Thank you Dave! I think we have a lot in common from the sounds of your reply! Yes...just being out there...anytime of year...is a thrill. Some days you do a lot of catching, and on others you do a lot of scheming in terms of trying to trigger the action!

I'm going back out tomorrow to give that big northern another try. I'll be taking some much larger jigging lures. I think he looked at my offerings and thought "My mouth and belly are huge...give me something worthy of opening my jaws!" I might even try some giant saltwater styled feather jigs...

Of course I also hope to get into some perch again!

Tis the season for yellow perch thru the ice! It's been a busy week, managing to squeeze in 3 separate ice fishing outings along with several days of recreational snowmobiling with my wife.

Last Saturday I enjoyed an out of town trip to try out a brand new lake for perch, panfish or whatever was hanging out below the hole. Marked a fair number of fish, but only managed to catch a single perch. Tried a bunch of lures, but only found a "clown" patterned Rapala jigging rap to be successful. Hoping to return someday yet this season to fish thru the ice, but most definitely next Summer via a kayak!

This past Sunday was a real treat...joining a local son-in-law and a grand daughter to target walleye. We were joined by 2 of his friends, so between us all we had set 10 tip ups in hopes of bringing fish to our awaiting blue shiner minnows. A couple of us, myself included, also tended a jigging rod for some possible live action. With lines in at 3 pm, we fished until darkness fell and only ended up with 2 knock offs on a pair of tip ups. So...a big stinky skunk for us! Still had plenty of fun, and we had a good time in trying our luck.

A highlight of the afternoon was in seeing a 20" gar pike cruising just beneath the 5 inches of crystal clear black ice that had formed over this open water area during the previous 4 days. We were 3/4 of a mile from shore in 22' of water. Kind of a strange place for this gar to be!

Skipping forward to today...late this afternoon, on a complete whim, I decided to head over to a favorite perch lake that had produced very well for me last week. We received about 3 inches of wet, heavy airborne slush last night in a brief snowstorm that passed over our region so I was apprehensive about what the lake surface might look like. Much to my delight everything had frozen solid overnight, so other than a slippery glaze (like icing on a donut), conditions were perfect to head out and bore a couple of holes in the ten inch thick ice.

I had forgotten to wear my knit hat for warmth, so lucky for me I managed to find a baseball cap loitering in the back seat of my vehicle. About 50 feet out from the access point a howling breeze blew the hat off my head like a scene from a cowboy Western flick where the wind and I were in a pistol duel. The first sweep took the hat a 100 feet away before slowly coming to rest. I walked a few paces towards it and another gust took it further. This taunting from the wind continued until the hat was nearly out of sight, in random increments of distance, until it managed to get caught on some protruding snow crust. This was my opportunity to react. After some slippery scrambling, I was able to reach down and grab it...Gotcha! The 10 minute side trip to retrieve the hat was worth it...I don't like to lose things!

Bored 2 holes and set up the shanty in a 20 mph wind...which was a task all it's own! Thank goodness for ice screws to fasten things down. Once inside, it felt good to be out of the wind....especially with the heater cranked up! The perch were there, and began a steady routine of taking turns grabbing the jig and swirling to the surface for a look around. I decided ahead of time to just do catch and release, regardless of sizes.

Thirty fish later it was time to call it a day. I had 7 fish between 8 and 10 inches today, which would normally be my target size to keep for the fryer. The really plump ones were females, and full of eggs. I'd rather see them be able to spawn and keep this lake stoked up with new offspring for future generations!

The last half hour of fishing today came with a bit of an adrenaline rush. I had been sitting for a while, so upon standing up to stretch and look down at the lake bottom I noticed the perch immediately scatter. This could only mean one thing...a large predator was at hand! Sure enough...a very large northern pike had entered the ring for a look see. I had 2 rods going...one equipped with a small perch spoon, and the other with a much larger wide bodied Rapala rattle rap. Perfect I thought...I'm ready to rock and roll with this pike....

The ice holes were 5' apart, and I could carefully lean back and forth to view the pike in both holes simultaneously. A conservative estimate placed it at somewhere between 30" and 36" in length. He was intrigued by the small perch jig, but would not inhale. He slowly nudged closer to the bigger lure and almost touched it with his nose. Yes...my heart rate jumped in anticipation for what could happen next as this big fish started to fall under the mesmerizing spell of my efforts to coax a strike. And now for the let down...my offering was completely ignored! The pike slowly moved out of view, and I quickly brought up both lures to make a switch. The lightning fast changeover would have made an Indy 500 pit crew quite proud. Upon dropping the new baits back down, the pike quickly re-appeared to check them out, but once again, was not convinced that a strike was worth the risk. It will have to be a re-match for next time....

