Best Ice Fishing Memory

I’d like to hear everyone’s best ice fishing memory they have ever had, and if you can accompany it with a picture that would be awesome.

Mine was January of 2011, and it’s my profile picture. My buddies and I would take a trip to LOW, park on the south shore and snowmobile up to Flag island and fish for 5 days. We arrived in the evening and settled in. The next morning we rode about 10 miles to our favorite “secret spot” and punched our holes and settled in our shack. Of course the first and biggest fish of the day was worth $5 from everyone with us. I hook my salty on my jig and drop down and before I could hit bottom or even gather myself on the vexilar BAM, fish on and it’s a giant. Mind you we had just arrived and this is my first drop of the trip. My drag was frozen and didn’t work, and I absolutely horsed up a 29.75” walleye, my buddy was ready to land it and once he saw it at the bottom of the hole he said its the biggest walleye he’d ever seen, she came right up head first and we screamed out loud. None of the other guys were even in the water yet. I won first and biggest with my first drop of the trip. To this day its the biggest I’ve ever caught and the absolute best part was sending her home and watching it swim away. Needless to say the proceeding 4 days were absolute slam fests with dozens of fish over 25”, and the best part was we fished the exact coordinates the entire trip.

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One that comes to mind was watching 2 kids they were maybe 13 go out to an area of the lake that looked good on paper but was no good, I watched them catch nothing for a while asked them if they were catching anything they said ‘no’-
I said get over here and fish these 2 holes, they immediately started catching fish, later the kid turns to his friend and asked: What are you doing tomorrow?
He said, nothing. First kid asked: ‘wanna do this? Sure! I would rather put kids or an older person onto fish than to catch them myself. Dang I’m a saint!

I fished some guys abandoned holes after they left.

Sorry no picks but had to be big sandy before the big summer flood. Tulibees were jumping out the holes…well, for some of us. I bet at one point we were catching 12-15/hr and they were 14-20” Ea. One guy kept creeping towards us and eventually asked if we were pro’s…lol. Serveral others kept inquiring how we were doing so good (yeah-this never happens) It was actually our second day ever fishing them. We kept a pile of them for smoking. It was a beautiful warm March weekend to top things off.

Before a buddy of mine and I had kids we used to tip up fish northerns on Minnetonka every Saturday. We’d usually go through 1 1/2 dozen shiners and keep a few 2-3 pounders and catch them up to 7-8 pounds. One day the big fish moved in. We caught about 14 fish and the 6 biggest fish weighed 54 pounds. I have no idea where the pictures are or even if we took any. This was way before cell phones.

We were up on rainy river 2 years ago. Ice fished 3 days and then boated the last 2 days. My at the time 7 year old pulled a 29 inch walleye through the ice. And then a 58 inch sturgeon on the boat.
To say the least, watching him catch both those fish has topped any memory of my self at any point of my life

December 13, 1982 I know must here weren’t born yet. On lake near Cumberland, WI I caught a 32″ 13lb 7oz walleye on a tip up. Had a buddy from Hayward checked on it at Fishing Hall of Fame and it was a world record. They didn’t at that time have a line class for a tip up. Heaviest caught on tip up. Filled out the paper work got a certificate and was number 1. Not sure how long I was first but went back 10 yrs later and my picture was gone. Im now a has been but it was a good run.

My favorite memory is when I was a kid and my uncle randomly took me fishing out of his late 70’s chevy blazer. He was a very heavy guy and didn’t get around well and I was a probably 10 year old kid that had never ice fished before. We had minnows and the old school jigging sticks with a spike in the end with two pegs to wind the line around. There may have been 30 feet of line on the spool…maybe. He taught me how to use a bottom finder weight and how to rig the stick so you could stab it in the ice next to the hole and be at the right depth. We caught so many perch fishing out of the side of that blazer with the heater cranking. What a blast and I miss the simplicity. No map, no graph, no phone, nothing but a stick and some minnows.

