Just came in from pumping one tank that had 190 gallons in it. I have another tank with 100 more gallons and maybe 30 or so in bags. Hoping to boil Monday. We are sitting at 19.5 gallons of syrup so far, hoping for 50 total. If we can survive the warm spell early next week I think we’ll get there.

We have 140 taps in. 110 on gravity tubing and 30 on bags. I had to pump last week at 10pm and the tubing was still running steady.

We boiled on Saturday, 350 gallons of sap before Reverse Osmosis, 115 after. Finished with 9 1/2 gallons of syrup. Just checked tanks tonight and have another 250 in tanks and probably 50 in bags. Hoping for a good run on Thursday and another boil Saturday or Sunday. I’m in Washburn County WI so temps aren’t quite as high as you guys in the cities but still getting too warm over the weekend. Hoping buds don’t pop.

Usually we work in groups of 4-6 students so one person drilling, someone checking depths or using an underwater camera to check bottoms then we’ll use livescope and vexilars for the actual fishing. It’s just going to help us eliminate water during our tournaments. We have fundraised and have about $10000 in our account so the kids decided they wanted to purchase one.

We have a list of discounts but not for Livescope. Any recommendations for the mount,pole, what unit is best?

Got mine last week as well. Think it’s from my Ultrex purchase a couple years ago.

I’ve fished it a few times, pretty much what was said earlier is right on. Lots of humps and points to fish. Decent fishing in the whole lake. Biggest walleye I caught on Big Sis came in 3′ of water on a spinnerbait.

Slow for us today. Buddy snagged a sheepshead and only saw two other fish caught all day. Fished from 2-28′ and tried several different presentations. Worst day we’ve ever had out there.

Super slow start for us in Washburn County WI. Tapped the last week in February and only have 175 gallons of sap total so far from 140 taps. Still have over 2′ of snow in the woods here, bases of trees finally started to show a little. Hoping for a good run soon to get our first boil done. Upgraded to a filter press this year, hoping it makes everything go a little faster at the end.

Fished yesterday with a friend, launched around 9:45 am headed down towards Red Wing. Caught two carp down there. After lunch headed up towards the dam ended up catching 6 walleye, 2 Sauger, 6 catfish and a sheepshead. All on blade baits. Nothing wanted plastics yesterday

Was out yesterday on a large lake near Spooner. No slush but very rough ice/snow drifts. Had about 8″ of ice. 6″ of good hard ice then 2-3″ of frozen slush. Looks like another storm coming this week which is going to make it miserable getting around.

I tapped three weeks ago in Washburn County WI. Finally started running a bit on Saturday but very slow. Maybe have 130 gallons of sap currently sitting in the woods. Won’t start my RO with less than 250 gallons of sap to do and even that is little for my new evaporator that is 3×5. Hopefully things pick up the next few days as our snow finally melted in the woods yesterday. Built a vacuum filter this year for filtering, was sick of the gravity filtering, hopefully this speeds things up.

Number 4 and 5 Slab Raps are my go to for crappies in my neck of the woods when the fish are aggressive. Favorite color is Hot Glow Perch Locate them with the Vexilar and drop a Slab Rap down first. Usually they’ll come flying up to it as its dropping, if it doesn’t get hit right away just small twitches with the rod tip with the occasional rip of it. Some of my biggest crappies last year came on them, and when they hit it, they smoke it. Probably my favorite type of ice fishing bite.

Been tough in our area due to above average water temps. If we get a couple colder nights those fish will start to put on the feed bag and get more aggressive. Water on the lakes I was on this weekend was still mid 60s in the afternoon. Smallies were in that 8-12′ range but a few a little deeper and a few a little shallower. Doesn’t seem like they are really schooled up yet.

I used the Menards Ultradeck – Rustic. Put it on 5 years ago on a new deck and haven’t had any issues with the decking. I started using the hidden fastener system and it was a pain, so I just surface screwed it all and I don’t notice the screws. I just power wash the deck once or twice a year. It has faded a little due to being on the south side of the house but it has faded evenly

I was on Shell Lake and had 47 degrees Saturday morning, Sunday morning was 49. Smallies haven’t quite turned on yet. I caught some but not the non stop action as soon as it gets a little warmer like I’ve had in the past.

watisitoya, Let me know what you have for water temps up there. I’ll be fishing around Spooner but always head up to Round several times in the spring once water hits 50-55 degrees.

We got almost 200 gallons of sap yesterday, seems like its finally running good for us. Will start my reverse osmosis tonight and start boiling tomorrow night and all day Saturday. We should have close to 600 gallons of sap by Saturday.

Did my first boil yesterday 335 gallons of sap at 2% sugar content, put it through my reverse osmosis, took it down to 85 gallons at 5.5% sugar and ended up with 6.5 gallons of syrup. Yesterday sap ran really well and got 150 gallons. Will be boiling again Friday and Saturday.

We sell at the farmers market, we get $6 1/2 pint, $10 Pint and $20 a quart. We may have to bump our prices up since jar prices have gone up due to the shortage. We have collected 350 gallons of sap so far. Hoping for another 50 before Saturday. I think its going to run hard next week up here in Washburn County now that the snow went down. As of Monday there was still 16″ of snow in the woods.

Honestly it was horrible using the buffet pans compared to our 2×4 flat pan we have now. Constantly adding sap, moving from one pan to the next since the back boiled faster. If I were to start again I’d find any kind of flat pan with 8″ deep sides I could. I have a co worker that used regular steel for awhile until he could get a stainless pan.

I found food grade ones from a guy that had yeast in them. Cleaned up easily with soapy water and a pressure washer. Some of the food grade ones have Vitamin D in them and they are a pain to clean, I would avoid those at all costs, but make sure you get the food grade ones no matter what. I see them all over Facebook for $50-$100

We use 275 gallon IBC totes. We have two in the woods for the lines to run into and then one in the garage which stays at 40 degrees and out of the sun. We usually boil when we have 300 gallons of sap, which after the Reverse Osmosis is about 150 at 9% sugar content. I start the Reverse Osmosis 24 hours before boiling. Usually about a 10-12 hour day of boiling for 10 gallons of syrup.

We started 4 years ago with 25 bags and cooking in the woods on a cinder block arch with buffet pans. I welded up a new cooker from an oil diesel tank from my grandparents farm and moved it down to the house. Last year we did just over 1000 gallons of sap. My neighbor a mile down the road has 3500 taps on 40 acres and boils down about 1500 gallons an hour with his set up. Its pretty amazing to watch but then I see the costs involved and never want to get that big.

Half a mile south of Spooner on Hwy 253. We sell at the Spooner Farmers Market all summer long. Follow us, our Facebook page and Instagram are Sugar Ridge Farm

Tapped 125 trees Saturday in Washburn County WI. Got about 10 gallons of sap that day, guessing it’s running well today.

I tapped our woods on Saturday. 125 taps, 100 on gravity lines, 25 bags on the random trees the lines won’t work on. Last year made 27 gallons, this year hoping for 30. We sell at our local farmers market and boil ours just a little longer to make it thicker (hate the runny stuff). I built a reverse osmosis which takes off about 50% of the water before we boil which really helps cut our boiling time. Would be happy to share any info if anyone is interested.

I 3D printed new caps for my pistol bit. First time I didn’t make it solid enough so it cracked off one of the sides. Make some new ones that are more dense and they work well.

I bought truck bed LED lights off of Amazon for my Grizzly flip over. Adhesive backed (the 3MVHB). They work great and haven’t moved even going across Lake Superior.

River Rock is where we always go. Hopefully we get some colder temps so we can get out further soon