Just came back from our first trip out of High Banks. We rented a sleeper for a few nights. Access is nice and wide plowed roads. We went off-road/portable on Saturday and were able to get around fairly well. Some deeper drifts.

Anyway, our sleeper was in about 18-19 ft and caught some nice 23-24″ walleyes. Caught quite a few keeper perch as well. Bite slowed to a crawl during the day. Unfortunately, it was so cold and windy, we didn’t venture out to try a new area.

Like others have stated, perch sweetheart is a solid rod. The guys at Thorne are great, and they have a good variety of their rods on the floor for purchase

My setup:
93sv plus
Livescope
Summit XL fishing bag and shuttle
Summit tripod and pole collar.
I use a sectional Intex kayak paddle/pole I had laying around. Sections can be added or taken off depending on ice thickness. This slides through the tripod and the collar holds it in place.
Ridgid 9ah drill battery that powers everything with an adapter I purchased off eBay.

Heading up Sunday-Tuesday. No problem walking out, and fingers crossed for atv travel to at least bring the gear out to the inside/shoreline crack. With the wind and somewhat warmer weather, thinking it’s not gonna happen. Stay safe everyone!

Jamin wrote:

Brandon,

I’ve been advised to set alarm at 10v by a guy I know and trust that’s been running LS on Milwaukee batteries a couple seasons now. I think I’m going to set mine at 11v to start just to give myself a margin of error. I’ll see how that goes and adjust as necessary.

Thanks for the info. I’ll probably err on the side of caution and do the same thing.

For those of you that run the black box and graph off of the drill batteries, what do you set the low voltage alarm at on the head unit so the battery doesn’t completely drain? I have a 18v Ridgid 9ah Octane battery and a 5ah Hyper Li-on battery I plan on using. I’ve seen some differing numbers, and want to make sure I get the longest run time without complete draining the battery and damaging it.

Thanks

Purchased a Livescope setup this summer and can’t wait to try it out on the ice. Bought the Summit shuttle, bag, and tripod. We’ll see how long it runs on my 9ah Ridgid drill batteries.

Had good luck with the dinner bells on Upper Red.

Ty Kennedy wrote:

Jawjackers/automatic fisherman and Haat rods for me. Crazy fun setup that I cannot wait to try with for multiple species next year

I picked up a Haat rod early this year as well. Initially I was disappointed because it didn’t look as nice/custom as the pictures. However, it handled big bass, walleyes, and northerns beautifully. I had it paired with an Okuma bait feeder, and Sullivan tip down.

Had to cancel a weekend trip that was planned months in advance because of the forecasted weather. Seeing how much snow accumulated in the Grand Rapids area helped justify the decision. Still wasn’t easy making that call, but a hot bite isn’t worth a potential disaster.

I have the walleye snare and really like it. It is pricey, but like others said, well built and fun to use. Definitely have it nearby, as I almost lost it down the hole last year when a big bass grabbed it and ran.

I bought a different rod holder for it, as I couldn’t justify spending $25 on JT’s.

I also use my phone (Samsung) with a USB c to hdmi cable. Worked great last year on Mille Lacs. Was able to watch movies and football.

Heading up the day after Thanksgiving as well. Going out of West Wind. Who knows, cars and small trucks might be a go by then.

Want to try the demon tongue which Frostbite copied and named the dinner bell. Seems like it’s sold out everywhere though. Any other name it goes by?

Picked up a few Big Shakers from Snyder lures, which performed quite well on Mille Lacs

3 trips already planned for the ice season.

Early ice on Red Lake out of West Wind

Late December trip to Bowstring. First time on that lake, and staying at Geiger’s Trails End

Late January on Mille Lacs in Appledorn’s 18 hole shack. Though not much serious fishing will probably happen that weekend

Staff at Joe’s is always very helpful and knowledgeable. They are quite generous with their bait as well. They’re always my first go to for my fishing needs.

Love me a glass of Laphroaig before bed. That warm, smokey, earthy deep lingering burn as it travels down the throat to stomach is marvelous.

Was able to get out on a small metro area lake yesterday. Landed around 25 crappies in an hour, all under 8″ though. I even found a beer in my bag, and $20 in my jacket! Was a good end to the season.

8″ K drill paired with a 9ah Ridgid Octane drill. Also, an Eagle Claw rod case, and Perch Sweatheart rod from Thorne Bros.

Bought mine on eBay, brand new for $467 after their 15% off coupon, and got some eBay bucks back as well. It was the propack too. They just had the coupon a few days ago and seem to offer it once every month or two.

The best bite for our group was mid morning to mid afternoon in 10 ft on a point. We arrived at West Winds later in the afternoon on Friday, and bounced brought 3 different spots and didn’t catch a thing. We didn’t move shallower Saturday because it was windy, so we just hunkered down in the pop up. Three guys got our limit, and a lot of fish thrown back. Think we ended up with around 30 walleye. Not a bad outing.

Leaving Friday morning. Will definitely get there for the night bite. Three of us staying in a cabin at West Winds resort until Sunday. Can’t wait to get on a hot walleye bite!

Pm sent about the 31″

I had the smaller troller version and it did the job. One unit went bad within a few weeks, and was replaced. I have a FL-18 now, and my 7 year old son uses the old Marcum because it very easy to read bottom, where your lure and the fish are. Think I paid about $200 for mine.

FYI, yesterday at the Blaine Hardwater expo, Joe’s had the $100 battery, and $20 charger for 20% off. They had 5 on display but not sure how many extra besides those.

Bearcat89 wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Brandon S wrote:</div>
One of my Sienna’s locks up when the temps get into the single digits. Have never had that problem with my Plueger President. That being said, the Sienna is a great reel for the price.

I think you have to use different reel oil. I run the sienna 500 on most of my panfish jigging rods, year round

It’s weird because it’s just 1 out of the 3 I have. Will have to try and regrease it with some better stuff.

One of my Sienna’s locks up when the temps get into the single digits. Have never had that problem with my Plueger President. That being said, the Sienna is a great reel for the price.

shockers wrote:

Anyone recall from last year how the Black Friday/Cyber Monday deals compared to the Ice Show deals for the Striker Ice suits etc.?

Scheels had 50% off the Striker floating Predator jacket around Black Friday/Cyber Monday. It was the 2016 style. Don’t recall if the bibs were on sale though.

Handeled one at Joe’s Sporting Goods yesterday. I couldn’t believe how light it was. Only thing that concerned me was the build quality. It may very well hold up over time, but my K Drill seems more sturdy. If I recall correctly, the 8″ was on sale for $200. Was tempted to buy, but the K Drill was on sale for $210, so went that route. Hope it does perform well, and interested to hear feedback this year about the Pistol Bit.

Sorry to go off topic a bit, but I have a gen 1 Helix 5 di/si that I’ve been using in the summer. Anybody using one on the ice; if so how does it perform? Sounds like I would need the #20 ice ducer, as it’s not chirp? I have a Fl-18, and was thinking of selling it, if the original Helix works alright. Thanks