Bearcat89 wrote:

We were up on rainy river 2 years ago. Ice fished 3 days and then boated the last 2 days. My at the time 7 year old pulled a 29 inch <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>walleye through the ice. And then a 58 inch sturgeon on the boat.
To say the least, watching him catch both those fish has topped any memory of my self at any point of my life

That’s phenomenal

Mine was LOTW also, fishing the gap (I posted this 7 years ago) my cousin went in to go #2. As soon as he got back I spanked a 28.5 eye. My phone was dead, i look over to him and say “take a pic of this” he says he left his phone back at Adrians. As I tip her back into the hole and say “that was one sweet fish” he says “what fish”

Second story is from LOTW also.
We got done fishing and went to the bar ordered a water moccasin……… woke up the next day with not much money in my pocket.

I actually don’t think this is my best one, but most recent “best” one. Yesterday actually. My sister lives in Colorado now and her and her husband come to visit here and there. They came up this past week and their plans were all over the place and things didn’t work for them. Soooo I said I’ll take them out for a day of fishing and my sister, who thinks the world of me and also thinks I’m a better fisherman than I probably am, decided to take me up on that. She pulled this monster out. Hasn’t stopped talking about it for 2 days. Soooo happy for her

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Deuces wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Bearcat89 wrote:</div>
We were up on rainy river 2 years ago. Ice fished 3 days and then boated the last 2 days. My at the time 7 year old pulled a 29 inch <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>walleye through the ice. And then a 58 inch sturgeon on the boat.
To say the least, watching him catch both those fish has topped any memory of my self at any point of my life

That’s phenomenal

There was a guy on this forum that was next to us and watched my kid wrestle the sturgeon on his walleye rod for 35 minutes. It was awesome. Made and makes me realize the special moments in life

( picture of a picture on the wall)

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Chad McDonald wrote:

I actually don’t think this is my best one, but most recent “best” one. Yesterday actually. My sister lives in Colorado now and her and her husband come to visit here and there. They came up this past week and their plans were all over the place and things didn’t work for them. Soooo I said I’ll take them out for a day of fishing and my sister, who thinks the world of me and also thinks I’m a better fisherman than I probably am, decided to take me up on that. She pulled this monster out. Hasn’t stopped talking about it for 2 days. Soooo happy for her

That smile says it all! Good job!

I don’t like ice fishing all that much tbh so my fav was ice trolling in the boat.

No rod, no motor, just a beer and me cruising across the lake

Bowstring Lake, March of 2006. My 11-year old son and I met up with a buddy and his two boys to target crappies. We had our spot all drilled out. About an hour before sundown they started. Slow at first but then almost non-stop. My buddy and I landed fish and rebaited for the kids. As it got dark the bite slowed and stopped. The kids were cold so they piled into my friends truck to warm up. My buddy and I said the fish had to have moved shallower. We grabbed augers and each drilled 6-8 holes towards shore. We each grabbed a lantern and found them in the middle of the holes we drilled. We caught them until we got cold and called it a night. The boys had as much fun goofing around in the truck as they did catching the fish.

I don’t remember my best ice fishing memory,way to much beer and blackberry brandy.I don’t even like brandy.

Last year, my buddy got a hot tip on a crappie hole on one of the bays of Lake Minnetonka. We walked out the 1 mile to the spot, drilled one hole, and found that the entire water column (25ft) was stacked top to bottom! We sat there for 6 hrs and put an absolute smack down on them! You couldn’t even see your lure on the flasher there were so many fish! We were basically dropping down, waiting a min, and then BAM! fish on! It’s a fairly popular spot but there was absolutely nobody out there that night. We have gone back since and have done very well but nothing like that first night

A few years back, we were on the hunt for some late ice jumbos on the river. We must have drilled 100+ holes between 3 guys before 10am. We covered miles more sloughs than I’ve ever stepped foot on in my life in the river bottoms between Nelson, WI…Wabasha, and Pepin WI. By noon all we had to show for our efforts were about 7 or 8 10″ perch. The ice was getting pretty dark and questionable, so we were planning to head back towards some community spots before dark and see what we could do. We stopped at one slough on the way back that was no larger than a high school gym and decided to pop a few holes. This slough was 4′ deep and dumped into an area with current and a bit of open water right off the ice sheet. We ended up catching close to 80 perch with no more than a handful being under 11″. The 2 guys I was with each kept one a piece right at 15″ and have them mounted in their basements. I think we kept a combined maybe 15 fish in total…just enough for some fish tacos that night and beverages to swear our secrecy.

