12-14-2020, 07:52 PM
Just got back from my ice season opening adventure... Socially distance joined a bunch of ice addicts on Henry's this weekend for the some what traditional kick off ice show and lip ripp'n adventure. It was a great time joining old friends, catching some fish and seeing everyone's newest ice toys... Plus I learned how to spend the night on the ice, on purpose... I got a new sleeper shelter set up and I was able to give that a go and I survived and actually had some of my better night sleeps I've had in awhile... (I really need a new bed at home)
Anyway on Thursday I couldn't sleep for excitement so I got up at 2:15 and hit the road as soon as I could get out the door... Arrived at Henry's at 7:15ish and then tried to get my junk out on the ice... Pretty much a Clampet convention, but by 10:30 I finally got a line in the water and started fishing.... Yes I took way too much junk... when it won't fit in 3 big sleds and you have to take additional trips back to the truck to get gear, you have a problem... On Thursday the fish were biting all day, but I forgot how to catch them... I ended up with 10 fish, but missed over 32 hits... Yes I had a note book and was counting... First day most of my catches was on the jaw jackers if I could get to them before they got off.. Got 8 on the JJ's and only 2 on my jigged rod... Oh I forgot when I first got there and met Joe as he was showing me his ice castle (no lie a full up Wisconsin ice house) and a jigger tripped so he had me catch that fish to see what it is like to fish in style... It was a chub, my only one of the trip... But it got the skunk off my back... later in the day as I'd settled in my shack and started to get comfortable with the new set up I got a big fish on, and I had punched 6" holes inside my shelter so I hopefully wouldn't step in them or lose stuff down them... Anyway this fish kind of like a cork came popping up the hole an it's head barely fitting through the hole was sticking out about 6" and I forgot you can't horse fish out of ice holes and I pulled the hook right out of it's mouth... That was my biggest fish of the trip lost at the hole... I dropped right back down that hole and nailed another really nice fish, probably my second biggest of the trip, and I proceeded to do the same stupid thing and lost it coming out of the hole... Well I finally learned a lesson and started to take my time and use my lip grippers to get a hold of the fish before I tried to pull them out of the hole and i don't think I lost anymore fish like that... I did have a few brush the hook loose as I'd try to pull them up into the hole and I also had second hooks catch on the edge of the ice snagging there while the fish below was able to get slack line and slip the hook, but most of my bad luck was on the first day... I think the best fish landed on day one was a 20" Cutthroat... Gorgeous fish as always, in fact I kept and filleted one that swallowed my jig too deep and their meat is as red as salmon, boy they are pretty fish... That night a bunch of other guys joined the group and folks kept catching fish clear until 11:00, but for me it pretty much ended by 7:30 or 8:00... Sad part was I was there all day (I know I wasted half the day setting up) and only got 10 fish... Skyler joined us about 5:00 PM and ended up with 20 fish...
Day two or Friday, I found I didn't die from freezing to death over night and all of the thunderous cracking from the ice sheet didn't suck me under so I was alive for day two, which I rolled out of my comfy down and flannel sleeping bag at 5:30 ish and immediately dropped two lines in the water and started fishing... I picked up two fish and missed two by 7:30 and then the drought started... I didn't have another hit until 3:30 in the afternoon and this was my most active fishing day... Lots of fish went by but I couldn't make them take anything... I tried most of my lure ideas and nothing was working for me... Then as everyone was going around the lake visiting the rest of the crew, I stayed behind to fish and at 3:30 they started hitting, I had been trying my new glow cup and hitting stuff with lots of glow and tipped my Maniac's with night crawlers and it turned on and from then until about 6:00 I couldn't get both poles back in the water before I had another fish on... It was great!!! Had a couple doubles, which is not a good thing with holes about 5 feet apart... I got more tangled and wrapped up around transducers and about relearned all those sware words I've been trying so hard not to say... But it was so fun, I ended up with 22 fish in that flurry and some were really nice fish, the best I measured was 21.5" and I got several from there to 19" in a run of bigger fish... Alan was trying to get me to answer a text, but I wasn't very cooperative, it was a fun flash....
