It’s that time of the year were the whole family and friends want to get out and do some ice fishing! That to me spells “Tip Ups”! There was no better way to get 8 of us out on the ice. With the trucks packed full of gear and the snow falling Saturday morning our destination was East Rush Lake. You have to get there pretty early to acquire some ground so it was an early leave time. Please keep in mind there is a slot on Rush Lake for Northern. We had a small delay on the way there to do our Good Samaritan duty and pull a gentleman out of the ditch after he hit a deer on the way to Pokegama lake. Love to help out the fellow fisherman when I can.
My target was the 5-7 FOW and spreading 11-13 tip-ups over 50 square yards. Much to my surprise we were basically the first ones to the area. We used various presentations ranging from a plain hook to dangling spoons with trebles. Our bait of choice was small and medium sized suckers. One mistake I have seen many people do out there is fish the pike like walleyes and keep their bait close to the bottom. In the shallow water I like my bait just a couple feet below the ice. The is the “cruzing” zone for these pike.
I would consider it a little slower of a day averaging a couple flags per half hour but everyone had their chance! We start with the youngest and go to the oldest person to retrieve flags. They also have to catch a fish! So sometimes it takes 4-5 misses to make that happen. Just to see the smiles on the faces when they pull up a fish is amazing!
Good luck out there and bring a kid fishing!
