Finally! A berry nice report. 1-24-05

[Theekillerbee]

Decided to try for another round up at the berry today. I ended up taking a neighbor, who hasn't ice fished all that much, and we had a really nice time. We decided to fish just past Haws Point today, in about 30 feet of water. The fishing was really pretty good. We put 49 fish on the ice between the two of us. Most were caught on my Mean Joe Green jig, but quite a few came on chartruesse paddle bugs tipped with some form of meat. I even nailed 2 nice cutts on a 3" maniac! That was fun. The fish were in a very agressive mood today. They were all over the water column. I caught fish from 8 feet to 30 feet down. All cutts today were in the slot, and one bow is in my freezer! I thought the full moon would end up bum jugging us, but it didn't seem to bother the fish today. We saw a few other groups of people, but didn't get a chance to talk to any of them, so I don't know how they did. The weather was absolutely beautiful. A little cold in the AM (-7), but there was never even a breeze today, that sure is a bonus up there. I really couldn't ask for a better day on the pond.

Here is one of the bigger fish I caught today.
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And here is one of the nice one my friend caught.
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[RoyalBull]

Nice fish I'm glad someone was having fun on the ice and not stuck at work. Planing on going up over the weekend for some fun ice fishing. I have some new jigs to try.
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[Out4Trout]

[cool]Nice report, bee! I'm looking forward to going up on Wednesday. Wish I had a four wheeler to get me out there to Haws point. It's good to hear that the action picks up on weekdays. I think I'm headed to either Soldier Creek or CCE, which fishes much better this time of year on a week day when the fish have had a couple of days to chill.
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[fishin4fun]

How thick is the ice off Haws? I've been wanting to make it over there all year! Thinking of hitting it for a night trip this Fri/Sat, but need to take the snowmobile that far! [crazy]

F4F
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[sugarbear1]

I might be heading up there this wed. I am trying to decide if i should go to the berry or fish lake. I want to take my wheeler out on the lake but it is only 2 wheel drive, will it make it very far?
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[fish1on]

Very Nice TKB !

You deserve a great day like that my friend. With all the studying, new child and such, kinda nice to top it off with a great day fishing.
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[Hellsangler69]

Way to go TKB . Good to here you found them biting . I think the key is to get away from the crowds there . Maybe I need to make a trip up there now . Been on a tight budget lately .
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[Theekillerbee]

This is a strange ice year up there. We had the late ice up, and then right after that all the big snow, so it weighed the ice down, it cracked/got drilled, and all the water got up into the snow and formed the evil 12" slush layer, now finally the slush layer is all frozen. So there is 8-12" of that white ice...but it isn't the usual rotten white ice, it is really quite solid. Then there is about 6-10 inches of clear ice under that. We didn't find any slush area at all, unlike Saturday over in CCE. It is plenty safe for your sled. There are a couple of those big pressure ridges right at Haws, so stay close to land on the one, and just go over the edge of Haws on the other, and you wont have any problems. I went over one of the ridges and broke through a little, but I think it was just an intermediate ice/water layer, and I wasn't in any real danger, but it's better to be safe than sorry.

Sugarbear, as of yesterday you could quite easily get a 2WD machine out there. I didn't see any areas of snow that were more than about 3" deep. If we get any snow this week, it might be much more difficult.

Pat, you sir are the man!
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[Kent]

Brandon, good to see you haven't lost your Midas Touch for vertical jigging at the Berry!
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[Get_Ur_Done]

Hey sugarbear1 we can probally take my four wheeler and trailer if you tow it but we need to find out how thick the ice is before we go, call me if you want to go
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[magnaman]

I was just curios how you rigged your maniac's. I bought some the other day and tried them drop shoting them. I did'nt have any luck doing them that way. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
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[Theekillerbee]

I rigged them wacky style on a #4 Gamakatsu. They are interesting to fish with. The fish need to take them on the drop, then give them a few seconds to chew on it, then swing hard! I found that if I just let it set, the fish would nibble, but not take it into their mouths far enough for a hookset. If I didn't see a fish come in on the finder (a bonus for watching the maniac) as the lure dropped through the water, I would jig it with long jigs. I'm talking lifting your pole up 6 feet and then let the maniac flutter back down. Even with the finder, I still missed several fish. They really have to be in an aggressive mood for the maniacs to be successful. If they are only in a light biting mood, no dice on the maniacs. This was my 3rd attempt at catching them with the maniacs, and the previous 2 trips I didn't get any hookups at all! On my rig, about a foot above the maniac, I put a small splitshot on (thanks HA69), to help it drop a little faster. You could experiment with different drop speeds to see if it made the fish bite better. Let us know if you have any luck with them. Here is a pic of my maniac rig.
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[UintaIce]

That's a set-up that bass anglers have used for quite a few years for rooting out the big ones in heavy brush cover. But generally with a full 8" or larger plastic worm.
Great idea for trout! Show 'em something different.
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