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Slim, how can you ice fish?


Michigan Slim

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Went out yesterday with a buddy to fish for bluegills. I always put out tipups to maybe get something with some size. It worked! My biggest ever. 15 pounds and 39" long. What a monster! Took some pics and put him back. Fun stuff!

 

IMG_20210125_085713.jpg

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Nice Pike. I’ll bet that was a fun catch. :)


I have never caught one of those. I used to try for Muskie when I lived in PA back in 88/89 but never had much luck. Twice I had Muskie follow my lure but I believe they saw me and got spooked. I was creek fishing. 

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4 minutes ago, J-BAR #18287 said:

Wow!

 

Forgive my ignorance;  is that a pike or a musky?

J-Bar,

Here’s a handy description that I found. 
 

image.thumb.jpeg.49c0185ada9bedd4adfc1cc56d318fb1.jpeg
 

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Northern pike. My best before this was 32". I'm waiting for better ice on a local muskie lake. I promised Kaya we could set lines and get a nice muskie for her. 

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Based on Pat's comment about being seen and spooking the fish and what you're wearing, I take it that ice fishing is really more like hunting?  Do you use clubs?  (One would think that ice fish would be frozen and wouldn't put up much fight.  Besides, I've seen folk using clubs on gar.):rolleyes:

 

Does it have a gun season?  :P

 

And what does one use as bait for an ice fish?  Heck, how does one clean them?  Fillet knives are too flexible to be effective against ice.  Instead of a scaler or a pocket knife, can you use a scraper like you use to clean frost off of your windows?:P

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I love ice fishing...haven't done much since I moved to Tennessee from Michigan.  But my son takes a few Tennessee buddies up there every February.

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Okay, let me get this straight.

 

You spend a lot of money to buy gear, food, and fuel to do this.

 

You usually have to buy a shack, heaters, generators.

 

You have to spend  quit a bit of time traveling to and from the spot and setting everything up..

 

You sit a small, , uncomfortable, and uninviting place until a fish bites....if it ever does.  If it does, you take pictures of the catch.....

 

AND THEN YOU THROW IT BACK?

 

Hallelujah, boys and girls.  I've just discovered a new definition of insanity.  :blink:  :rolleyes:  :P  

 

I guess that's why they make vanilla and chocolate ice cream:  everyone to their own madness.  Hell,I even know people who play with guns and toy trains.

 

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40, hunting clothes repurposed for fishing. No heater or shanty as I like the open air and seeing around me. I also move around a lot to find fish. My auger was about $50.00 and the poles about the same, all on sale. Got to visit with some old friends while I was there and sip some Makers Mark. Great time. 

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1 minute ago, Michigan Slim said:

40, hunting clothes repurposed for fishing. No heater or shanty as I like the open air and seeing around me. I also move around a lot to find fish. My auger was about $50.00 and the poles about the same, all on sale. Got to visit with some old friends while I was there and sip some Makers Mark. Great time. 

Edit: there's 60 bluegill fillets in the fridge for supper. 

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43 minutes ago, Four-Eyed Buck,SASS #14795 said:

I was going to say maybe your bluegill came wrapped in pike!:rolleyes::lol:

 

The pike I caught years ago were just "snakes" compared to that one. I was up in Canada with the ex's Uncle and Aunt.:blush:

Snakes and hammer handles! Haven't heard that since I was a kid.

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I live in a resort community surrounding a 300 acre lake full of crappie many in the 14 inch range. It’s a short two blocks to the lake and on the weekends the lake is crowded with fishermen I’m not one of them. Ice fishing reminds me of sitting in a damn cold outhouse starring down the hole

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1 minute ago, Badger Mountain Charlie SASS #43172 said:

That is a lot of knife work. But good eating. 

Teaching Kaya how to fillet. Took about an hour taking our time.

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Washington has a bounty on Pike. Dispute with BC about fish coming down from the Fraizer River and infesting Washington waters. I doubt that they are that big out here, but they are all teeth. Anything that threatens their sacred Rainbow trout is BAD, BAD, BAD.

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3 hours ago, Four-Eyed Buck,SASS #14795 said:

I was going to say maybe your bluegill came wrapped in pike!:rolleyes::lol:

 

The pike I caught years ago were just "snakes" compared to that one. I was up in Canada with the ex's Uncle and Aunt.:blush:

The decent sized pike like to hit as you're reeling in a hammer handle.  They release when they get close to the boat.

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11 minutes ago, sassnetguy50 said:

The decent sized pike like to hit as you're reeling in a hammer handle.  They release when they get close to the boat.

Caught a 32 incher one time that had a 16" sucker in its belly with four nice perch. 

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9 hours ago, Michigan Slim said:

Went out yesterday with a buddy to fish for bluegills. I always put out tipups to maybe get something with some size. It worked! My biggest ever. 15 pounds and 39" long. What a monster! Took some pics and put him back. Fun stuff!

 

IMG_20210125_085713.jpg

Is that Northern Pike?

They are the yummiest!!

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4 hours ago, Kid Rich said:

Biggest fish I caught ice fishing was a lake trout. Measured a little over 37" and I don't remember what it weighed. I know when I laid it on a yardstick it covered it completely. Took a little over 45 minutes to land it.

kR

You and Bess need to come to the cabin this summer and fish!!!

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32 minutes ago, Singin' Sue 71615 said:

Is that Northern Pike?

They are the yummiest!!

It is. Too big and pretty to keep. They are good eats though but I had a bucket of bluegills

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3 minutes ago, Four-Eyed Buck,SASS #14795 said:

I have a story about pike playing with bait. Happened to the Ex's Uncle on the same trip. That thing was scary massive!:o:blink::blush:

I've seen them harass ducks. The duck eventually lost. 

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I saw it once during his first encounter with it, head looked as wide as a shovel! Would take the bait and let him start to reel in. Once it close enough to see the boat..........ptooie! Spit the bait. Did it three times that evening, before we quit as light was going. He went back to that spot the rest of the week, but it had probably moved on:blush:

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Just now, J-BAR #18287 said:

I went ice fishing in Michigan in 1968.  The beer got in the way.

 

:ph34r:

I was in da UP some years ago. Was drunk and napping by noon. Got up and fished until dark. Then the lanterns lit up another party and over we went. A big social gathering where some fishing happened. Had a ton of fun. Glad it was only a three day trip. My liver couldn't handle any more.

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Ice fishing is insanely boring to me, think it’s just drinking for most where if you catch a fish great...

 

When I first took my wife we were with my stepfather of many years, in the tent and a muskrat climbed up and popped out of the hole.  My wife leaned down and tried to pet it and I still remember my step dad slapping her hands away.  Fun story though, wouldn’t believe it if wouldn’t have been there.

 

 

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Black Lake, just south of Cheboygan, MI.  Mike Stempky and I drove out onto the ice to his shack about 100 yards offshore (I was sure the lake would swallow us and we would die).  We stared for hours at a little jig hung from the ceiling of the shack just off the bottom of the lake.  Jerk the jig's line, make it swim, sip a beer.  Spears were in the water, suspended by little hooks on the ice.  The idea was, when a fish investigates the jig, you carefully allow the heavy spear to drop, pinning the fish to the bottom of the lake.  Except Mike did not tell me that. A little pike bumped the jig with his nose.  I grabbed the spear and like Gregory Peck in Moby Dick pulled the spear out of the water, through the roof of the shack, then threw it at the pike.  Which by that time was somewhere near Detroit. "Damned Whale!!"

 

Mike laughed for 10 minutes.

 

We had another beer.

 

It was the only fish we saw that day.

 

 

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