Fantastic photos. Now if only I could get the feathers off that bird I could tie some wicked ice flies.

I would have to say yes to the first but here in SW Michigan WE ARE HAVING A THAW!!!!!! Darn weather. It is 43 f` right now and we are supposed to get a huge rain shower. I wil agree though and day when you get to watch nature wake up is a great morning to me.

There is one that I us for my android phone and I dont know if it is available through the app store but it is called Spotmarker. It is free and runs off of google earth. It alows you to create a way point and make notes about it. You can even attach a photo to it. It doesnt show contour lines but it does give you the lat and lon of the spot so you can plug it in to your gps. Great for exploring a lake if you dont have a topo map of that exact lake. Hope that this helps. Tight lines.

I have always been under the impression that the harder the bottom the bigger the line. A soft bottom will absorb the signal so your return will not be as good. You may even get an orange lor green line depending on if there are weeds over the bottom. The harder the bottom the stronger the return and the thicker the line. Hope this helps. Tight lines mate!

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I have solved the jig eye problem. It was an economic thing. I don’t buy crap filled jig eyes, it is an indication of bad quality control in my mind.

This is year 2 of using only flies I tied or others tied.

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Floyd, would love to see some of the flies that you use through the ice. I tie a lot of my own stuff as well. Keep up the good work.

Curt, as you can see there are so many options out there. I have an FL-18 but i just fished with my buddies lx-1. They both work fantastic! With either the Vex or the Marcum you can’t really go wrong. Good luck and tight lines.

Very nice BK. I just finished my own DIY strike indicator but mine is a nock-off of the St. Croix one. The gromets that I bought didn’t come in the size that fit my existing eyelet I was using to hold the spring but an extra heavy paper clip did the trick once it was bent into the proper diameter circle. The camera on my phone isn’t that great so the picture is a bit blurry but you get the idea. I can slide the spring back and forth to adjust the sensitivity of the unit. Works very well with light jigs and heavy. Keep up the good work BK.

Thought that I would dig up this thread again and share a couple of new patterns that I have tied. They are all untested but I will be giving them a go and letting you all know how they work. The two really buggy looking things are variations of a pattern called the Cricket Nymph. The one with the rubber legs I call a Hot Legs Cricket Nymph and the other is actually tied so that it glows in the dark and I have no idea what to name that one so if you guys have any ideas feel free to take a shot. The three flies that are in the cork are all tied with a product called Squirmy Wormy. It is made by Spirit River. I love the stuff! When it gets in the water it moves like one of those giant dancing guys that are powered by a fan. Anyways, the two on the ends are glow and the one in the middle is non-glow. Let me know what you think and I do take orders for flies. If you are interested PM me.

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the HSO LED lights are not the BHK lights. These are made by another company and sold by the OPS>

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And to quote Homer, “Um, can you repeat the part of the stuff where you said all about the…things? ”

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Munch, just wanted to thank you for your review. I am thinking about picking one up now. I don’t do a ton of ice fishing because of my kid and I don’t have the money to invest in a more expensive unit. Here in MI we don’t get a whole ton of ice early on the lake either which means that if you live in the SW portion of the state, like I do, you will be walking most of the ice season. This looms to be perfect. Thanks again.

My question is can u fit 2 people in that tent?

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At this rate, the lakes aren’t going to freeze up until christmas!!! Thanks for the thearpy session!

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So now u know how all us in the SW portion of MI feel every year. 90% of the time we can’t get out on most of our waters until after Christmas anyways. So I hate to say it but I have no sympathy for ya.

Great looking rods. I am going steelhead fishing his weekend and have the enormous pleasure of being guided by the one and only Pete Humphreys. One of thethe best speybet casters i have ever seen. I would love to take one of those win me. Let me know him those perform because in the next year or so I will be looking for a good chrome/bonefish rod.

CT, I really like the foam idea for your rose creek boxes. I personally own a slotted foam fly box for all my smaller ice jigs. Mine has two sides with a decided on a hinge that keeps my jigs on one side and my spoons on another. Never do they touch and they stay put very well. It does float too and that has saved my bacon more than once when I dropped that box down the hole. I know, should have learned not to change the jig over the hole but thankfully I had the floating box. Hope that this helps. Tight lines mate.

Hooked, that is almost identical to what I did with my old springtime bobbed but I used a paper clip to extend out from the spring a bit further. They work great don’t they? You can detect the smallest bite and the up hits are wickedly obvious. Looks great!

