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[cool][#0000ff]Joined up with Dubob and his neighbor Tom this morning for my first hard deck fishing of the season. Long overdue. Hitched a ride on the back of Dubob's snow machine while Tom rode his wheeler. Thanks Bob.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Started in about 30 feet of water. Dinkorama. Moved out to 40 feet and started scratching a few big dinks and some eatables. Slow, but steady.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Got to try my new electric auger. Dy-No-Mite. That puppy just sucked down into the ice without any pressure. I figure it goes about an inch a second. At least less than 10 seconds to drill the 8 inches on Pineview today. Punched about 15 holes with it and it was still way up on the initial charge.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Tried larger jigs to try to catch larger perch today. No go. Smaller worked better. Even for the occasional larger fish. However, I caught most of my fish on my new "Holy" jig...a knockoff on the popular Hali Jigs. I make the bodies out of the weighted spinner bodies I make from lead...after painting and glowing. I then hang the jig on a piece of light wire, rather than the little chain. No tangles no kinks no breaks. Fish don't care.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Caught lots of dinks up off the bottom today, but all the larger fish were within inches of the bottom. Very light bite. The big ones bit just like the small ones. A lot of swinging and missing.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Had it all weatherwise. A balmy 32 at launch (8 AM) and 40 when we came in at 4. In between we had sun, clouds, wind, rain and snow. The usual.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Nice day, good company, fishing coulda been better but nobody smelled skunk. We all took home a meal of perch. No crappies.[/#0000ff]
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Sounds good Pat. We hope to be up there Saturday AM. Thanks for the post.
Shawn M
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that sounds like fun. im probably going to head there sometime next week.. i will hopefully get some perch to take home for dinner
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Thanks for the great report TD. Can't wait for my first hard-deck outing.
Is that upper portion of your Holy jig all lead. Is it just for weight and attractant, or does it have hooks also? Just wondering.
Thanks again. looks like a great day.
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Good job Dude. I'm going to be working in Ogden for the next couple months. I may have to run up there once or twice.
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Nice report Pat. Glad to see the perch are still willing to stare atcha through an ice hole.
I think I might tickle the  of a few eye this weekend, or, possibly make a Yuba run and save the Eye hole for mid week..
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[quote MaDFisher55] Is that upper portion of your Holy jig all lead. Is it just for weight and attractant, or does it have hooks also? Just wondering. /quote]
[cool][#0000ff]See attached pic. I have been making the spinner bodies into drop shots, inline weights for trolling and casting and also for flashers for ice fishing. When I paint them with glow, they add a lot of attraction as well as hauling my small jigs down to fish country a lot faster...and keeping the stretch and coils out of my line so I can feel light bites better.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]The last batch I just finished making I prewired and then pounded flat...for added flutter and more sideways profile. Since they are soft lead you can even put a bend in them if you want more flutter. I used three different color setups today and caught fish on all three.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]As you will see in the picture, I not only use these as "flasher" weights but also add hooks and even spinners to create extra flash and vibration. If you rig one with a hook it simply becomes a part of my BDS...bait delivery system. Last year at Yuba I proved a point by rigging a metal door key with split rings and hooks and catching 3 big perch in 3 drops. When they are active it just doesn't matter. [/#0000ff]
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Very nice, and thanks for esplaining that to me Ricky!
Are you going to have another "HOW TO" tackle class some time soon? I had to work the last one. Let me know if you do.
Thanks again
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[quote MaDFisher55]Very nice, and thanks for esplaining that to me Ricky!
Are you going to have another "HOW TO" tackle class some time soon? I had to work the last one. Let me know if you do.
