Northwest corner provides some action

first, thanks to James & Joel for their 21Dec short segment on mille lacs…nice to have guys who have more time than most of us go out and find them and let us know whats going on.

i had a few hours this afternoon to take a crack at some walleyes, and “the pond” still tempts me as it has for years. so, i took my dad and son.

we got on the ice from any number of one of the road-side, make-shift 4-wheeler launches, and set-up about 4PM on a favorite fall troll run (as James had discussed). within 20 minutes, we had 2 fish on the ice and 1 missed. all bigger than the slot, including the 27 in the pic.

i wasnt the most efficient since we had quick action, and i was tending lines and bait, and i believe earlier would have been better. however, after 2 hours of 5-6 lines, we landed 3 and missed 5…first time gremlins.

the ice was perfect!..~12in and there were lots of guys out there with no indication of concern (at least today) as i had been perceiving from other posters here.

buck shot gold jigging and standard hook with red bead on tipups were the ticket. I would appreciate any feedback on better tipup setups from anyone with more experience.

fun to be out, as mille lacs still intrigues me.

For those who are not afraid to walk & ATV on 12″ of solid ice, I went out of Garrison yesterday again with my good friend Gary and his 6 year old boy.

we went 9 for 19, and tipups ruled. very lite bite and missed alot on hook sets. jigs had 2 hits only. depths were 7-22 ft along the northwest breakline.

definate pattern setup: every 45-60minutes, tip ups would go off for 5-10 minute window then gone as small schools would move through. fish also seemed to be moving in a counter-clockwise direction along the break.

Good info here, Hedder. I was out yesterday AM for a few hours as well. Tip ups definitely were the deal. Thursday afternoon it was a spoon bite with the fish coming in and crushing baits. I prefer it when they’re hitting lures but won’t turn my nose up at tip up fish if that’s what they want.

James,

i saw your post on the ice fishing forum. very interesting on the size of minnows you had success on. i was thinking just the opposite due to my/our inefficiency at hook-ups. but then again, im still getting used to the tip up deal and need more experience. so, good to see your observations.

i thought we had a good spread going covering multiple depths, and occasionally comment on how perfect the presentation is. so, i think the roaming schools theory is accurate, as i believe that any fish in that area would have a bait in its face. also, the consistant 45-60 min flury of action are good data to confirm.

take care and thanks again for your site here!

also, wanna get up to duluth harbor…have relatives who live in canal park about 2 doors down from your video a few weeks back.

We basically gave up on fishing shiners or fatheads the last couple times up due to the horrible hookup percentages. I didn’t keep close track but there were times when I know we were going 0/6, 1/10. Not acceptable. As soon as we switched to big suckers our hooking percentage sky rocketed, just a guess but I’d say 80%+, and our average fish size improved as well.

Now if I only knew WHY.

A fathead should make for an easy meal. If you’ve got the minnow in your mouth… where’s the hook? How we can miss so many of them is beyond me. Now swap in a 6″ – 8″ sucker and the fish would gobble them. Instead of missing fish after fish… we rarely did. Even with that big minnow in the fish’s maw and plenty of minnow to grab where there isn’t a hook.

PS – quick strike rigs made for a VERY high hook up ratio but far fewer strikes than tip ups rigged with a single wide gap 1/0 hook. For what it’s worth…. tomorrow is a new day and those darned fish will want something completely different.

unbelievable!…this i guess is the frustrating part or maybe the alluring part of fishing that keeps a dude scratching his head, spending more time and keep coming back. thanks for the info. very useful!

Happy New Year!