Fishing Forum

Well i got back from St. louis on monday and coldfooter PM'ed me to see if i was ready to go up and try the Gorge for the first time in my life for mac's.. and of corse i could not turn down a trip up there for the mac's..

so i got up at 2:30 am and drove up to PG to pick up Don and his trailer with the hilton and the wheeler on it and off we went to the Gorge!!

we got there about 8:15 on thurday morning got unpacked and out on the ice by about 8:45.. first place we stoped we had some lookers come up to our baits but no takes.. so we moved out to a diffrent area and tryed some more.. same thing there got some lookers but no hit's so we searched some more.. finley around 3:30 we found some fish that wanted to play.. well at lest Don found some that wanted to play..he hooked into what i am now calling a pup of around 15 lbs.. then about 20 min's later he hooked into a nicer one.. after about 40 min's of fighting the thing he finley got it up to where we could see it and what a nice fish it was!! 42" around 30 lbs..
well after that i kicked Don out of that hole and moved in to it my self.. lol but to no avail no more there wanted to play.. well it was getting late so we pulled the hilton over to a place we thought might be a good place for some night fishing.. got over there got set up and i was fishing and Don was cooking dinner.. all of a sudden i got hit dead sticking.. so i set the hook and missed. droped it back and he hit again set the hook and again missed. drop again he was right back on it set again this time i got the hook in him for about 10 seconds and off it came.. so droped it down again and shour enough here it was again right back on it miss it 2 more time befor getting the hook in it one more time but again came off just befor the hole.. man that fish did every thing but jump out the hole for me and i still missed it.. lol but thats the way it go's some times..
well we did not do any good night fishing so around 11:00 we called it a night..
got up the next morning and gave it a shot but we could not find any fishy's that wanted to play just some short bites and some lookers..
packed it up around 12:30 and headed home..

thanks again Don for the great trip!! even tho i did not get one i had a great time fishing with you!! hope to do it again soon..
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Welcome back, you have almosed missed all of the ice fishing, its too bad that you wernt able to land one of those monsters, expecially that one that hit 4 times, sounds like he may have had a death wish.
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[font "Comic Sans MS"][black][size 3]C'mon, Fuzzy. Don't be shaggin' us. Let's see the pic of the big boy.[/size][/black][/font]
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[font "Comic Sans MS"][black][size 3]Couple things to consider. I know when hooking macks, hooks are all inportant. If that hook isn't sharp you'll have problems. Also a smaller diameter wire hook will set easier than a heavier hook type. I bought some jig heads with some Gamakatsu heavy salt water hooks in them. I thought this will be the ticket but I found out I had a hard time getting the hook to bite even when they were sharp. I went back to my Eagle Claw 535 jigs and the hook ups increased by ten fold. Just an idea.[/size][/black][/font]
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i dont have the pic's of the big boy.. i think Don got a good pic of it tho..
as for the hook's i think they were good.. it was just the retard on the other end of the line could not get it right to save him self..lol

i did learned alot about huntting big mac's tho.. and learnd some new jigging technics that i have never tryed..

all in all was a very good learning experince that i hope will pay off in the future.. not only at the Gorge but other lakes that have big fish in them..
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Great to here you are back in the beehive . Maybe next time you'll get into one .Sounds like my trip to Bear Lake this fall . I had many hard hits and no hook ups . Coldfooter , that lucky dog . Can't wait to see some proof .Sounds like a nice fish . If I would of been able to go I would of got all kinds of pics . LOL So how was the ice ? Not looking like I will be able to go this year anyway . So I better chase some more troutski close to home .
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Hey fuzz you thinking about going up to e-lake or huntington sometime this weekand checking it out? If so let me know how it is up there .Thinking of hitting it this sat .Gonna try and get some friends to come up so if the snow is to deep we can dig a while.[sly]
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Great report Ron.. The only thing I'll add is that it was great fishing with you again also bud and we'll certainly go Mac huntin' again. Wish I could get up to FL witchya this next run!!

Lucky Dog? Who me?! Yeah well you forgot to add, "and darn proud of it!". Proof?! You want Proof? Ok here it is so eat yer hearts outs! []
Heres a 36"-22lb I got just shy of a week ago, and, the 42"-30lb from this last run.
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Sweet fish !!!!!!!!!
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Those are some sweet fish! Thanks for sharing, and I hope your next trip up is a productive one.
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[font "Comic Sans MS"][black][size 3]Got to love those macks! Thanks for posting the pics.[/size][/black][/font]
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lucky dog? well yeah he is at that!! one other thing i have to add is if you fish with footer and he stops on a spot ask him were he is planing on fishing before you you start drilling holes.. and make him fish in the first place he stops and go to the spot he was going to fish!! lol.. evey time we stoped some were the second spot always seam to have more fish!! hum i think he planed it that way.. lol
thanks again Don it was a realy great trip!!
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Sweet!!! Nice fish Coldfooter!
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nice fish congrats. I have been wanting to hit the gorge soon and know I need to soon or I won't have a chance with this warm weather,
jed
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[cool]Wow!!!! Awesome fish, Coldfooter! Sounds like you are the Gorge ice fishing expert of this board. You always get into the big ones, it seems like.

Fuzzyfisher: That's too bad you missed that suicidal one, but you'll get him next time! Sounds like you still had a great time.
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Thanks guys. I enjoyed dancing with them.

PS. I'm no FG ice fishing expert. I've just been a bit of a "Lucky Dog" these past few trips.
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Nice Don I was hopeing you guy's did well. I was going too come up and show ya a few new spot's but we did the boat thing and we pounded em in antelope the biggest fish this week was around 37lb not to bad but a good one for my steal head budy's in Idaho It took a while too get him to let it go I thought he was going too sleep with it .but we got some pic's and let it swim did ya wack the 42'' for the wall or did ya kiss him and let him swim? well the way the weather is we will be fishing out of the boat's till next yr nice job boy's it's awsome to say how your luck was at first this yr you have done pretty good and it has been great fishing with ya hope I can get ya in the boat after the knee is better get cut on on the 8th instead of the11th so give me a holler later FISHLEY........
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ol'e buddy it would have been great to have hook up witcya but I knew you guys where out when we drove by yer place and the boat was gone,lol.
I took a couple quick pics and let both those guys swim. I've got the 39" 25lb for the wall that I got on thin ice and that will do for now until I top that 44LB on yer wall with a 45lb, lol. Yeah I know,, fat chance![laugh]

Great to hear of the 37lb and that you've been pounding em. Yeah we'll hook up as soon as your knee is up to it. Good luck tomorrow my friend!! Get that knee fixed,, your about to have a baby boy that will need a bouncing on it. Besides, I'll need your knees strong to drag the monster from the boat to the truck I'm about to catch for the wall! []
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Unless you know something I don't (which you probably do) I wouldn't try Huntington. I went there 02/26/05 and there was about 5 plus feet of snow on the ice. After slogging through chest deep snow to the ice (it kicked my.... umm butt, and I'm not too proud to admit I had to crawl off the lake on my way out)I was standing on the lake in knee deep snow. After standing around breathing for a few minutes and congratulating myself for making it that far. I set up the auger and went to work.......

On the first twist of the auger I broke through the layer of frozen snow I was standing on and sunk my auger to the handle in the snow underneath. So unless you have snow shoes, a shovel, and the patience to dig through over 60" of snow I would wait until later in the year when it melts down a little before I tried Huntington.

I didn't try electric but I imagine it would be the same.
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THANKS FOR THE INFO! I kinda thought it was going to be that bad but i was hoping it was less than that.
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