anyone fishing this weekend?

Fishing for pannies this weekend, think the launches should be good for walking right? Going to feel like Feb.

A reliable source said Alexandria is in good shape. Trucks with icehouses driving on the lakes. I’ll find out tomorrow.

Headed out for tank panfish tomorrow morning. We will be busting ice with the boat though. Packing long rods and some short ones. Short ones for a couple iced bays we will pull up on and maybe test out…long rods for a few of the current bottle neck areas bringing in jumbo perch.

Plenty of ice in Alex, not gonna find me in my truck out there though. Panfish shouldn’t be a far walk

Hopefully, things in my area will firm up by Sunday. It was a slushy mess on Thursday. I walked out maybe 30-yards and said screw it when the Smitty got bogged down.

Feathers wrote:

Access depends on location of the state. You can still drive a truck on a lot of the lakes up north.

I’ll either be on the ice Sunday or floating baits in a river but I’ll be day dreaming about getting the boat out of hibernation. Still lots of snow to melt to get at her.

People are not driving trucks on the lakes up north right now and for good reasons.

How far north is “up north” in your definition?

I’m pulling a sled Bemidji area.

Cool adventure BBadger, ice and open, perfect for this ‘spring’.

I’ll be out after work today and all day tomorrow

Couldn’t get on the ice, and couldn’t shore fish the Croix. So we went for a 4 hour hike instead along the river

Have to pick a lake sometimes based on the access, often even on a good shady spot the middle looks completely shot but off to one side will be good for walking. I would not drive anywhere right now.

We fished 3 hours and ended up with 19 jumbo perch 11-13.5″ and a half dozen stray crappies that were oddly cruising some of the shallow flats we fished. My face is hurting after 20 degree temps and 25mph winds from the NW for the few hours we were out.

Landings had a little ice, but nothing a 2×4 couldn’t slowly bust open and break as the trailer backed in. The gator tail surface drive motors are awesome machines for skinny sloughs and breaking skim ice. A couple of circles next to one ice sheet we wanted to fish past and the rollers broke up 3″ of floating ice to nothing.

We did pull up on one shaded slough and found about 4.5″ of ice but it was honeycombed and barely walkable, so we stuck to fishing from the boat. Pool 4 ice fishing is over. There’s no place we found where you could even consider getting on the ice with the increasing water levels.

Awesome! Bring me next time BB. Did you bust some ice B4 you backed in? For me I feel the truck boat and trailer are strong but I not so sure about my ducer.

tim hurley wrote:

Awesome! Bring me next time BB. Did you bust some ice B4 you backed in? For me I feel the truck boat and trailer are strong but I not so sure about my ducer.

With very little effort the ducer is easy to protect

One guy backs it in, one guy holds your ankles and you punch the ice away like Popeye the Sailor Man

I walked out on Pokegama in Pine City. There was a plank to the right of the landing. Good ice for sure. Fish were biting first thing then shut down late morning. East Rush landing was solid. A couple guys and a wheeler a long ways out. West Rush had extensive skim ice from the creek running in next to it. Nobody was there.

Got out on the lake with all the slush. Saw sunnies, pike, bullhead, perch, and even a walldog on the underwater camera; I’ve never seen or caught a walleye from this lake and I have iced fished it quite a bit over the last few years. I caught a few small crappies at dusk and after it got dark. Had one bigger fish on briefly, but didn’t set the hook hard enough and it got off quickly. Could have been the eye, a pike, a bass, bullhead, or dogfish.

I made the run over to the Fox River over in Green Bay to get on soft water fishing the big swamp donkey tournament for fun. Man it felt great to be in the boat.

Bearcat89 wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>tim hurley wrote:</div>
Awesome! Bring me next time BB. Did you bust some ice B4 you backed in? For me I feel the truck boat and trailer are strong but I not so sure about my ducer.

With very little effort the ducer is easy to protect

Most of the ice was skim ice (1/2″) thick that I busted with a 2×4 before he backed in to keep it away from the transducer. The thicker floating chunks of ice slowly work their way out of the way.

With the surface drive motor I’ve seen guys back into places that have a couple inches of ice…and have one guy in the boat who busts just enough to get the prop into the water (1′ hole). Then they fire the motor and in a matter of 30 seconds have a spot clear enough to back the rig all the way in. Once those things are in the water they are ice breaking machines. His boat was one of the bigger War Eagles that are made for abuse.

Good tips, I have broken a fair amount of ice once the boat has been launched, aluminum boats are pretty tough.