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I had a half day off today and headed up to a certain reservoir (named after a fruit) to take a look. The main lake is still open water, but driving around, Mud creek was capped, as were a couple of other protected coves. I drove down and took a look at the ice. It was safe with 5 good inches in the 1st hole and 3 1/2-4 inches of hard, clear ice closer to the mouth of the bay. Time to fish! I started angling about 11:30 or so. Overall, the action did not disappoint at all. There were a few slow periods and some smoking hot periods as well, but by the end of the day, I was extremely pleased. I did try a number of different jigs and did best on a chartreuse paddle bug and a pink shrimpo at different times. I was tipping with crawler or sucker meat. There was one nice surprise. I got quite a few rainbows! A couple were small 11-12 inch planters, but I got 2 that were in the 16-17 inch range too and yet a few more in between. The bows really went after the shrimpo.
The cutts weren't huge (to about 20 inches) except for one big one that shook off at the hole, and one other long line release on a hog. One cutt was under the slot too. I was fishing in 26 ft. of water, with most of the fish appearing in the bottom 10 ft of the water column, but a few were everywhere. One cutt even came up and smacked my finder transducer. Conditions were superb. I had to come home at 4 PM. Good luck to all this weekend. (I will be working)[pirate]
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You need to watch where you are crossing there is a large open area. Some areas are 5" and other areas have open water, see the picture that was taken Sunday.
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how is the road to Mud creek? Sedan accessible? Thanks.
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I can hardly wait to try it out.
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You were pretty brave (maybe even foolish) walking straight across the bay like you did today without drilling any test holes. Especially with the open water out there. We chose a much more safe route and walked the shore line and carefully drilled test holes and found 5 good inches. We had a fun day and caught fish but the good area's of mud creek still have soft water and much of the bay still looks sketchy! Glad you got into some fish and didn't fall through. We really didn't want to have to come rescue you! [  ]
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Right you are. Walk to the right of the pressure ridge (on shore), then step out and it is safe. The open area has closed down a lot also.(my 3rd pic) Everything away from the pressure ridge looked safe today.
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Check out these Cut'r Bugs made by Maniac Custom Lures. First pic is a 22" cutt caught from the shore at the berry and 2nd is a 20" caught threw the ice.
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I was up there with Bigcat today as well. MGB's pic from Sunday is very helpful and let me remind everyone to BE VERY CAREFUL. Also, that pressure crack coming from the open water has let water on top of the ice. It's not ideal conditions up there at all. The weather was ideal, almost too ideal. It hit 40 degrees today and my cousin and I literally watched the "edge" of the cap pull back from the morning. Sketchy ice and temps in the 40's the past couple of days could make things western in a hurry.
I was amazed to watch DGF walking straight across the bay without drilling test holes. Dude- you've got more guts than me, especially alone.
Anyway, have fun, use your brain and be safe-
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Here is another pic of the large open area from today.
F4F
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Did you happen to see any ice on a bay that has the name of a farm bird?
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From a distance, there did not appear to be very much ice there.
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That is great news.
I am very excited that Strawberry is starting to freeze over.
Sounds like it should be pretty good in a couple of weeks.
Thanks for the report.
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[cool]Hmmm....800 views in less than 24 hours. I wonder where the ice fishing will be too crowded to even move this weekend...Think I'm headed to another spot...
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Well, this viewer likes to read for entertainment purposes (when it comes to ice-fishing, anyway).
I don't ice fish, but this is because I need an off-season (I don't have any problem with ice-fishing or harvest). I just like to read other people's stories, especially when they are talking in "code" [  ]. I will not be up there at all this weekend. Good luck!
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[cool][#0000ff]C'mon Geoff. You don't really expect 800 drooling "lurkers" to show up on Mud Creek Bay (your own private preserve) on Saturday...just waiting to crowd your hole, do you?[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Get real. Lots of folks read our board for entertainment as well as "hot spotting". And, some people probably use it as a guide to where NOT to go...as you seemingly do. In fact, some of those "lurkers" are probably downright diabolical. I wouldn't be surprised if some of them repeatedly clicked on those posts just to raise the view counts...just to keep you from going to THEIR favorite spots.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Whatta ya think about them apples...errrrr Strawberries?[/#0000ff]
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[cool]LOL! Sorry man, as you've noticed I've been very uptight lately. Didn't really wanna drag my personal baggage [url "mailto  @#$"]s@#$[/url] around here, but I guess I should mention why I've been a little uptight. Been having some personal problems along the homefront, and that really has had me down lately...
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[cool][#0000ff]My personal sympathies. Been there a couple of times my own self. But, a fishing forum is not the best place to post that kinda stuff.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Suck it up and make the best of a bad situation. Fishing is definitely good therapy.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]You can fish...or you can worry. But, you can't fish AND worry.[/#0000ff]
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[cool] Maybe not, but I just thought I'd briefly explain why I've been so uptight. That's all I will disclose about my personal crap. It's nothing personal against any of the guys on this site (as to why I've been so uptight lately). I'll be fishing soon enough. I'm just trying to see if I can save things first. The fishing will come...
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[cool][#0000ff]Good luck. You know you have friends here. We got yer back. Just leave the 7Up cans home.[/#0000ff]
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My sympathies also,been thru that myself.Ruins your outlook on things
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