Muskie-tim,

Thank you. In the settings it just says open water (yes or no), I think when I was out on the water I was expecting a toggle between Ice mode and Open water. I appreciate the help.

There is a good chance I didn’t. I totally forgot about having to switch that for ice fishing. I kept going to the ducer selection in the settings and didn’t scroll down far enough to see that one. I will check that tonight.

I have dealt witch back issues since I was 16, most of the time the chiropractor was able to fix the issues. About 5 years ago I had my first surgery after 3 months of pain and numbness in my legs. Two years later I had a second surgery for a different disc and have been great ever since. You have to be careful if you have numbness for prolonged periods of time as it can cause nerve damage. There are some ortho urgent care facilities in the cities that can do same day MRIs and get things figured out if it gets bad. I have used Tria and Summit Ortho, Tria was good and Summit was incredible.

I think 13″ of good ice is technically fine, the problem is when that becomes 7″ without knowing it. I think that is why a lot of people say to go out of a resort. They are always checking the ice conditions as well as active cracks. I think the $30 they charge for a weekend is not a bad deal

I have been having the same issue. I noticed last week that my bobber stop seems to be slipping. I went to bring the ifish pro in and it had a ton of line out and no flag up. Going to try and change out the line and bobber stop on that rod and give it another try this weekend. It seems like the trigger takes just a little more pressure than a normal tip up.

I have had mine done at Bonngard’s in Cottage Grove the last couple years, they have turned out really good. I have done Jalapeno/cheddar and bacon/cheddar. This year, they turned them around in 2 weeks.

I just got a helix 7, and I run the SI, Sonar and map at the same time. as long as I am on the correct window, I can mark the fish on the SI and watch it pop up on the map at the same time. It works great, just have to be on the right window.

Yeah, i live in Cottage Grove and was thinking the same thing the last few years. I see people that can catch metro eyes, but it has been a challenge for me to figure it out. It just seems like too much pressure in the metro to find a consistent bite. If you have a whole day to fish, you can drive up to mille lacs and go out of Beachside Resort, it is pretty cheap to use their ice road and they will point you in the right direction. I have found some perch and consistent small walleyes at Bald Eagle around cigar island, and good crappies going out of Bellaire Beach on WBL.

I have fished WBL a few times each winter, because it is close. It seems to be a better crappie and northern lake. There are walleyes in there, but i haven’t found anything consistent.

The St. Croix by Bayport is pretty fun to fish in the winter. You have to watch out for ice conditions a little (specially early). I can usually find a few walleyes there, but there is also a good hole for crappies and the sturgeon fishing is supposed to be really good there.

Last winter I started going up to Mille Lacs when ever I had the time, it is about an hour and a half drive for me, and if I have the whole day it is worth it.

I started using my milwaukee battery last year with an adapter and it is amazing and a lot cheaper. I ran my Lowrance all last winter on just a M18 5.0 AH battery (which I also used to drill my holes with). I have a 9.0 AH one as well, but haven’t need it yet.

Two thoughts. One-I hate the fact that they allow for review on pass interference, but almost never change the call even when it is obvious. If they aren’t going to over turn the calls, don’t allow for a challenge. Second-The blown call that kills me in this game is the helmet to helmet hit, then the DB was going for the ball and the receiver led into the play with his helmet. You can’t penalize a guy for trying to catch the ball. It was obvious the guy wasn’t going in there to knock the WR out, he was going for the ball. That play was a killer for the Lions as well.

Honestly, I know there are bad calls in all the games, I would just like to see less of the ticky tacky calls. Let them play a little. That and this is supposed to be an elite league, why are the refs not performing at an elite level?

Denver is great. I went out with him on June first, when the river was still really high. He knew exactly where to go for bigger fish, then moved us to get on some take home fish. i was absolutely amazed at his knowledge of the river system.

mrpike, I used the pistol bit all last year, and was suprised how smooth it was. I was a able to drill holes one handed while drinking a beer. I wouldn’t put a clam plate on mine if you paid me.

I switched over to a 5.0 milwaukee battery last winter with the adapter and it was amazing all winter. I used it with my drill to pop a few holes, then switched it over to power my fish finder and didn’t come close to running out of battery. That and the eskimo pistol bit where the two best things I did last winter for ice fishing.

you should keep us updated on how loud it is and how happy you are with it throughout the winter. I really like the idea of the propane fuel, but the last one I researched had bad reviews.

