleyes! (1/19/2012 @ 12:00 - 5:00)

Got out on the ice today and did a good bit of live streaming. Had a request from a reader as far as some walleye spots on Tonka. Unfortunately, he asked for spots "other then Wayzata bay" and the spot I ended up at was on Wayzata bay, but either way, fish on!

Got to my spot around 12:30 after having some trouble starting the ATV in this cold weather. As if that wasn't enough trouble, on my way out I had the fish house jackknife out to the side due to so much clear ice and almost ran over it. In an attempt to stop, I actually did run over it a little bit, but no damage was done. To make it even worse, as I tried to shift gears from drive into neutral, it went an extra gear past neutral and went into reverse. Luckily the hitch that I have on my house released rather then staying attached, or else I would've been going backwards right on top of my portable. Lastly, once I finally did get to my spot, after drilling only 3 holes I ran out of gas mid-way through the 4th. At this point I was almost ready to head home.

Figured I'd give it some time and after hole hopping a bit I settled on the one that seemed to have the biggest perch. Not that I was too happy about that, but it's not a bad sight pulling 6-7-8" through the ice one after the next. I wouldn't be too sad to have Minnetonka turn into a good perch fishing lake if nothing else. It was about 3 hours of on and off fish, for 20 minutes you'd catch them one after the next, 20 minutes later it'd be dead silent, them's the breaks on Minnetonka.

Right before sundown (Literally, about 2 minutes after the sun went past the horizon) was when the fishing finally turned on. Walleye after walleye for a solid 20 minutes, in total I pulled 6 of them through the ice and kept 5. The last one was a bit small, and I figured I'd give him a couple more years before he makes it to the table. Was fishing in about 20 feet of water, and pulled every fish right up off the bottom. Had a Northland Tackle Moxie Minnow tied on with minnow heads as a kicker.

For those of you who stuck it out with me on the live stream, thanks a bunch! You can watch the video I took after the break. The action starts at about 5:00 and is pretty constant for about 15 minutes, then the last fish come up right near the end of the video. 

 

P.S. Forgot to mention I was seeing cars and SUVs out on Wayzata Bay. I won't say it's safe yet (Saw 11" of ice myself) but after this week I'd say it's probably safe to say otherwise.

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!

Update on Gray's Bay Ice Conditions (12/9/2011 @ 2:00PM)

Well, I finally got out on the ice today and got some lines wet. I'll get right to the fishing report and say that I didn't get any bites. I was shallower than I would've liked to be, only about 6 feet, and I had to get off the ice by 1:30 (Got there at 12:30, didn't even really get setup till 12:45). To make things even better, I realized that I left my Humminbird in the wheeler which is stored up near Mille Lacs right now. Might have to make the drive up there this weekend just so I have it handy in the meantime..

Auger, Bucket, Dog, and a Tip-up

Although, I did spot a fish. As soon as I drilled my last hole, I kneeled down to check the ice and saw a real nice northern only a few feet below the ice. A safe guess would be lower 30"s, but I'd say mid 30"s. I ran as fast as I could (Almost went face first into the ice a couple times) back to my bucket to grab a minnow and tip up, but by the time I got back the fish had moved on.

Not the greatest first outing of the season, but it felt real good to finally get on the ice again.

Now, as far as ice conditions go, you do still need to be careful and watch where you're walking. There are a few spots (Small, 6" diameter) that seem to be a little thinner (3" still). The good news regarding those, is they're very prominent. As long as you watch where you're walking, you won't have trouble spotting them.

I mentioned to some people recently that there were some snowy spots on the ice, and those too seem to be slightly thinner than the rest of the ice. I'd say most of them were about 3.5"-4" (Drilled most of my holes in snowy spots), so they're safe, but again, caution is always a good idea. If you're walking on clear ice, there's a good chance you're on a solid 5" or more. There's also a good set of "paths" that were created by cracks and water flooding that are for the most part, your safest option, these were also about 5"+.

Now, with all that being said, I've got a pretty drastic new discovery. OPEN WATER.

Red = Bad, Green = Good

Yep. We still have open water on the bay. I've drawn a little map as to where it is, so people can avoid these areas. From the landing out to the first break down to about 20fow seemed perfectly safe. I wouldn't venture too far south/southeast. The map highlights the areas I wouldn't travel in red, the area in green, to my knowledge, is entirely safe. The red question marks are where there's a small opening to a little lagoon. I didn't make it all the way over there to check ice, so be cautious if you're heading that way in search of that small 30' hole that's over there. I'm pretty confident it's safe, I just obviously don't want to be sending people into uncharted areas.

Can barely see the other guys, but they made it to the drop off.