Next night was about the same except for the wind and snow that came in... However the shelter stayed warm at 50 degrees and I slept great... Nailed two fish first thing Saturday morning and then started to pack up to go home.. It took till noon to get loaded and start down the road, but it was sure a fun trip...
Details i forgot to mention, there was 13" of ice, so strong enough to hold the trailer... We were about 2 miles out from both the county dock and Wild Rose so about in the middle of the lake... The Blackstone grill worked great for cooking burgers and breakfast burritos of egg, bacon and hash browns... It was a blast to ice camp, however, I took too much stuff... I hope I learned a lesson on how to do better with that... Biggest fish caught by the group was 29" near 11 lber... I didn't get to see that one, but sounded like an incredible fish... We didn't see the usual numbers of fish in the 24-26" range that are usually caught, I think 22" was the average big fish that most caught... If you plan on a Henry's trip remember the season closes January 1st, so a little less than 3 weeks remain this year... Fishing was streaky, meaning when the bite was on everyone was catching fish and then there was a lot of slow time between... Some caught fish in the lulls, but they were smarter than me and kept changing lures till they found one that worked, but after a while their taste changed and you needed to find a different lure that worked... For me Pat's dart jighead in glow tipped with a nightcrawler worked best followed close by the Maniac Cut'r bugs in glow, orange, black and white with red spots all caught fish for me... Oh on day two the jaw jackers didn't catch hardly any fish, in fact i think I only got one fish on the jacker... I had to finesse jig each fish by hand to entice a strike, it took a lot of concentration and effort to get the hits on the second day and they were biting really lightly so you about had to anticipate the strike.. We were fishing 17 FOW so it wasn't a good area to use the camera, so I relied on the Marcum to tell me what I needed to know... Was so hard to see the fish right on your jig, but not be able to feel a bite... Had lots of swings and misses, but did find some fish too... Well if anyone followed that whole story you need a prize... Let me know if there's anything I didn't cover that your curious about and I'll try to pass it on... I'll get on my phone and see if I can add some photo's probably not much for fish, you've seen one, you've seen them all from this trip nothing too exciting for size.. Later Jeff
Anyway on Thursday I couldn't sleep for excitement so I got up at 2:15 and hit the road as soon as I could get out the door... Arrived at Henry's at 7:15ish and then tried to get my junk out on the ice... Pretty much a Clampet convention, but by 10:30 I finally got a line in the water and started fishing.... Yes I took way too much junk... when it won't fit in 3 big sleds and you have to take additional trips back to the truck to get gear, you have a problem... On Thursday the fish were biting all day, but I forgot how to catch them... I ended up with 10 fish, but missed over 32 hits... Yes I had a note book and was counting... First day most of my catches was on the jaw jackers if I could get to them before they got off.. Got 8 on the JJ's and only 2 on my jigged rod... Oh I forgot when I first got there and met Joe as he was showing me his ice castle (no lie a full up Wisconsin ice house) and a jigger tripped so he had me catch that fish to see what it is like to fish in style... It was a chub, my only one of the trip... But it got the skunk off my back... later in the day as I'd settled in my shack and started to get comfortable with the new set up I got a big fish on, and I had punched 6" holes inside my shelter so I hopefully wouldn't step in them or lose stuff down them... Anyway this fish kind of like a cork came popping up the hole an it's head barely fitting through the hole was sticking out about 6" and I forgot you can't horse fish out of ice holes and I pulled the hook right out of it's mouth... That was my biggest fish of the trip lost at the hole... I dropped right back down that hole and nailed another really nice fish, probably my second biggest of the trip, and I proceeded to do the same stupid thing and lost it coming out of the hole... Well I finally learned a lesson and started to take my time and use my lip grippers to get a hold of the fish before I tried to pull them out of the hole and i don't think I lost anymore fish like that... I did have a few brush the hook loose as I'd try to pull them up into the hole and I also had second hooks catch on the edge of the ice snagging there while the fish below was able to get slack line and slip the hook, but most of my bad luck was on the first day... I think the best fish landed on day one was a 20" Cutthroat... Gorgeous fish as always, in fact I kept and filleted one that swallowed my jig too deep and their meat is as red as salmon, boy they are pretty fish... That night a bunch of other guys joined the group and folks kept catching fish clear until 11:00, but for me it pretty much ended by 7:30 or 8:00... Sad part was I was there all day (I know I wasted half the day setting up) and only got 10 fish... Skyler joined us about 5:00 PM and ended up with 20 fish...