I haven’t been to Mille Lacs yet this spring, but this winter I was catching extremely chunky fish. I’m not sure if things have really changed that much, or are there just varied experiences.

I found one back in November on eBay for $235(new) it was from an outdoor store in Missouri I believe. Other wise the Gander 25(30%) coupons were working on it back in December.

I generally fish the same lures on the st. Criox that I do on lakes. For the vexilar, I usually pop an extra hole a couple feet down river to put my fish finder in, depending on depth, you can sometimes get away with it in the same hole as your lure, but it works better a few feet down stream. For crappies, you will see a deep hole (40ish feet) out from Bayport, you will also see a pretty good size group in that area.

I was up 2 weeks ago and found the fish to be pretty aggressive throughout the day. We went up for the day this past Saturday and didn’t find much for active fish during the daylight hours. We did get a little bit of a bite after the sun went down, but it was a lighter bite than before. With the temps so cold, we weren’t out hole hopping as much during the day, so that may have played into it as well.

I like this discussion, I am personally hopeful the new Governor will make some good changes to our current fishing regulations. I know that Wisconsin has a lot simpler regulations and doesn’t seem to have the same issues we have. Hopefully the new Governor, being an outdoors guy, will make some good common sense changes. Like importing sinners and simpler slot/bag limits. The fact you have to be reading the reg book over and over again every time you hit the water is such a joke. If slot limits work, we shouldn’t need to have 20 different slots. I also don’t understand why most of the metro lakes allow keeping 6 walleyes, when the numbers clearly show we can’t maintain that level of fishing with the pressure the metro gets. I would love to see most metro lakes with a walleye limit of 2 or 3.

I know Beachside Resort on the South side will plow a spot for them for a fee, they will also assist with just about anything for a fee, they even deliver food out on the ice during the weekend. I went out on their ice road last weekend for the first time with my portable and had a great time. Most wheelhouses were moving around without needing a spot plowed, but that doesn’t mean that won’t change.

You could try this coupon at gander outdoors.

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Has anyone tried this battery in a 12v ice auger? I have an older strike master that I really like, but when the ice gets thicker it doesn’t last as many holes as I would like. I was thinking maybe one of these batteries would help.

Also is there any talk of a group buy again this year so that we can get the discounted price?

Brian,

if you were going to spend $250-300 on a camera, would you go with the Marcum Recon 5 then over the Aqu Vu 715C or Vexilar fish Scout then? Do you know if you can still use the video out put if the screen goes out on a Marcum?

The Recon seems a lot better for being portable, and both the 715c and recon have the IR and LED.

I have been looking into the same thing. I used a Vexilar Fish SCout last winter and really liked it. I would love to try the Aqua Vu Micro to see how it compares, but otherwsie I’m leaning towards the newer Aqu Vu 715C. it has IR lighting, which from what I have seen on youtube videos would be a nice feature. i also want something with video out, so that if I get an Ice Castle next year, I can run it to the larger TV. It would be really nice to be able to see them all setup next to each other to make the decision easier.

I wonder if it has any thing to do with light penetrating the surface? I use my Hook 5 for ice fishing and see the same thing during the day and it clears up as the sun goes down. I usually just ingnore the top 5 feet on it. The other thought I have would be particles or debris in the water, or maybe a combination of the two thoughts.

Things are definitely changing, clarity is down and flow is up. I saw some people catching fish last night, I wasn’t one of them. I did have a cat or sturgeon on for a while, but I didn’t see anything fast and furious. The water temp was 41 out of the current and 36ish in the main channel.

I went out of Everts yesterday, water is nice a dirty, flow is up as well in the main channel, I didn’t see too much for debris.

I just got the tickle stick with freefall ghost from my girls for Christmas and took it to LOW a few weeks ago. I still have mixed feelings on the freefall, but love the tickle stick. I have the light versus UL and jigging small spoons and a light walleye/sauger bite was great. The feel of the bite and hook set was very smooth. I also have the cheaper wicked rod and an even cheaper vital. All three rods feel nice for their price point.

I was watching some underwater video of walleyes on youtube and it was amazing how often they had the bait half in their mouth for a good 10 seconds or more then sucked it in. Without an underwater camera it is impossible to know if the hook is actually in their mouth. Half the time you will be patient and they spit it out and the other half you set the hook before they have it in their mouth. I have been thinking about getting an underwater camera to help me improve my jigging action, but this would be another benefit.