Big Sandy Ice Fishing

First off I wanna say this is my first post. Been lurking for a bit. So me and the boys (good friends) are planning a trip up to Big Sandy for some ice fishing in January. We rented a sleeper at a place here locally so we can sleep out there for the weekend. My mom just purchased a place up on the lake. We are looking probably around the North East corner of the lake since it looks like nice structure. Looking for some general direction since we want to get into some walleye and crappie, but have never fished the lake before. Any tips would be great, not looking for people’s honey holes or nothing.
Thanks!

Have you stayed in a sleeper before? Some like it I hate it. Like a hot shower, putting my bare feet on a warm floor in the morning and not dead minnows frozen in the ice. Anyway the one plus for me would be if their was a night bite, I would find out, not sure if their is out there. Cool lake, people on this site fish it so you will get some good advice- Oh and you think those little shacks w/o water etc. would be cheaper than a cabin or motel, nope

Tim you must be a load of fun on a camping trip jk

If my wife and daughter can happily spend 3 days in an ice castle without water I would think a grown man could? Granted my fish house is nicer than most hotels.

It’s also nice not having to worry about driving

As far as ice fishing Big Sandy I don’t have a lot of experience up there but I have heard of a pretty good low light crappie bite! Right at dusk or in the early morning.

Camping?! Do you want to get me started? (too late) If you have to pee at odd hours (me) unzip your bag, unzip the screen on the tent, unzip the main door, will the zipper ever get caught when you are half asleep? So struggle with that, zip it back up or let cold or skeeters in, walk threw the dew, pee and do it all over again w/o waking your tentmate. I don’t mind all the dehydrated food and fresh fish (yum!) but no ice cream or icy beer. Anyway I will do it if it gets me to a lake where you have to do it, BWCA, Quetico. In a tent when a comfy cabin is nearby? No. Glad you asked?

Yes sir I have, up on Red this past winter. Was amazing waking up to the rattle reels going off in the middle of the night. I don’t think my buddies have.

I’m with Tim on this one. Dry land, a hotel, running water, and a hot shower beats any ice shack.

Big sandy has dark water. From my experience (which isn’t much) there is little to no night bite. I believe the north east end of the lake is the most popular area for ice fishing. There is generally a shanty town or two visible from hwy 65.

I’ll echo grubson’s comment. It is a dark bog stained lake and I don’t believe there is much of a night bite. The shanty town visible from 65, however, is the northwest corner. That area is popular for crappie, but don’t doubt for some walleyes also. I’ve also seen houses grouped at the NE corner which is the north end of Bill Horn bay. I don’t have a lot of ice fishing experience out there, but if you have the option, try being mobile during the day searching out schools of slab crappies over the deeper holes. Bill Horn bay is deep and has a good population of Tullibee, which are fun to catch.

Sorry I meant north west corner.

Thanks for some of the tips! My mom and her bf/partner (whatever their relationship is called) purchased a place off of Indian Point (don’t know if that is Bill Horn or not. The maps don’t really tell much of a story. I have been scouting with my Navionics App and looking at the contours of the lake to try to get a feel. I plan on doing several weekends of ice fishing up there in my portable.

Big Sandy Ice Fishing? I heard it freezes out every winter! Stay Home!!!

Just weeding out a few.

Welcome to a great lake Jake! Not an impossible night bite but I wouldn’t count on it. As stated its bog stained! I would say the ice fishing goes in cycles or reports. If a crappie or tully report hits the internet or association email its packed! Use your sleeper as a base station and a good wheeler or side x side to venture to every slope on the lake. You will find some. Sometimes many! When your done drop a report. Drop me line when it gets closer and I will see if I can help!

Shannon Kruse

tim hurley wrote:

Do you want to get me started? (too late) If you have to pee at odd hours (me) unzip your bag, unzip the screen on the tent, unzip the main door, will the zipper ever get caught when you are half asleep? So struggle with that, zip it back up or let cold or skeeters in, walk threw the dew, pee and do it all over again w/o waking your tentmate.

Tim, nobody ever told you about a pee bottle?

I’m with Joe on this, I don’t get all sweaty in a fish house so I can go a couple days without a shower. And reasonably well equipped one is far from roughing it. In fact many can be quite nice and cozy. A pot of chili simmering on the stovetop while relaxing and fishing in your slippers and pajamas.

Granted I fish Mille Lacs so the night bite justifies the means. As far as cost relative to a motel room, if you had any idea the expenses in clearing the roads and pulling the houses out there…maintenance and liabilities.

Jake, as far as Big Sandy…sorry I cannot help much there.

Thankfully sand-burr is here for you.

Will do! I heard the crappies up there are slabs. Looking to probably get into more walleye than crappie. We have a buddy who has never ice fished, and we are intrigued on how he will handle being on the ice at night.