Day two or Friday, I found I didn't die from freezing to death over night and all of the thunderous cracking from the ice sheet didn't suck me under so I was alive for day two, which I rolled out of my comfy down and flannel sleeping bag at 5:30 ish and immediately dropped two lines in the water and started fishing... I picked up two fish and missed two by 7:30 and then the drought started... I didn't have another hit until 3:30 in the afternoon and this was my most active fishing day... Lots of fish went by but I couldn't make them take anything... I tried most of my lure ideas and nothing was working for me... Then as everyone was going around the lake visiting the rest of the crew, I stayed behind to fish and at 3:30 they started hitting, I had been trying my new glow cup and hitting stuff with lots of glow and tipped my Maniac's with night crawlers and it turned on and from then until about 6:00 I couldn't get both poles back in the water before I had another fish on... It was great!!! Had a couple doubles, which is not a good thing with holes about 5 feet apart... I got more tangled and wrapped up around transducers and about relearned all those sware words I've been trying so hard not to say... But it was so fun, I ended up with 22 fish in that flurry and some were really nice fish, the best I measured was 21.5" and I got several from there to 19" in a run of bigger fish... Alan was trying to get me to answer a text, but I wasn't very cooperative, it was a fun flash....
Next night was about the same except for the wind and snow that came in... However the shelter stayed warm at 50 degrees and I slept great... Nailed two fish first thing Saturday morning and then started to pack up to go home.. It took till noon to get loaded and start down the road, but it was sure a fun trip...
Details i forgot to mention, there was 13" of ice, so strong enough to hold the trailer... We were about 2 miles out from both the county dock and Wild Rose so about in the middle of the lake... The Blackstone grill worked great for cooking burgers and breakfast burritos of egg, bacon and hash browns... It was a blast to ice camp, however, I took too much stuff... I hope I learned a lesson on how to do better with that... Biggest fish caught by the group was 29" near 11 lber... I didn't get to see that one, but sounded like an incredible fish... We didn't see the usual numbers of fish in the 24-26" range that are usually caught, I think 22" was the average big fish that most caught... If you plan on a Henry's trip remember the season closes January 1st, so a little less than 3 weeks remain this year... Fishing was streaky, meaning when the bite was on everyone was catching fish and then there was a lot of slow time between... Some caught fish in the lulls, but they were smarter than me and kept changing lures till they found one that worked, but after a while their taste changed and you needed to find a different lure that worked... For me Pat's dart jighead in glow tipped with a nightcrawler worked best followed close by the Maniac Cut'r bugs in glow, orange, black and white with red spots all caught fish for me... Oh on day two the jaw jackers didn't catch hardly any fish, in fact i think I only got one fish on the jacker... I had to finesse jig each fish by hand to entice a strike, it took a lot of concentration and effort to get the hits on the second day and they were biting really lightly so you about had to anticipate the strike.. We were fishing 17 FOW so it wasn't a good area to use the camera, so I relied on the Marcum to tell me what I needed to know... Was so hard to see the fish right on your jig, but not be able to feel a bite... Had lots of swings and misses, but did find some fish too... Well if anyone followed that whole story you need a prize... Let me know if there's anything I didn't cover that your curious about and I'll try to pass it on... I'll get on my phone and see if I can add some photo's probably not much for fish, you've seen one, you've seen them all from this trip nothing too exciting for size.. Later Jeff
When things get stressful think I'll go fish'en and worry about it tomorrow!