Started Rocky Again, But I Ended Well

 

First Fish

2nd Fish

3rd Fish

I discovered something

Final Fish

4:15-8:00 PM 15-16' My Spot Rock Lake

15-25℉, PC, 0-4mph NW

Not much visibility today.

I was moving like a slow turtle getting the car packed. Once on the ice I didn't have the flexibility to get my left foot ice spikes on and also had to retighten the seat posts moving like a turtle. I drilled four sets of holes and started in the ones the Trap got blown off of last night. I caught a quick perch. I didn't have a camera hole in this set and the sun was setting. I quickly changed to the farthest North set where I did have a camera hole drilled. There was life so I put the camera down but due to sediment visibility was crap. Think I had a pike attack on the Cubby, but I set into nothing. It went dead, so I moved a bit South and spent the rest of the night on this set of holes. The first fish up was a nice sunny on the Cubby. Then I got a couple of crappie on the Cubby. Put a Glow Demon/minnow on a Meat Stick, because I forgot to get the bobber rod re-rigged last night. The crappies seemed to like the minnow tonight. I caught 18 total and missed as many. A bullhead was the last fish of the night. I called it quits at 8 PM. I think I'm close to being in a groove ice fishing after a rocky start to the season. My thought early on tonight was ice fishing for me this year was as smooth as rip rap; things had smoothed down considerably by the time I was done tonight

18 Crip 

1 Perch 

1Sunny 

1Bullhead 

Double Extended Trip At The GOMH

 

19.5" Rocket Shad

3:00-7:45PM GOMH SW

48-51℉, Cloudy some drizzle, 5-10mph NE

Water is very high falling

Todd dropped off the pontoon today. I went to the lake place and got a rake and a landing net. I cleared some dead fish and slop before fishing. Somebody had a minnow trap hanging from the SW corner of the culvert. I got a couple of 4lb jumpin' bullheads to start. A mom and gram showed up with two boys to teach them magnet fishing. They each caught something. After they left, some teens showed up. I broke off the Wing It Bobber rig about a yard above the bobber when I was fighting a fish that felt like a panfish. I saw the bobber and caught the rig on my first cast; it was out there quite a way. The teens applauded me when I landed a 3lb jumper. They left. Federal Ammo Dave showed up with his posse and started on the N bridge. I got a couple of Gator Bullheads and lost a big Orange Bullhead that I thought was a bass by the way it pulled; the big gill dove under a small dead dogfish and into the cattails and got off. Dave's posse came to the S side of the bridge as it started to rumble in the distance. One of Dave's guys got a silver as I was packing up. I was gone before it began to rain. I shot my report video when I got home from the car in the rain. It was a short storm. The power went off at the lake place. I noticed on the radar that the heavy stuff missed us but bullseyed on P/S.

Evening Ice Trip On Platte

 

No Skunk!

3:50-5:30PM 8' NW Of the Access Platte Lake

23℉, Cloudy, 6-16mph NW

Went to the same area I was in a couple of days ago. Drilled 5 or 6 holes. Saw a sunfish down the 4th hole I checked, and it had green weeds as well, so I drilled my three and fished the night there. Unfortunately, I had weeds blocking my view of the minnow. Had a small pike that I saw on the camera take the minnow. When I set the hook, my line broke immediately.  Had sunfish, crappies, perch, and pike all move through and inspect the minnow. I missed a few bites on the jig rod, or I wasn't patient enough to wait for the bite. The bobber only went down one more time, and it was the crappie that prevented the skunk. Once it was dark, fish stopped coming through. The wind came up about 5PM, and there was a minor and loud icequake as the ice shifted after it had been blowing hard for about 15 minutes. I was a little concerned a crack might have opened up between me and the access, but that wasn't the case.