There were a couple other guys out there that I met and got to chat with for a while. One guy who was waiting for his buddy to show up and I talked for a solid 30 minutes. Real nice guy. They made it out to the big hole in the middle of the lake, and said they had a good 4-5" out there as well. They were just setting up as I had to get off the ice, so I'm not sure how they were doing, but hopefully they're having better luck. But it's good news that the main hole is safe for people who don't want to be stuck in 6' with weeds everywhere. On that note, though, it does seem pretty clear that weeds are dying quickly. The area I was fishing is overgrown and entirely unfishable during the summer, but actually provided a real nice clearing in between two weed beds at this time of year.

Dakota

So there we go. First actual "report" - no fish to show for it, but either way it felt great to get out there albeit for only an hour (Most of which was spent taking care of this girl ->). I'll probably repeat this all winter, but be smart, be safe, drill holes and check ice often. They'll likely be frozen over by tomorrow morning real nice considering I was having to break layers of ice from my holes just during the hour I was out there. So don't feel too bad about lots of holes. Good luck to everyone who's out there today/tonight. I'll probably be back out tomorrow early in the morning/afternoon (MAYBE tonight again, but we'll see. Meetings at 3:30 and I don't know how long they'll take) for the pike bite if you want to try to catch me out there. Otherwise, again, stay safe and good luck!

(Also, please take the word "safe" with a grain of salt. NO ice is "safe". You never know where a warm spot, spring, or moving water could be. So always, always, check your ice often when it's this early in the season. Don't be afraid to bring those ice picks either. Better safe then sorry.)

Gray's Bay Ice Report (12/8/2011 11:30AM)

Managed to skip out on my lunch break, grab the auger, and hit Gray's to see if we've had any change in the ice lately. Mostly good news follows:

Looks like I was for the most part the first person out there. There was one other hole drilled, but it was only about 10' from shore, and looked like it had been long since it re-froze over. Stupid me forgot to bring out a ruler for official measurements, but I'd say we moved from 2-4" since the last time I checked to 3-4.5", depending on the spot. With that being said, I wouldn't doubt there are a few spots that are still under 3", and aren't safe yet. Can't stress this enough: BE SAFE. Drill holes and check thickness often, and bring ice picks. Better safe then sorry. Now, onto some pictures!

Got about 6 holes drilled in total, and it was pretty consistent all around. Luckily there was a guy on lunch break sitting in his car at the ramp who was nice enough to tell me "Don't worry! If you fall in, I'll call the ambulance!" - Gee, thanks for putting that in my head.

The depths in the holes that I was drilling was probably only about from 2-3' deep, to 10' deep at the max. I haven't made my way onto the deeper hole in the middle yet, so take some extra caution there. Aside from the guy at the landing, I was alone, so I wanted to make sure if I took a wrong step I'd hopefully be able to touch bottom. Not a thing you want to have to plan for, but them's the breaks on early ice.

BUT, some good news is that I was seeing fish down there. I was paying more attention to the ice then the fish, but I did see one smaller crappie swim by and a few even smaller sunnies.

I did notice a lot of people checking out what I was up to out there, and a good handful of them looked like ice fisherman. Had one guy ask me how the ice was as I was leaving, so I can definitely tell I'm not the only one who's itching to get out there.

You probably won't see me out there tonight like I had originally hoped. But with single digits tonight and tomorrow night in the forecast, you can be sure I'll be out Friday and Saturday.

Again, I can't repeat it enough, be safe, be smart. Don't go out alone, and definitely don't stay out past dark alone. If you need a fishing buddy, check out one of the many links on the sidebar. Most forums have "Open Seat" opportunities where you can tag along with another fisherman. Keeps you both safer, and helps you meet some great new people.

Off Topic

So with the ice practically here, I'm having a hard time keeping fishing off my mind. So here's a little interesting read for some of you. Still planning on trying to go out on Gray's Bay today, so check back tonight for another update. In the meantime...

Lake Minnetonka Lou

There's a long running urban legend about a "10 foot sturgeon" that quietly creeps around Lake Minnetonka. This legend has been ongoing for well over 30 years, and is something I've grown up hearing about my whole life. 

(For those who are interested, you can check out the Lake Minnetonka Wikipedia page here - Scroll down to the "Fish" section, there's a small blurb about the ongoing legend.)

With all that being said, I probably shouldn't have to mention how shocked I was to receive this picture via text message from my bowfishing buddy.

Lake Minnetonka Lou? You decide.

I couldn't believe it. I've heard "fishing stories" ever since I can remember about the "monster that got away" (Conveniently they always get away with no photos or anything). But never once had I ever heard about a fishing tale that actually had some proof behind it. 

If you've got any doubts that this is actually a picture of a sturgeon, here's a reference picture for you. I'd point out the pretty distinctly shaped nose and pectoral fins, as well as the well defined dorsal scutes (The ridge) that goes straight down the back of the fish. I'd also say that you'll notice a similarity in the bottom structure in both of these pictures, and seeing as Sturgeon are primarily river fish, it would make a lot of sense to see one of these sitting in front of the strong current that the dam provides.

