I have the Pflueger President Micros on both of my TUCR’s and I love them. Smooth and good drag. Have no complaints. I reel with my right hand (which always confuses my friends) and really love the way this reel fits me, both on the bullwhip and the precision. I also have a President on my summer rod as well!

Hardwater Marine: http://www.hardwatermarine.com/

Lake Hanska is pretty popular among locals. Gets a lot of attention though so it can be a little hectic. The river by minnecon park is pretty popular as well. Otherwise over by mankato there are number of lakes worth trying – washington, duck, madison, etc…

Fish where you would normally fish for walleye basically. I like the big nasty tackle lures (Trout & Pout spoon) with at least 1 minnow hanging on it (sometimes more) pound the ground a bit and wait for them to come suck it down!

For me, Ice fishing is my primary fishing season. I just have so many other things going on in the summer that its hard to find time to get out and fish. I do river fish around opener and try to always get out at least a handfull of times. I do not use a boat in the summer though so that makes it tricky. A few friends have boats but we rarely use them. Winter fishing > than summer fishing in my opinion. The ease of accessibility to the bodies of water is just great. I also enjoy everything about it.

My summer fishing box consists of a handful of raplas, jig heads and twister tails. 1 ugly stick rod – medium weight and no electronics. My winter fishing setup has multiple tackle boxes with all sorts of jigs/lures/baits/plastics, many rods 10+, portable house, wheel house, electronics, everything I need.

Personal Preference I guess but I definitely would qualify ice fishing season as my only season.

I can’t speak for everyone but we try to stay out of that depth. Set up on or near a hump in 35-40ft is usually where we end up. Quite honestly where we pick our spot depends on how close to the party we want to be and where others are setup. We don’t want to be so far away that we can’t safely walk (with a jag on) to and from the party, but far enough away so that we arent right in the thick of it. It’s hard to pick a spot before getting up there and seeing this year’s layout.

My guess is this year with minimal snow, that there will not be defined roadways which could really lead to a cluster of houses everywhere. I’ve seen it before and that’s my assumption for this year as well. When there is more snow it is nicer because people stick to major roadways and you plow out your spot to setup camp. Much better scenario.

My Limit typically is depending on snow. There are times we’ve been on the lake and a big snowstorm moved in. My big fear is being on a lake without ice roads where we would end up stranded in the snow. The cold temps don’t bother me as much, in the hard sided house or a portable. As long as you plan and prepare right for the conditions, you can sit out there regardless of temps.

We typically stay within a short walk of the big mass of people outside of chase. We setup multiple houses, try to find some humps or structure even though there are hundreds of houses setup all around us. We’ve caught walleye, perch, northern, bass, and yes even an eelpout right there near the main drag.

We go to party first, but we definitely wet our lines as well. We also bring portables with and venture out to the other sides of the bay to get our fishing in. Do that during the day and party at night! the perfect wrap up to the season!

I bought some guide series from Sportsmans Guide. 2400 Grams of Thinsulate. Very warm, pretty comfy. They’re tall rubber boot style. No complaints so far!

I like the Ice Armor Extreme gloves as well. When hole hopping I can jig with them then if needed, keep the velcro loose and take them off very quickly and put them back on. Worth the money in my opinion. Waterproof so you can skim ice off your hole if needed without the fear of cold wet fingers!

Hi Ryan, just wondering how you did. We were up out of Brandt’s all weekend long and caught probably 30 walleyes. Unfortunately they were all 12-15″ in size. Good sign for the lake but couldn’t sink into the big ones. Fished 5 mile gravel then jumped around all afternoon made it out to the July (Highway) bar and did some poking around in between. Did see some perch on the camera in the deep at one point but couldn’t get them to commit. Lots of fish but nothing of size made for sort of a frustrating weekend in the cold!

Brandts has a road out as far as 4 mile gravel, that’s the last update I saw on their facebook page. I plan on being up out of brandts this weekend as well.