03-15-2004, 07:46 PM
Well guy's and gal's the weekend started for me by draggin' myself out of bed at 4am. Saturday, grabbing a quick shower and gulping down a 1/2 pot of coffee at witch point I was on the road by 4.45am. Now its been said (by some folks) I tend to mossie along when I drive. I reached the lake at Linwood bay about 9.30am. And, yes, its probably true that I tend to take my own sweet time now and then because I spent the next couple hours just riding around watching what was taking place along the north west shorelines here and there. It looked to be pretty slow going every where,, plenty of fishermen setting and jiggin' but very little jerking and reeling to speak of.. So I rode into the Anvil area and pick a point to start my day of sliding a fishing line through an ice hole (or twenty).. Well it was about 11am by then and I hadnt eatin' a bite so I broke out the camp stove and cookware and made tater's, eggs, and bacon for eats.. I when wandered out on the hard water about noon.. After drilling a few test holes in water from 35' to 90' deep along a stair stepped ridge (and a couple hole's off each side of the ridge to trianglate with) I started the finder working. After finding lil if anything staight down along the ridge in the holes I'd drill, I set my transducer up at about a 70 degree angle to side scan back up the ridge from the 90' hole. After a little trianglating I found a few fish hiding in what turned out to be 45' deep . Smaller pups of 2 -3 lbs and hitting my (off white with black specks tube slightly sweetend) just about as fast as I could reel in and drop back down.. After playing with them and getting bored with it, I seriously set about finding something slightly larger around 3.00pm and finally hooked up at about 4.30pm in 77' deep water. I didnt get it to the ice but we battled for over 10+ minutes until I lost the war when it shook the tube jig loose. Truth be known,, ((((and while I certainly know better!!!))),, excitement merely got the best of me and I tryed to horse it a wee to much.. Only sightly disappointed I set the wheels in action again and a few minutes later (about 5pm) I iced a 5+ pounder 25" long. (shown in the attached picture). Then I hooked another one about the same size a few minutes later witch turned out to be a "quick release" just under the ice. It was a square deal and OK with me because I got a great look at it.. That was the last bite I got before I left the ice at 7.00pm.
I didnt take the ATC & Coldfooter Hilton this trip because I was informed that no machine's had been seen on the ice Thrusday,, and what a mistake I made and fool I feel like for not trusting my own insticts anyway and hook up to the ATV trailer!,,LOL!! At any rate, I stayed the night in the sleeper instead of the Hilton and had home made chunky chicken stew for dinner.. In the morning I managed to roll out of bed about 7am.. I couldnt have asked for a prettier day at that time because there wasnt so much as a whisper of wind. Then the Sun was shining just as brightly as it had Saturday. Again I had taters and eggs before deciding I rambled my way down into the Squaw point area and see what what shaken. There were several guy's fishing for bow's just out from the big drop off so I pick my spot and strolled out across the bay and drilled a few holes to hunt Mack's again. Well maybe 10 minutes after starting I lifted another 3 lb baby Mac through the ice. After that though (and while I could see them on the finder),, it was lock jaw city.. It didnt matter what I tried,, how I worked it,, or where I moved to,, no takers. And then about 10.45am the wind started blowing, and it blew, and it blew, and it blew the rest of the day so I'm sure the low pressure front moving in like that shut the bite down a bit.. I finally picked up and moved back down to Avil about 1.30pm.. By the time I pulled up and got my gear out at Anvil I'm guessing the winds were 40+ mph.. The wind was so strong at one point that as I tried to reach the hole's I'd drill Saturday along that same under water ridge, the wind tried blowing me across the pond. Btw, its all ice now,, there was NO snow on the ice in the area's I looked over.. I finally gave up on the idea of fishing for biggin's and chose to hide behind a little hump and caught Rainbow's ranging from 1-3 lbs in 15' of water,, and even those bites were slow coming. I then called it a day at 4.30pm and packed up my gear and walked back to the pickup.. By then everyone within slight of me had left an hour sooner.. I then fried me up a double cheeze burger, made a mug of coffee,, and drove home a happy ice pole jerk. While there isnt biggie's to report on the ice this trip,, I did hooked up and had a blast playing tug of war with it for a few minutes,, and,, I brought home three of the smaller eater's Mackadoo's 3- 5 lbs. and one 2 lb. Bow.......
All-n-all,, I had a very fine and fun weekend......... [font "Arial"][size 2][/size][/font]
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I didnt take the ATC & Coldfooter Hilton this trip because I was informed that no machine's had been seen on the ice Thrusday,, and what a mistake I made and fool I feel like for not trusting my own insticts anyway and hook up to the ATV trailer!,,LOL!! At any rate, I stayed the night in the sleeper instead of the Hilton and had home made chunky chicken stew for dinner.. In the morning I managed to roll out of bed about 7am.. I couldnt have asked for a prettier day at that time because there wasnt so much as a whisper of wind. Then the Sun was shining just as brightly as it had Saturday. Again I had taters and eggs before deciding I rambled my way down into the Squaw point area and see what what shaken. There were several guy's fishing for bow's just out from the big drop off so I pick my spot and strolled out across the bay and drilled a few holes to hunt Mack's again. Well maybe 10 minutes after starting I lifted another 3 lb baby Mac through the ice. After that though (and while I could see them on the finder),, it was lock jaw city.. It didnt matter what I tried,, how I worked it,, or where I moved to,, no takers. And then about 10.45am the wind started blowing, and it blew, and it blew, and it blew the rest of the day so I'm sure the low pressure front moving in like that shut the bite down a bit.. I finally picked up and moved back down to Avil about 1.30pm.. By the time I pulled up and got my gear out at Anvil I'm guessing the winds were 40+ mph.. The wind was so strong at one point that as I tried to reach the hole's I'd drill Saturday along that same under water ridge, the wind tried blowing me across the pond. Btw, its all ice now,, there was NO snow on the ice in the area's I looked over.. I finally gave up on the idea of fishing for biggin's and chose to hide behind a little hump and caught Rainbow's ranging from 1-3 lbs in 15' of water,, and even those bites were slow coming. I then called it a day at 4.30pm and packed up my gear and walked back to the pickup.. By then everyone within slight of me had left an hour sooner.. I then fried me up a double cheeze burger, made a mug of coffee,, and drove home a happy ice pole jerk. While there isnt biggie's to report on the ice this trip,, I did hooked up and had a blast playing tug of war with it for a few minutes,, and,, I brought home three of the smaller eater's Mackadoo's 3- 5 lbs. and one 2 lb. Bow.......
All-n-all,, I had a very fine and fun weekend......... [font "Arial"][size 2][/size][/font]
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]Tincanfsh