1 Crip

    

First Ice Trip Of 22/23 Ice Season

 

1st Fish Of Ice Seaso

3:45-5:35 10' Out From the Platte Lake Access

26-35℉, PC, 0-3mph

Forgot to bring the spud, but there were a few people out, and there were old iced-over holes where I was fishing. I did a zig-zag pattern in 10-12' feet of water and spied a gill down in the third hole, so I drilled three more, and that is where I fished. Saw two gills catching one. Saw at least one pike, possibly two. It was about 10 minutes between appearances, and I didn't get a great look at the first one. A few marks came in, and looked, but I didn't detect any bites. Almost nothing as it got dark

1Sun 

(This is YT Report I did with the VN Video Editor App, first-ever time using video editing software)

(This is the YT Report before I got the VN app)

Rocked The Final Ice Fishing Trip Of Winter 21/22

7+ Rippin Rap

8.5" Cubby

8" Rippin Rap

6:30-9:00PM Rock Lake 8' at the Cane

36-45℉, PC, 4-23mph NNW

I got on OK. Stepped in slush and soaked my right boot. I then walked straight out. Drilled a hole to the South, wasn't impressed with what I saw and headed to my cane holes, which I could not find. I ended up stepping in two of them later on. I drilled one hole out deep. Then moved in closer to the cane and set up there. It was pretty windy once I got past the hill. Also drilled a set to the South. When I got back, there was a school of sunnies off in the distance that I think had a big bass in with them, but it was too far away to tell. Had a few schools of sunnies and crappies swim through, but not very frequently. Saw one pike. I caught the one sunfish and one Crappie on the Rippin Rap. And I got a couple crappie on the Cubby Mini-mite  I packed up at 9 PM as nothing was going on. Checked the Sullivan access on my way home; it's trash. I will probably hit Rock again in the morning and call it a season.

I did not get up, so this was my final 21/22 Ice Fishing Season trip.

 

Good Evening On Rock By The Cane

8.5" THE Jig (Chart/Org)

7.5" THE Jig

Should have hand landed it, oh well

Crips started with a double

 4:00-9:00PM 8' and 10' By the Cane 

33-40℉, Cloudy, 3-15mph WNW

 (I started in yesterday's 12 holes, but it was dead there, so after 20 minutes, I moved to the 8' holes and drilled a new set to the south in 10'. Schools of something came through every 10 minutes. Shiners and perch tended to be together. Had a couple of small schools of sunfish quickly come through. Had a good 3 to 4lb pike hit the stickleback when I was fiddling with the camera trying to get a picture. I tried to pull it up out of the hole as it was hooked in the snoot, but the line broke a couple of inches from the dropper; oops. I decided to give the other holes a try. Lost a small pike that came out of nowhere and hit the Cubby. It came off just after I got the camera up, not even a nick in the line. Had a good size school of gills move through and a couple of smaller schools. Right before it got too dark to see, the crappies showed up. I used up my last couple of minnows. Had a hot bite with the Cubby, and then it was looky loo's and pulling teeth. Think I saw a small bass in the 8' hole.)

Three swans were flying around, and as I was packing up, two were calling back and forth. One was to the West and one to the East. The PRO narrows opened up a good bit today.

Nice Night At the Dog (Dog Sitting Mack)

 6:30-8:30PM The Dog, Matt's Corner, and Last night's holes out from Holy Family

35-47℉, PC, 0-4mph W

The first night of dog-sitting Mack. They canceled the day at Santee Cooper.

Started at the same holes as last night. There was a guy out front of Holy Family. Spotted Pike and Perch in the same holes as last night. Sunnies were out a little deeper suspended. Drilled holes there. Caught a bunch of sunnies. Had a pike prowling around and attacking the camera as I was bringing it up. Got out to my holes from last night just after sunset. Short flurry, and then they were done. Coming off the ice was butter. Don't know how much longer the access is going to last. The water is coming up with the snowmelt.

45 Sun

11 Crip

5 PerchAV

2 PikeAV

Caught Something Other Than Crappies, Got A Few Of Those As Well

 6:30-9:00PM Matt's Corner and Out from Holy Family 

30-41℉, PC, 2-6mph NE

Got the low down from Steve and then headed to the lake.

