9.5 inches of clear ice, clear blue sky, no snow, and HUGE pike, this is how we spent our Sunday. No feeling bad about the Vikings when you show up and 5 minutes after getting a Bobber rod down, you reel in this monster. Congrats Dan (TcCat) for this 36" monster beast that was caught on rod and reel, I did get it all on video so I will try to post that later.
The deadly combination for this pike was a red hook with a crappie minnow in an 11′ basin suspended 3 feet under the ice.
The pike didn’t stop there, this 35" beast hit the same combination, a Bobber with a fathead minnow this time. Another 15 minute fight that we all stood around the house watching and cheering. Both these fish made 10-15 runs right at the hole, we thought we had lost them both multiple times, but the 4lb line with no leader held up!
The clear ice made for an interesting and amazing visual under the ice, "Dude your standing right on top of him," was said more than once this day.
Alex (Somnio) has never caught a fish on a tip up before. By the end of the day he was pointing out the tip ups to me and telling me it was my turn, I swear I had the last 5 in a row….
Alex’s second fish on a tip up proved to have a little game. This 30" beast smashed a 4" sucker suspended 2 feet under the ice. The tip up was in a spinning free for all when we arrived at it, Alex set the hook and it was game on. Pull for pull this fish was a little bigger than all the rest we had caught on tip ups this day.
Nice second ever fish on a tip up Alex!
Before leaving the lake, we set two last tip ups down and started to pack the house in and clear out most of our gear.
Alex could only see one tip up out of the house window and I could see the other.
The tip up I was watching went, so I told Alex to go grab it, he was already unzipping the door because the tip up he was watching had also popped. I believe both tip ups popped within about 5 seconds of each other and we were both telling the other person to go get the other tip up.
I missed mine – I was a little excited. Alex (the pro he now is) landed this 28" fatty and posed for a quick picture before letting it go.
The pike bite is hot, the Vikings are terrible, what better way to spend a Sunday?
Sundays Totals:
Pike: 25 on tip ups, 4 on rod and reel
Sunnies: 15 ranging from 8.5" to 9" coming home for dinner
Crappies: Only 1 showed its face today
Bullhead: 1 monster 14" bullhead….
Thanks for spending the day with me guys, what an amazing way to spend the day.
Next time will you guys take pictures of me?? 
Cool colors on those pike. Its a fun sight to see those fish through the ice as your fighting them.
You guys landed in a wolf pack of toothy finned critters
Nice job 
Nice job and more fun then watching the game.
Seems like more big pike are showing up these days compared to not so long ago. Catch and release works!! Nice fish guys.
Agreed, it also helps the panfish population.
It was great fishing with you guys, we’ll have to do it again soon!
Awesome
That looks like a lot of fun, very nice
Twentyfive?
Were you guys fishing out of your new house?
Very Nice!
From Jeff
Nice job wresting with THAT Wolf pack….
Jack
That looks like a blast!! Nice job
I should mention that both the 35″ & 36″ pike were landed using a 32″ Perch Sweetheart rod from TB with 4lb test line. It was rigged up to catch crappies both times but we couldn’t keep the pike off it. I wouldn’t intentionally target big pike with that rod but it’s nice to know it can handle them with no problems if they show up.
Since Jake isn’t responding I will… Yes we used Jakes new Team Wild icehouse and yes its awesome. It’s very roomy and holds heat well. Jake got the tow harness for dragging the house out and that makes a huge difference. Overall I was very impressed.
Sorry for not responding – we fished out of the new Team Wild Otter that I got from Fleet Farm. I will have to make a seprate post about that because Fleet Farm hooked me up more than I could believe.
I was able to contact our Fleet Farm rep on the IDO website and he set everything up for me – all I had to do was arrive at the store.
I have put all the extras that otter offers in this house, and it makes a huge difference. The rod holders are amazing, the front additional pole helps to spread the corners out, and we even added a reflectix to the roof.
As Ryan stated above, the haul with the new harness is amazing – this house does have a little weight behind it because of the bench seat (which I would not trade for the world now), but the harness makes it a breeze.
I am curious to see how it goes in heavy snow.
THANKS AGAIN FLEET!
fantastic thread cannot wait for safe ice
Pike Videos
Wow, looks like some fun! Almost 10″ of ice up there already? I plan on being in the boat another 3 weeks hopefully here in NE! But if you can get out and catch those wolves, there’s nothin wrong with that. Nice job.
No ice up here yet, B. That report was from by JAKOB on 12/12/2011
Well it got me excited !!!
Some reports are worthy of being bumped back to the top.
Wow….guess I jumped the gun on that one James. You think I’d be able to read by now! The word ‘ice’ freaked me out…I’ll use that as my defense. lol