Heading Out (12/31/2011 @ 9:00AM)

On my way out to the lake now. Probably going to start closer by (Grays or Wayzata) then move around a bit if we can't find anything.

Feel free to check back or check the live stream, should have some stuff up by mid day.

See ya out there!

Live Stream Update

Just wanted to give people a bit of an update on the status of the live stream and how it'll work.

I added a video link to the right side, so how that'll work is it'll either play the most recent video I've made, or it'll play the live video that I'm shooting right at that moment. I'll be out on the lake a good part of the day tomorrow with a buddy, so if you want to see the live stream in action, that'd be a good chance (Check in around 11:00 - 5:00).

On the bottom of the video, there is either a time, or it'll display "Live" in red text. If you see a time, it's a video that was made recently and is not currently live, if you see Live, well, that's self explanatory.

I'll be utilizing it more actively as the year goes on as it'll give me the best opportunity to provide real time updates, so I just wanted to make sure people know what they're looking at.

If you want to see a bigger version of the video, you can check it out directly at: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/fishingminnetonka - alternatively, you can use the full screen or zoom options on the video that is embedded in the sidebar.

If you've got any questions, let me know. Otherwise, feel free to leave me any feedback you've got about it. If it's easy to use, hard to use, more/less convenient, whatever.

Also, as I mentioned, I'll likely be on the lake all day tomorrow (Starting at Gray's, we'll see where I go from there) so maybe I'll see some of you out there. Good luck!

(And Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays to all!)

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.)