I’ve got a helix 7 that I have kept in the ice pack like you have pictured. Only issue I’ve had is the unit turning itself on due to the power button being pressed inadvertently while zipping the unit up. If you decide to continue using that pack either unplug the battery when out of use OR purchase a helix 7 silicone cover. I personally went the silicone cover route.
Other than that, I love it. I’d recommend turning up chart speed to ultra to get rid of any latency you may see.
Pm sent
For a good in-ear, I’ve got the jaybird x3’s. They are about 100 bucks. I love them and have awesome reviews. I’ve ran in the rain a few times and they have yet to fail me.
Sold. Thanks Matt!
Pm sent
Fishing was OK for me yesterday. The past two weekends had been pretty good but with primarily saugers. Yesterday though, I only boated 2 saugers but 13 walleye, all in the same areas I’ve been fishing. On a side note however, all but two of the walleyes were shorts. Also found a few white bass, a couple jumbo perch and a channel catfish on bottom bouncers yesterday afternoon.
Like Dave mentioned, watch for floating debris, there is still a fair amount of large trees/sticks coming down.
Fished Chesterwoods Sunday evening and Monday morning (1/1 & 1/2). Ice was 9″ where I checked. Fishing was decent on Sunday night and kept a few bluegills and a couple crappies for dinner. Monday morning was better than Sunday night and the sunnies and crappies were more than willing to bite. I ended up fishing from 8-3pm and must have caught 70 fish total. Kept 5 sunnies that were 9.5 and 10″ for the pan and let the rest swim.
Unfortunately I will be in Texas this weekend, Webster SD next weekend and Florida the following weekend so I won’t have any reports for awhile but hopefully when I’m back a few of us can get out and find some fish!
I personally haven’t been out there but my BIL was out there yesterday and I drove by Monday and yesterday and there were several people out there each time. I haven’t made it out to Chesterwoods yet though, wondering if anyone knows what ice conditions are like out there. Maybe Tom??
Thanks for the great info. How thick was the ice there last weekend? What were you using for bait for the <em class=”ido-tag-em”>panfish and also the northern?
Ice was 5″ where I was at but recent reports are up to 6.5″. For the panfish I was just using wax worms and a small tungsten jig. The last hour or so I tied a blue caviar jig onto my wife’s rod and the only fish she caught that last hour were keepers, seemed the smaller fish left that one alone. For the northerns, I tried using a jigging rap but they wouldn’t hit it, although a few sunfish did. We ended up catching the northerns on my small jig with a waxie.
Jack and Dan, another note I’ve seen on Chester woods is that depending if you have a flasher, you will have a tough time with fish out there. The couple spots I usually go, the fish suspend out to about 15 ft when I’m in about 25-28.
Silver Creek reservoir however you can typically do well without a flasher. There are a lot of smaller perch in there though so if you set your bobber at least a couple feet off the bottom you can thin those out some.
This weekend was the first time I’ve fished silver creek in about 3 years and my wife and I did really well. I’ve set up a couple different places in the past, the first I go out maybe 50-60 yards and a little to the right (I know that is pretty vague) and I’ve also gone straight across from where you come on the lake to the far side. When I’ve gone to the far side I did not do nearly as well with panfish but there seemed to be a lot of northerns roaming around. This spot also seemed to be more of a sandy flat, again this was 3 years ago. The other spot that I mentioned, I seem so get a nice mix of fish, sunnies, crappies, northerns, this was true 3 years ago and true this weekend. One thing I noticed though, and maybe it was just my spot but the crappies were all small this year compared to a few years ago, the northerns however were all 30″+.
Dan,
In my experience there are fish scattered throughout the whole system. I have ice fished it the past three years and seem to do very well when I am out there and I usually fish around trees. I know several people are always in the SE arm right in the trees, there are always guys kind of in the middle of the lake and then always a couple scattered in the main arm coming from the access.
As far as access goes, to my knowledge you have to enter through the park (I could be wrong). With that being said, instead of parking at the access, when entering the park go past the campground to the stop sign and take a right, this will go past a playground area, and you will find an area with parking along the road and some picnic shelters. Assuming others have been down there, you will see where a lot of guys go down the hill and get onto the lake, this will put you kind of right in the middle portion of the lake. SIDE NOTE: This is all down hill so take your time and don’t let your sled get ahead of you and BIGGER SIDE NOTE: its all up hill coming back and can be a little bit of a struggle, take your time and stop for breath (you’ll need it depending how much weight your pulling with you). If I’m with a few people I pawn off some of the heavier items for them to carry so the sled is a bit lighter.
I bought a 175 Alumacraft January of 2016 from LaCanne’s. Had a sweet deal on brand new 2015 models. May be worth a look for a good deal. Mine is rigged with Yamaha and have absolutely no complaints. I put 130 hours on it this summer and it performed flawlessly. Not a speed demon by any means but I was able to pull a tube up to 28 miles per hour. Like another guy said, don’t skimp on trolling motor, you will regret it. I did that with my last boat and I went to the 80lb right away with this one and haven’t looked back.
One note:My previous boat had bunk trailers and I loved them so I decided to do that with this one as well. It was priced originally with a black roller shorelander, I switched it to a Eagle with bunks and color matched to the boat and it actually was a couple hundred dollars cheaper 
I was using hammered gold and silver spinners. In the heavier current I was using up to 2oz bottom bouncers to keep it a little more vertical. 1 1/2 oz worked as well just took a little more line to keep it down in the current.
Fished Pepin yesterday morning with my wife. Started off pulling lead but kept getting fowled up with all the floating vegetation in the current. Switched over to bottom bouncers and spinners with nightcrawlers trolled upstream 1-1.2 mph (figured the bottom bouncer would catch most of the weeds before the spinner) and did very well. Found fish early in 12-14ft and then 18-20ft by mid morning. Finished with 8 saugers, 4 perch 2 sunfish and numerous small fish and sheepies. Beautiful day on the water, swift and dirty water but still fish to be had.
I just did my 04 GMC Sierra through the Speedometer repair guy in Winona. I lived close enough so I just drove it to him but he claims that he will repair most the same day he receives them in the mail. My speedometer and tach were the main two that stuck but i just had him replace all of them and it only cost $100. Highly recommend. 507-429-4489 is his number.
Went there last year for two different games. Last year they were a very good baseball team so that was a plus as well. Great atmosphere for kids and several games/skits in between innings for added entertainment.
I don’t recall which ramp I used, but there are several parking ramps within 2-3 blocks to park in. Buy your tickets soon though, good seats are already sold out for many sections all season.
I am new to the rochester area and I am thinking about heading up to the lake pepin area this weekend. Can anyone help me out with what the ice thickness is? I don’t have a 4wheeler and therefore will be walking out so where is the best spot to access the river at? From what I see it looks like the maiden rock and Frontenac areas are my best bets for fishing. Thanks!
Ended up getting out all day yesterday. Even with the weather change and everything the feed bags were on. Got hunkered into a shoreline break in 17FOW first thing in the morning and were protected nicely from the wind. Ended up catching about 10 bass from 8am-10am. After about 10 we decided to see if we could find some sunfish/crappies. Switched lakes, and this one was a bit more breezy ….Ended up fishing from noon-3:30 in 11FOW. We both filled our limit of crappies/sunfish. Definitely glad I went out and tried it, much better than I had expected. As for ice conditions, it was great out there. No water on the ice and easy pulling the sled without any snow. You do however want to wear ice cleats!!!!