Thanks again
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[cool] [#0000ff]Haven't set a date for the next TackleCraft session yet. Maybe late this month. Send me a PM with your preferred days and I will try to take it into account. We had the last one on a Saturday afternoon. For most folks it works best on a weekday evening...and Tuesdays are usually best.[/#0000ff]
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I'm surprised no one has asked about your new agar. Is that an electric agar? If you don't mind "Hot Spotting", give us some details. Thanks
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[cool][#0000ff]Yep. It is the Strikemaster electric [url "http://www.strikemaster.com/electra_lazer.html"]LINK[/url][/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I have used just about every make and model power auger made. Being "older" and with aging shoulder and lower back I am pretty much out of the hand auger game. But, I hate the noise and smells associated with power augers. They can also be balky to start and to keep running right. The final deterring factor for me is getting gas on my hands from running even a "clean" power auger. I KNOW that it has affected my catch rate.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I have done my homework over the past couple of years and have read enough positive reviews of the electric that it convinced me to give them a try. Yesterday was the first time I have had my new auger on the ice but I was very pleased with the first outing.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I am anticipating that I will not only enjoy it when the ice is thick, but also during the early season when the fish might be skittish in shallower water or under clear new ice. It makes no more noise than a hand auger but is SOOOOOO much easier.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]The instructions say to let it charge up to 12 hours for the first charging. After that, there is a green light that comes on the charger when it is topped off. You can charge it from any 110 outlet, by just plugging it into the head of the auger. No battery to remove and mess with. There is also an adaptor that you can plug into the lighter socket in your car while you are running down the road.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]The battery is a simple 9 amp/hour SLA battery, like I use for my float tube sonar setup. It is supposed to drill up to 30 holes in "average" ice conditions. When the little green light no longer comes on, you can use the provided cables to hook it to any other 12 volt battery and move the toggle switch to that mode.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Will need to put it through its paces on other ice and monitor it through the season to see how well the blades hold up...and just how many holes I can really punch before calling in the backup battery.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]How's that?[/#0000ff]
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That electric looks cool. I was out on utah lake the other day and could hear guys drilling holes a mile away (Literally [  ])
Gas of the auger has always bugged me too. So, I always hit the ice with my trusty hand auger.
Now, did you use your 565 on the ice? if so, how did it do?
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[quote waljustia] Now, did you use your 565 on the ice? if so, how did it do?[/quote]
[cool][#0000ff]Yes, I did use the 565...both in "regular" and in Fish ID mode. Worked great. I could see those clouds of dinkster perch just fine...and a few larger fish that were a bit harder to catch. That told me how the fish were acting. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]HOWSOMEVER...unlike many drillers and chillers I do not hover over my sonar while watching TV and fishing. I shut off the sonar after about 15 minutes and went to my "musical holes" approach. I drill holes in several places and then move from hole to hole in LIGHT mode...just a rod, some bait and my trusty tripod chair. I almost always do better with one carefully fished rod than by deadsticking two rods and waiting for something to swim by.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]When the larger fish are moving around and only the dinks wanna play at any given hole, it is time to move. Sometimes I bang two or three decent fish in quick succession, and then it dies off or only the small fish are left. Then I move again. Most days that produces more and bigger fish for me than drilling two holes and staying put.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]If I had been fishing an area with lots of crappies, and they were my primary targets, then I would have kept the 565 humming and used it to position my offerings in the right zones. But, in the area we fished there did not seem to be any crappies moving through so I stayed with plan P...perch.[/#0000ff]
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[font "Comic Sans MS"][#800000][size 4]I can attest to the musical holes. And he did it at light speed too. He'd say something at a hole of to my left. I'd contemplate an answer, present the answer, look to my left for a responce - he was not there. For a big guy, he sure can move fast. [ ] [ ] [ ][/size][/#800000][/font]
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Bob Hicks, from Utah
I'm 82 years young and going as hard as I can for as long as I can.
"Free men do not ask permission to bear arms."
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[cool][#0000ff]It begs the question....am I fast, or is it that some folks are just slower on the uptake?[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I have been told that I am light on my feet...but heavy on everybody else's.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]For what it is worth, I am paying the price today for all of the exercise yesterday. I haven't been in training for the ice tromping marathon. All that standing up and sitting down...in between moves...has me feeling muscles I have not been using quite enough.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]It is rough...growing old...but considering the alternative I think I will just deal with it.[/#0000ff]
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That is way cool. I am absolutely impressed. Up to now I have been a hand auger purist - I hate the gas-on-my-hands issue as well. This old spotted fish may have to learn a new trick.
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[cool][#0000ff]Still too soon to gush forth with a ringing endorsement. Gotta see how it performs on other waters and under different conditions...and for how long.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Heading to the arctic wasteland (ice) at Starvation this morning. We will see how it works in subzero temps and on thicker and harder ice.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]News at 11...more or less.[/#0000ff]
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My uncle bought the same Strikemaster electric auger from the Bargain Cave at Cabela's last fall. We used it up at Firehole in December and got maybe 10 holes out of one battery (full charge). When it was cutting, it did fine, like the performance you indicated. He took it back and bought a gas auger, but now I wonder if the battery was just bad.
There is another company that makes a 24 volt auger, called the Ice Gator [url "http://www.icegator.com/"]http://www.icegator.com/[/url] that I've watched for a couple of seasons now. I would sure like to hear more reports or see them on the ice! They boast 40 holes through 28 inches of ice on one charge. Nice....
Ryno
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[cool][#0000ff]I got 20 holes in zero degree temps in 13 inches of ice today...and still had power.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I too have heard some good things about the Gator.[/#0000ff]
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