Lavaman asked me to put these pics up for him. Don't know all the details he wants shared, so he will chime in later. He fished Mantua today and caught these perch (not sure on size) and this trout that went 17+ inches. Same trout in the last two pics.
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Thanks for posting those, Ben!
Overall slow day, but it was a beautiful day. Hardly anyone on the ice, which is a rarity. Decided to head to Mantua at the last minute, after checking out Hyrum and having no 12' plank to get on the ice. So, Mantua it was.
Nicest trout I've caught in a while, (17" + and released her for another day. Thought it would be 'game on' after that, but it wasn't to be. The bite was slow and only got 3 more perch. Coyote showed up to keep me company for a bit before I decided to head back. Hopefully he got into 'em after I left.
Ice was a good 10" thick, with the edges safe, but noticed them softening up a bit when I left. Beautiful day.
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Great pics .I'm glad the ice is holding up might have to go after work tomorrow.Thanks for the post.[cool]
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Glad to see you got into so fish. So how were the edges at Mantua? We have only had a few hours of freezing temps and was wondering how the ice was doing.
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It was a nice day out. Late start - especially for me, and of course I stayed later than I should have, but I did manage to get into a few more trout, just some footlongs, and then after working toward the shore, went back out to the middle where we'd started, and pulled another 1/2 dozen perch out of those first holes.
Slow going - nothing over 8 inches, but some chunky perch all the same. Had a couple doubles - seemed to come in waves.
The edges looked pretty good - I got on right by the boat-dock, and it was a little squishy - caved a bit and water moved in. But I think it was slush on top of ice. On the way out - I could see where some snowmobiles had broke through on their way in our out, but no problem walking on from the beach by the boat lauch.
Numbers of folks had taken the south road. Wonder how the fishing was in the east. Pretty slow on the west. But at least not a skunk.
Thanks Lava for taking the scouting ventures. Can't wait for the new Finder to arrive - THEN we'll go FIND some fish!!! A few cold nights, and Newton's edges should be ready again.
Seems what had been surface water, plus snow turned to a 2-inch crust on top of a good 8-10 inches of solid ice.
Like I was telling Ben, 'maybe' I'll win the trout species now. We'll see.
The one I'd really like to win is the Muskie...so when you get your finder and Ben gets his, it's game on at Newton!
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But you didn't measure your perch?
I didn't take any photos, shoulda snapped a couple - at least while it was sunny.
Had a visit from a fairly large group of young nicely dressed hispanic folks out wandering the ice. Think they were in Sunday garb - no rods, just cruising around on the ice. Guess they wanted to see what an ice-angler looks up like up close - real close! Well at least they didn't stomp around on my ice. But if the one kid kept kicking my perch!!! The one guy knew what those perch were good for as he counts off: one, two, three . . . fish tacos!
I'm not out of the trout runnings yet! Maybe Lunker will teach me about the ways of the Berry!