It was getting dark and the sun had just set in beautiful hues of orange and violet. There were only 7 other groups out fishing, and almost as if a bell had been rung, they were breaking down with synchronization to my own efforts and heading back to shore. An afternoon well spent is what I'd call it!

Tis the season for yellow perch thru the ice! It's been a busy week, managing to squeeze in 3 separate ice fishing outings along with several days of recreational snowmobiling with my wife.

Last Saturday I enjoyed an out of town trip to try out a brand new lake for perch, panfish or whatever was hanging out below the hole. Marked a fair number of fish, but only managed to catch a single perch. Tried a bunch of lures, but only found a "clown" patterned Rapala jigging rap to be successful. Hoping to return someday yet this season to fish thru the ice, but most definitely next Summer via a kayak!

This past Sunday was a real treat...joining a local son-in-law and a grand daughter to target walleye. We were joined by 2 of his friends, so between us all we had set 10 tip ups in hopes of bringing fish to our awaiting blue shiner minnows. A couple of us, myself included, also tended a jigging rod for some possible live action. With lines in at 3 pm, we fished until darkness fell and only ended up with 2 knock offs on a pair of tip ups. So...a big stinky skunk for us! Still had plenty of fun, and we had a good time in trying our luck.

A highlight of the afternoon was in seeing a 20" gar pike cruising just beneath the 5 inches of crystal clear black ice that had formed over this open water area during the previous 4 days. We were 3/4 of a mile from shore in 22' of water. Kind of a strange place for this gar to be!

Skipping forward to today...late this afternoon, on a complete whim, I decided to head over to a favorite perch lake that had produced very well for me last week. We received about 3 inches of wet, heavy airborne slush last night in a brief snowstorm that passed over our region so I was apprehensive about what the lake surface might look like. Much to my delight everything had frozen solid overnight, so other than a slippery glaze (like icing on a donut), conditions were perfect to head out and bore a couple of holes in the ten inch thick ice.

I had forgotten to wear my knit hat for warmth, so lucky for me I managed to find a baseball cap loitering in the back seat of my vehicle. About 50 feet out from the access point a howling breeze blew the hat off my head like a scene from a cowboy Western flick where the wind and I were in a pistol duel. The first sweep took the hat a 100 feet away before slowly coming to rest. I walked a few paces towards it and another gust took it further. This taunting from the wind continued until the hat was nearly out of sight, in random increments of distance, until it managed to get caught on some protruding snow crust. This was my opportunity to react. After some slippery scrambling, I was able to reach down and grab it...Gotcha! The 10 minute side trip to retrieve the hat was worth it...I don't like to lose things!

Bored 2 holes and set up the shanty in a 20 mph wind...which was a task all it's own! Thank goodness for ice screws to fasten things down. Once inside, it felt good to be out of the wind....especially with the heater cranked up! The perch were there, and began a steady routine of taking turns grabbing the jig and swirling to the surface for a look around. I decided ahead of time to just do catch and release, regardless of sizes.

Thirty fish later it was time to call it a day. I had 7 fish between 8 and 10 inches today, which would normally be my target size to keep for the fryer. The really plump ones were females, and full of eggs. I'd rather see them be able to spawn and keep this lake stoked up with new offspring for future generations!

The last half hour of fishing today came with a bit of an adrenaline rush. I had been sitting for a while, so upon standing up to stretch and look down at the lake bottom I noticed the perch immediately scatter. This could only mean one thing...a large predator was at hand! Sure enough...a very large northern pike had entered the ring for a look see. I had 2 rods going...one equipped with a small perch spoon, and the other with a much larger wide bodied Rapala rattle rap. Perfect I thought...I'm ready to rock and roll with this pike....

The ice holes were 5' apart, and I could carefully lean back and forth to view the pike in both holes simultaneously. A conservative estimate placed it at somewhere between 30" and 36" in length. He was intrigued by the small perch jig, but would not inhale. He slowly nudged closer to the bigger lure and almost touched it with his nose. Yes...my heart rate jumped in anticipation for what could happen next as this big fish started to fall under the mesmerizing spell of my efforts to coax a strike. And now for the let down...my offering was completely ignored! The pike slowly moved out of view, and I quickly brought up both lures to make a switch. The lightning fast changeover would have made an Indy 500 pit crew quite proud. Upon dropping the new baits back down, the pike quickly re-appeared to check them out, but once again, was not convinced that a strike was worth the risk. It will have to be a re-match for next time....

It was getting dark and the sun had just set in beautiful hues of orange and violet. There were only 7 other groups out fishing, and almost as if a bell had been rung, they were breaking down with synchronization to my own efforts and heading back to shore. An afternoon well spent is what I'd call it!