Jake wrote:

We have a buddy who has never ice fished, and we are intrigued on how he will handle being on the ice at night.

If you get bored figure out a way to lift up the corner of the house while your buddy is in it and drop it.

He will come flying out the door so fast!

Ahahahaha, that would be really funny to do. Would be easier in my portable since it’s a flip over.

And when you get bored, there are a few good establishments on the lake to “warm” up at!

Heard that the ice fishing is spotty, but I can say from experience there’s a lot of really great resort owners and friendly bars around big sandy! Fun place to be whether the fish are “on” or not!

Jake wrote:

Will do! I heard the <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>crappies up there are slabs. Looking to probably get into more <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>walleye than crappie. We have a buddy who has never ice fished, and we are intrigued on how he will handle being on the ice at night.

I grew up with a place on bsl. For it being a numbers lake for eyes it definitely does not seem like it for most people ice fishing. The pressure on bsl has been growing the past 8-10 years and it is definitely not helping the panfish populations. I still fish up there but I am rarely on sandy any more.

Any type of camping where there isn’t running water can be greatly improved by Baby Wipes. I can go several days without a shower with them no problem. Taking a baby wipe and hitting the face, then pits, then crack, then triangle motion in front, and after burning through a few wipes doing that you’ll feel like a new man again. So fresh and so clean-clean!

As far as pee buckets go, it’s hard to beat an empty plastic folger’s container. They handle a lot of volume without taking up as much space as an ice cream bucket and seal tight as to avoid smell or being tipped. Pre-fill with about an inch of heavily diluted bleach water prior to use when the temps are warm and the urine smell won’t knock you over on day three when you need to use it again. Just make sure to empty on the road, gravel or pavement, so you don’t kill any grass or fauna.

joneser wrote:

Taking a baby wipe and hitting the face, then pits, then crack, then triangle motion in front.

As far as pee buckets go, it’s hard to beat an empty plastic folger’s container. They handle a lot of volume without taking up as much space as an ice cream bucket and seal tight as to avoid smell or being tipped. Pre-fill with about an inch of heavily diluted bleach water prior to use when the temps are warm and the urine smell won’t knock you over on day three when you need to use it again.

The only thing that would horrify me more is if you reversed the order in which you practiced your personal hygiene.

Thankfully though this time, you did not employ 26 paragraphs to post your ideas.

However you’ve still complicated the simple process of urinary disposal.

In a fish house, get up and aim at the nearest open hole…usually nearby. Gone and done, no smell and no bleach needed.

In a tent/sleeping bag, a large empty water bottle with lid is all you need. Don’t even have to unzip all the way and get up. Just fit it in and let fly, close the bottle with lid and toss on the ground. No bleach needed, dump it out in the morning.

Who cares about grass and fauna when all the wild critters don’t worry about it either.

Why rough it if you do not have too? Baby whipes, you are saving no money and no night bite?!

How’s the ice situation looking up there on big sandy?

Just got home from a long weekend at Big Sandy. No cars or trucks on the lake yet. 10-12 inches of ice everywhere we drilled on West end of the lake. There is some slush but I didn’t see anyone get stuck. The slush is mostly around shoreline and in areas where snow drifts accumulated. Fishing was a little slow for our group; 7 crappies (marked a lot more but couldn’t get them to commit), 2 tullibee and a pretty nice eelpout in about 10 hours of fishing. The crappies were in anywhere from 18-29 feet of water and bit on minnows and spikes.

The crappies were in their usual winter form – very plump! Hard to beat a Big Sandy crappie filet. It’s worth putting in the hours for so few fish.

Lots of people out on the lake. Most of the known crappie spots were stacked with portables.

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Well that sucks. We were hoping at looking a wheel house out there in the north east bay. Sounds like that will not happen lol.

I wouldn’t give up on that yet, Jake. Slush isn’t everywhere like last year. Just pray we don’t get any more snow anytime soon.

We were thinking about fishing this bay and were hoping it will have thick enough ice since it’s off the main lake.

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That is a good bay I’ve fished it many times. There are crappie cribs in there but I won’t divulge the locations. There are quite a few permanent houses and wheel houses out on the lake. Whoever you rented a sleeper from is probably out there or will be very soon. Give them a call.

We rented the wheelhouse from a place here in the cities lol. We are choosing that bay because it’s close the my moms cabin. Not looking to steal info. A buddy and I are doing a scouting trip in Saturday this week to see what we can find.

Just got home from a day trip to big sandy. I can confirm there is between 12 to 16 inches of ice. The 12 inches was near a stream in that bay. There were a couple of trucks driving around the bay as well. After some scouting and a little bit of fishing, caught a couple perch and a tuilibee in about 2 hours. Perch were decent size but didn’t keep them since it was just for scouting.

What bay for the Tullie?