The picture was taken off Gray's Bay Dam this summer. For those of you who don't know, the new dam has a little place where you can stand and look down at the water (As you see in this picture) which stands about 5-6 feet above the water level (That varies of course, but it'll never be closer then 4' away from the water), so that gives you a little perspective as to how far away this picture was taken from (Account the height of the guy too, just over 6' tall) and how big this fish might actually be.

The consensus was "Well, it didn't look 10 feet. But I'll be damned if that wasn't the biggest freshwater fish I've ever seen."

The story goes that he came back the next day with two buddies and actually hooked into the thing (3 separate people all hooked into it at the same time) but with one strong kick and a big splash, it got off. I won't get too much into that part of the story, as I typically like to stick to the stuff that has proof ;).

I'd love to hear if anyone else has encountered this monster, or if anyone else has similar stories of fishing legends that eventually came true. I've got a couple uncle's who have fished this lake religiously for over 40 years and had never even heard this rumor, let alone catching a glimpse of it themselves. Either/or, if you've got a story, drop me a line here, or leave a comment below.

Looking Good..

Whelp, here's what I've been waking up to the past couple days. Sorry about the crummy cell phone picture quality.

Ice as far as the eye can see. Wayzata Bay has begun it's process of becoming ice locked. It likely won't be ready for foot travel by this weekend, but by early next week I'm sure we'll see people beginning to wander out there.

Saw a couple guys walking around on Gray's today. Didn't see any fishing or holes being drilled, but it's pretty clear that I'm not the only one who can't wait for the ice to be safe.

I added a few links to the side bar of some websites that I'd advise checking out.

Upper Midwest Outdoors is far and away my favorite fishing forum. The community is great, the people are extremely welcoming, and I've got some really great info and fishing reports from this site. Owned and operated by Shane Hendricks, this is one of a few sites I'd recommend to just about every Minnesota fisherman.

Hot Spot Outdoors is another forum that I love. I'm not as active on HSO as I am on UMO, but with the sheer amount of people that come through HSO, it's another great resource for information and fishing reports. Some really great people on these message boards as well.

Wayzata Bait and Thorne Bros are my two go-to stores for anything fishing related. Thorne Bros has the most amazing ice fishing selection you'll ever come across, and the store is full of guys who are more then willing to help. Wayzata Bait is my place for bait.

Last but not least is Lybacks Fishing Resort on Lake Mille Lacs. Obviously it's a bit unrelated as it refers to Mille Lacs, but Eddy's ice and fishing reports are some of the best out there. Lyback's does fish house rentals, storage, maintains roads (Make sure to pay your access fees!), and are all around some of the friendliest people out there. If you want a great fishing experience for a great price, Lyback's will always be my first recommendation for Mille Lacs.

I haven't managed to get my hands on a Slush Inhaler yet, but I'd like to do a product review on one of my favorite bobbers. Some of you may have noticed in the picture in my previous post that almost all of my rods, deadsticks excluded, are rigged with spring bobbers. If you haven't caught onto the spring bobber craze yet, the idea is that they allow you to detect even the slightest of bites. This is great, but in my opinion doesn't even compare to the capability these bobbers have to detect up-bites. Up-bites are exactly what they sound like, when the fish is approaching your bait from below, bites, and keeps moving upwards. With a normal bobber with a couple split shots below it, you'd never have the slightest clue that a fish was down there, but with a spring bobber, the spring will go limp, allowing you to detect those up-bites that you'd otherwise be completely unaware of.


With that being said, there's a spring bobber that I prefer over all others. I've tested the Frabill springs, HT-STB & HT-SBF springs, Easy-Bite, Clam/Jason Mitchell, and St Croix Legends springs. By far, I prefer the St Croix springs over the rest.

Keep in mind, you will be paying a bit extra for the quality, but it's worth it. These springs are unmatched. High quality, very visible, and quite durable. Another great thing about these springs is that they come in 4 different action levels: light, medium light, medium, and heavy. I like to use the light ones for gills, medium and medium light for crappies and walleyes, and occasionally the heavy for walleyes as well.

The downside to these springs, is that they were specifically designed for the St Croix Legends ice rods, something I don't use. So I had to come up with a solution, and I've found one that seems to work quite well.


These are the HT-Stb Spring bobbers. I tried these out, and didn't like them one bit, but they did come with these small foam inserts to attach the spring to the end of your rod. Pick up a pack of these (Found them at Mills Fleet Farm for $2.00) and your choice of St Croix spring.






Insert the spring into the foam insert, and put that into the top eye hole on your rod. Here's a picture of how I do it.



Simple enough! So there you have it. Again, you will be paying a bit more for this setup then you will for other springs, but I guarantee you will not regret it. These are the Aston Martins of spring bobbers.

Pros:
- Comes in multiple action levels
- High visibility
- Very durable
- Great action
- Bar none, some of the best spring bobbers around

Cons:
- Expensive (In total, the setup will run you about 10$ a piece. 9$ per spring + ~1$ per foam insert.
- "Some assembly required."

That's all for now. Here's hoping the next post includes some action shots on the ice!