Pike down in the first hole, I put the camera down. I checked 6 or 7 of the holes somebody else drilled in Matt's corner. Saw a bunch of perch toward the bottom in the weeds, and sunnies were up high. Fished the second Sunny Hole. They were all over. Down Viewed 'em. I got bored with that quickly. Headed out to my area before sunset. It started slowly had a flurry on the Glow Demon and minnow. Good size fish up high. It was a Clown Show, or I would have caught more. Fish shut off for the final hour. Beautiful Moon!

31 Crips

20 Sun

10 Perch AV

1 Pike AV

GOMH Morning, Beautiful Evening in the Trophy

 

Only 1Jump and 1 Orange in the morning. Missed a couple of bites.

Evening in the NW Corner whacking gills, pike, and bass. Lots of activity on the surface. This may have been the day of the terns, not sure. Ended up mapping Platte Lake until midnight.

Catching Fish On the NW Juice Tonight

Caught a Full Bag Of Potato Chips

4.76lbs, not quite 19-inches

6:15-8:30PM NW Juice Platte Lake

40-53℉, PC, 0-5mph NW

I wasn't in a giant hurry to get out tonight because the wind was blowing 10-15mph out of the NW for most of the late afternoon. It finally started to settle down around 6PM when I headed out. I did some mapping on my way to the NW Juice. There was loon activity, baitfish activity, and fish activity. Between 6:30-8:00PM, it was pretty much bite after bite with small sunfish, pike, and bass. Whenever it slicked off I could see baitfish activity all around me on the surface. For whatever reason, the bite basically quit at 8PM. I went to mapping by 8:40 and did that until about 10:30 or so. The water level is really starting to get low. I missed the boat lane a bit to the left on my first try. I had to push it out and do it again.

Good Night Out Front In the Trophy

7.5" Pumpkinseed

7" Bluegill Out front

Hogtied

Loon checking things out

 4:30-5:00PM GOMH NE SE 

5:45-8:30PM Out front in the Trophy

8:40-10:30PM Mapping 

I decided to hit the GOMH first. One guy was there on the SW side. I got a 14-inch jumper on the NE side and missed a couple of bites. I then went down on the SE side. The guy got a jumper. I didn't get any bites and quickly left.

I noticed a sunfish skitter off as I was pulling out, so I shut it down and threw out a cast. The pike attacked the bobber and hogtied itself. Not even close to hooking it. I then started catching and seeing sunfish activity.  I caught a 14-inch bass and promptly got my line stuck in the stroller when I went to adjust the boat. It wasn't wrapped too bad, but I did need to pull the prop. I anchored and got that done. I then got a bunch of sunfish while anchored. Eventually, that settled down. I went to West point, but nothing was going on, so I started back to our place. Caught several fish out of the reed bed between us and Sherman's, then worked my way down to Jenny's reeds. Nothing was going on there except for a visit by a couple of loons. I decided to do so mapping and wound up doing that until after 10:30PM. Found something interesting in our bay and marked it.

I stopped at the GOMH. No one was there. I saw a couple bass on the Northside, possibly a small pike as well.

47 Sunnies

1 Jump

4 Bass

1 Pike 

GOMH, Lake Dock, Trophy SPRO to GOMH

9.5" THE Jig

17" THE Jig

17.75" The Jig

9" THE Jig

 Fished the GOMH in the morning only Jumpers there. 

Caught a pike out front fishing from shore.

Took an evening trip to the SPRO. Was windy started at the River Mouth when it got calmer toward sunset went to the sunfish spot and cleaned up on gills.

Steve and family got back from Florida today.

Morning Jumpers/With Lowell B. On Whitefish/Evening In the Trophy

Fishing with Lowell On Whitefish (Mille Lacs)

 

18.5" Swim Shad

18.5" Swim Shad

9" THE Jig/Wax worm