second last day

[WayneChristie]

I hit a local lake today, since the one down south Ive been favoring was not so good to me yesterday, altho 2 flags and one on the rod between 2 people at once was kind of exciting. :D The ice was still 2 feet thick, but starting to chunk in the holes, they were coming out rather ragged. I moved around a bit, and tried a couple new spots to me. The water was crystal clear in the morning, and still good enough to see bottom in 10 feet or so by the end of the day. Started with a pike hitting my bait 3 times in 5 minutes, couldnt seem to hook it for the life of me. Then I tried a different hole, thought I saw a nice walleye so I put on a small jig and piece of smelt. Turned out it was a piece of wood, drove me crazy every time I saw it the rest of the day. Didnt catch the wooden walleye, but when I started jigging with the 6 pound line and no leader I saw a pike swim in, started shaking and reeled the light gear up very quickly. Dropped in a herring on my pike gear, and she grabbed on, and again, no hook up. Id estimate the size of her at minimum 20 pounds and maybe quite a bit more. I did have her on the line for a while, she was pretty stubborn with her grip. Later I had my 2 lines down a double hole in my tent, out of the crazy wind. Had a good hit on my smelt line, fish was again BIG and again no hook up. she took my smelt off, then turned and grabbed my herring! Had her on for a very short time til she ripped my bait to pieces, then gone. Had more hits, including one 4 or 5 pounder that came screaming out of no where while I was jigging the line with my fingers and ripped it right out of my hand, kinda exciting :D second time thats happened to me this season, I love it ! I am going to rethink my gear, I should have at least by dumb luck hooked one of those fish to get it on the ice, so something needs to change for next season. I know I had that problem at the other lake a couple weeks ago and went to very small smelts with a light single hook and was manageing to get them hooked, but these fish today would have straightened that hook like thread. Now if only the boss calls tonight and says dont come to work tomorrow so I can go back for a rematch :D Cant believe Im actually looking forward to next winter!!!!!!

[WayneChristie]

Windy!!!
http://i787.photobucket.com/albums/yy156/rollinghillbilly/March%2014%202010/DSCF8475.jpg
Bait on the bottom 3 feet down
http://i787.photobucket.com/albums/yy156/rollinghillbilly/March%2014%202010/DSCF8464.jpg
Shadows on the lake
http://i787.photobucket.com/albums/yy156/rollinghillbilly/March%2014%202010/DSCF8467.jpg
End of the season.
http://i787.photobucket.com/albums/yy156/rollinghillbilly/March%2014%202010/DSCF8468.jpg

[Gary K]

I was having the same problem with hooking up. Many times flag up only to pull up mangled or no bait. Some herring were torn in Half with a hook on each side. But to no avail, wouldn't take a hook for even a setting opperrunity. And it was damn windy

[jacob1202]

im finding this time of year let them pike take almost all your line b4 u set the hook... seems like they are carrying it for about 1-2 minutes b4 they actually swallow it... i know the other day i was givin them about 30 seconds and i lost every one... but i got a little more patient and just let them take it.... bam... fish out of the hole everytime

[npauls]

Also wayne make sure you are sharpening your hooks pretty often. I find when I am missing alot of fish even with a good hook set I just sharpen the hooks with a rapala hook stone and everything starts to turn around for me. That is one of the most important things I have learned over the last year or 2. The other which has been mentioned before is to open the bail and let them take the bait for a drag. Try it out on open water season and see how it works for you.

Nate

[tacklerunner]

Cant believe Im actually looking forward to next winter!!!!!!

Me too. :o Was hoping to get out to your local lake with you but Mother Nature decided to shut er down.

[tacklerunner]

im finding this time of year let them pike take almost all your line b4 u set the hook... seems like they are carrying it for about 1-2 minutes b4 they actually swallow it... i know the other day i was givin them about 30 seconds and i lost every one... but i got a little more patient and just let them take it.... bam... fish out of the hole everytime

x 2. Let them run like hell. If they're not there in the end, you probably wouldn't have got them trying a hookset earlier anyways.

IMHO

[Kingfisher]

My son Russ and I hit a lake today. We started out in 6 feet of water. Moved to 10 feet. Then to 15. Nothing, nada, zilch.

My son is 22, and we both have busy lives. We don't get out fishing together as often as both of us would like. So any day you can spend with your son enjoying good conversation and a few bevy's in my books is one hell of a fantastic day.

Cheers,
Rob

[WayneChristie]

All good advice thanks guys. I woke up this morning, laid there thinking about yesterday. I was trying to come up with a reason for my problem yesterday hooking the fish. I use powerpro line, It so sensitive I can actually feel the pike chewing on my bait. I thought about what was different from every other day Ive fished this winter, same gear, same baits, same wait time. I know for a fact I had some of my fish well hooked yesterday, including the biggest one. The thing that comes to mind was the ice. Not the gear, it was the ice. I had noticed that my holes were much different from even Saturday, they were uneven and ragged, with huge chunks floating off. When I lost the fish the leaders would get stuck on the bottom of the hole every time too. I believe what was happening , since these were some good sized fish, was that when they got hooked, they ran like crazy, even with a tight drag. As soon as they got an angle on the line it would get caught up in the jagged bottom of the hole, and the fish pulled free. I use 80 pound power pro so the line wouldnt break, but did give the fish something to pull free against. Since the only place left to fish in my hood has some monster pike, and my nerves are ragged enough after the fish yesterday, I think Im going to let the big girls spawn in peace and wait til the ice is in good condition again, unfortunately that will be next winter. :cry: Oh well, when I get my fly gear and the ice starts coming off Newell, I will be back at my hunt for Moby, and the search continues. Its been a great season, I learned a lot about ice fishing, caught a ton of fish, and made a lot of new friends in the process. Looking forward to learning pike on the fly, and getting back to chucking hardware on open water very soon. :D and getting outfished by some of you too. (maybe) :evilgrin:
Kingfisher I couldnt agree with you more, had my oldest son down on the family day weekend and the time spent with him on the ice and at home was one of the highlights of my winter.