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Well, make one more Michigander. I just discovered this site. Thought that I would log in. I’m from the Lower on the west side. G.R. area. I’ll be heading to the Cisco chain in June. I’v spent a few vacations at Michigamme fishing for walleye. Hope to find some info on Thousand Island Lake.

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Alright! Looks like we have another from the G.Rap! Good to know that an IDOer is out there. Maybe we head out for some fish on the hard water sometime this winter. Hope to see you around!

Well this is a little late but Bluegills are some of the best fish to catch on the fly. Your normal trout rod with do the trick. Start out with some foam spiders. You can pick those up for cheap at the tackle shop. Get a few small poppers to go along with those. I would also grab some small nymph patterns. Copper Johns, Pheasant Tailed Nymphs, and Prince Nymphs are good places to start. All in sizes 8-14. One of the best sub surface lures for any fish though are wooly buggers. You will want those in olives and blacks in sizes 8-12. Those things will catch just about anything. Hope that those tips can help you out for next season.

If you fish lakes with deep basins where those gills hang out mid winter, you will want to get some tungsten head jigs. They get down there quick and give you great sensativity to feeling those light bites down deep. I would go with some of the other guys as well in Getting a some Gill Pills. There is just something about that little wobble it had when it goes down that they just cant resist. i would also throw out there get some flies. I know it is strange but some midge pupa, and small nymph patterns can really save your bacon on a slow day. Fish them on a dropper loop above a jig and they can be deadly. Hope that this helps.

I have made some of my own spring bobbers myself. Actually, I made them out of an old spring bobber that the line used to go through. I just converted it into a St. Croix style bobber with about 15 bucks and a bit of time. You could say that I McGuyvered it because I honestly did use a paper clip. It is the same premise as a St. Croix but it is not adjustable like the later. That is my only regret that I didn’t make it that way.

I tie flies for fishing under the ice as well and that is just a ton of fun catching a fish on something that you have made yourself. Can’t wait for the hardwater get here. It is gonna be a good year, I just have a feeling.

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Looks like some kind of Snapper to me?????

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It looks like a Cubera Snapper to me. Those things get huge and put up a massive fight. Would love to catch one some day.

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Nice information… However, it suggests that many folks were not paying attention to the Taco Bell commercials a few years ago…

Yo Quiero Taco Bell

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Honest to God truth, I worked for Two Men and A Truck, a moving service, and I moved that guy out of his huge freakin home and into a bigger huge freakin home. He was real though. So me and the mover decided to drag his 3000 dollar leather couch accross his new ebony hardwood floors.

This was after the last straw though which was he decided we wern’t moving fast enough, called our boss to complain, and then threw his sandle at us. We were working our butt’s off by the way.

wkw….that is amazing! I wish I could paint like that. That is incredible!

Here is another kind of art. I did this for tattoo parlor in the area. Just a wall piece but it is all done with Sharpie markers. Only reason I am posting it is becuase of the “wildlife” bird on it. Let me know what you think.

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I’d blame the cormorants too with their practice of only eating the big fish and throwing the little ones back.

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Nice depth and attention to detail Jeff. The contrasting colors are fantastic to. How much are you asking for a print?

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I am actually starting a walleye one right now!

We have a ton of those in a small metro park that has been set up for families to spend the summers there. I am not supposed to but the one time that I ice fished there I caught more 8-10″ bluegills and 3# bass through the ice than I have ever seen. They regulate where you can fish so heavily in the summer that they have created the ultimate fishery and don’t even know it. This was three years ago, now, I can’t catch a 3# bass to save my life and the gills are gone. Just the 4-5″ potoato chips. The cormerants wern’t there three years ago. It is a sad thing. I think that they should have a season on them but how do you do that in a metro area, slingshot?

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Next thing you know she’ll be throwing frozen stunted gills at you Rootski!!!

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That is a good one. I wonder if she told the policemen that she had to pee and then hit them with a fish when they turned around?

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Nothing sexier than a woman wearing a parka peeing ….to Michiganites I guess.

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Well, first off we are Michi-GANIANS. Secondly, I don’t think that anybody peeing in a parka could look sexy…even Salma Hayek.

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Well at least you’re not a Illinoizian from Illinoize.

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Randy those look great! The drawing was done in pencil. I have always loved pen and ink stuff. The little Mink or Fisher is my favorite. Nice work!

Boog, that decoy is insane. I love the paint job on it. Great work. I am sure there are some guys who would want a couple of those for the ice season. If I did any spearing I would be buying a couple from ya. Great work!