A few days later we ventured back out to the same area with open water rods and casted to the edge of the ice sheet as the ice wasn’t safe. You could not reel fast enough once your line hit the water to hammer jumbo perch. We landed countless fish over 13″ with a handful over 14″. We did not keep a single one and again swore one another to secrecy despite probably being able to keep hundreds of fish over 12″. The dreaded mile walk through swampy melting backwaters kept the place untouched with no evidence of anyone ever being there. The following week we walked out together and didn’t have a single hit as the spawning giants had clearly moved on. We shrugged our shoulders and decided to revisit it again some other time the next Spring knowing the fish should be back and we had not harvested many at all.

Fast forward to the next Spring and we met to walk out and see if we could possibly reach the hidden gem again together. We parked a long ways from where we set foot to the first of many islands and sloughs to cross in route to the “spot”. Unfortunately that summer we had high water and floods well into July that literally washed the slough out and filled it with silt. To this day it is nothing but mud (not a drop of water) even during high water. It has to be the one spot I’ve fished that will forever be a secret lost to the river. When people ask about why they cannot catch fish in an area that they always used to, I smile and remember this spot vividly.

Oh, I recall one fun outing on Enemy Swim in SD.

Were on day 2 of a trip. Big group of us. We fished a few major lakes in the area.
A few had ventured on Enemy and had keyed in on a sunset bite. So we followed suit and met out there nearing sunset.

Stating, 9 FOW after the sun goes down – dynomite gills.

We got there, an hour before “Prime time”. Guys setup their shacks in shallow.

I was a little confused…”So, they’ll be there in an hour?” “YUP”.

The 9′ area they were fishing was on a break to deep water…

So I’m like, “So you know they’re right on the break right” This was in one ear and out the other apparently…

I wasn’t interested in waiting, so i drilled a string of holes into the deep water and back to the shallows in a V.

Started hole hopping in my 1-man.

Before them boys started catching fish i dropped a FULL 5-gal bucket in one of their houses and said i need another bucket. All gills were over 9″ and all crappies over 13.

I filled the second bucket a few short minutes later.

Generous limits over there, but i collected a few people’s limits in an hour for them.

Went back out the next morning despite the blizzard that was going on. Popped them all morning until i left at noon. Caught my biggest gill at 10.5″ (If i recall).
Other boys took the fish from the day before so i collected my limit that morning also.
It was so nasty out it was very hard to see a drilled hole, they drifted in so fast. I recall trying to get my head into my topper to take a photo with the big gill. Terrible photo.

Them boys didn’t know what happened when i dropped a full pail in their house

Anyway, that was some of the best pan fishing I’ve had on the ice.
First time to SD and haven’t been back unfortunately.

These are awesome stories. I love hearing about all the good times and life long memories people make while ice fishing. Thanks so much to everyone who has responded to this thread. Awesome awesome stuff!

As far as ice fishing goes, this one is going to be tough for me to beat.

Ice fisherman lands record sturgeon

Bearcat89 wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Mr.Beads wrote:</div>

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Bearcat89 wrote:</div>
We were up on rainy river 2 years ago. Ice fished 3 days and then boated the last 2 days. My at the time 7 year old pulled a 29 inch <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>walleye through the ice. And then a 58 inch sturgeon on the boat.
To say the least, watching him catch both those fish has topped any memory of my self at any point of my life

That’s phenomenal

There was a guy on this forum that was next to us and watched my kid wrestle the sturgeon on his walleye rod for 35 minutes. It was awesome. Made and makes me realize the special moments in life

( picture of a picture on the wall)

That was me, and I remember it like it was yesterday, seeing your boy fall onto the boat seat in exhaustion after that great fight. It was fun to watch and experience that excitement.

3Rivers wrote:

As far as ice fishing goes, this one is going to be tough for me to beat

Incredible

The most excited I’ve ever been fishing didn’t involve a fish.

I was probably around 5 and my dad always brought me along. On this occasion, I dropped a GI Joe down the hole and was devastated. Instead of diligently fishing like usual, he spent what seemed like hours trying to fish that toy off the bottom. This was back in the old school. No sonar unit, no camera, dark water with no visibility. He eventually got it and we celebrated like he just caught a trophy.

Another great one just happened this year. Watched my brother catch a 32.5” walleye. Couldn’t happen to a better guy.