Our second day on the ice didn’t turn out as well as our first. We met at 6:30 as planned and were out on the lake from 7:00am to 10:30am and got completely skunked.
When we first got on the lake, we set up near the same spot we caught the perch the day before. After nary a bite for about an hour and a half, we moved to the other side of the point. The only action was a tip up going off after we had moved, but the fish let go. We theorized it was a walleye that felt the line and dropped the minnow.
We tried minnows, stink bait, and live grubs (maggots) throughout the morning, but nothing would entice a strike.
Even with such poor action, it was still a good time. When I said in an earlier post that I didn’t have the right set up, I didn’t know how right I was.
Mark had two shelters for the four of us. When you get the heater going inside, it warms up pretty fast. We were almost toasty. It didn’t get warm enough to take off any of my layers, but that was because I was paired up with Mark and he couldn’t sit still long enough for it to get that warm. He would always open up the shelter after 10 minutes or so.
Mark and I in the shelter. We can pull it down over our heads to be fully enclosed.
Inside the shelter. Clockwise from 12 o’clock, you can see our bait cooler, lantern, heater, and fishfinder. Just to the left of the fishfinder is Mark’s hole with a bobber in it. My hole is to the right of the heater just outside the picture. You can see my fishing pole just to the right of the heater.
Our “camp” with two shelters (one down, one up) and two four wheelers to help us get around. You can see a tip-up in the foreground.
You’re allowed two lines in the water per person when ice fishing, so along with each line within the shelter, we had two tip-ups outside. I’ll describe how those work to those unfamiliar with them in a future post. The shelter is also a great invention that’s worth getting into more detail.
All in all, it would have been a lot more fun if we had pulled in some fish, but it was still fun chumming with the guys. It was a beautiful day with some light snow and virtually no wind. It seemed to be colder at 8:30 when we moved as our hands went numb while we were getting set up again. But that’s when heaters are so nice to have.
We’ll go out again soon and I’ll post another report when we do. I’ll also get into some of the equipment in between outings. I’m learning as I go and any of you ice fishing novices like me will benefit from the tips I’m picking up from the veterans like Mark.
See you on the ice.
This sport kind of confounds me. How do you prevent the heater from melting the ice?
@optimista: I’ll explain the physics of it in a post soon.
About time you got out and experienced real Minnesota fishing. You need to pull some nice pike through the hole and make some more pickled pike. Mmmmm…
Be careful of the thin spots.
@BigSkyAngler: After this outing, I would have been happy to pull anything out of the hole. Hopefully we’ll have better luck next time we’re out.
[…] Last time we were on the ice, Mark talked about the best bite being the hour around sunrise and sunset. We talked about the next time going out at 2:30pm and staying til after dark. We got our chance last night. My brother is in town for Christmas, so he and another friend of his, also an avid angler, joined us. […]