Walleye Season Begins!

So, today I made a pit stop after school to pick up bait from Northwoods in Hancock, and then my girlfriend and I headed off to Gratiot Lake to hopefully catch some walleye. Everything today just seemed to feel good, and after talking briefly with the clerk at Northwoods, I also picked up a few new jigs to try on the ice today.

We got onto the ice a around three thirty and immediately put a few tip-ups down. Then we headed off to deeper water. I put down a jigging rod with one of the new jigs. It's called a forage minnow, and I put a suck on the hook of the jig. My girlfriend got a bite within just a few minutes, which was very exciting, but we could not get anything to stick. Finally, just before dark, I caught two walleye on the jig line and missed a third. The bites were very light and hard to feel. What was surprising, however, was that they never set off a tip-up, which leads me to believe I had them too far off bottom. All in all, it was a great evening and a great start to the fishing season.

Good Luck! Enjoy. 

First Fish of the Season

On Thursday, my girlfriend and her little sister went out to enjoy some of the first ice fishing this year. We traveled to a little lake north of Calumet. There was good ice and we got set up quickly, shortly after four p.m. Her little sister was set up with a perch rig and we went out to set up a few tip-ups. Not long after, her little sister was letting out whoops and hollars and we looked back to see her pole doubled over the hole. She had hooked something and was very excited. I ran back and helped her to pull a 16" pike through the hole. It was a big fish for her and it was great to see her so excited. We caught another similar sized pike on a tip-up just before we left for the evening. It was a great first day.

We returned the next day but were unsuccessful. There must have been some sort of low pressure moving in because there were no bites at all.

Hopefully we can get out again soon. The ice should be firmed up again with the return of this colder weather.

Enjoy and get out fishing.  

How To Set Up a Tip-Up

I know its getting to late in the season, but I wanted to set up a "How To" for setting up Tip-Ups. They are a great tool for fisherman to use when they want to cover a large area out on the ice. Enjoy.

Although tip-ups have many different shapes and designs, they all follow the same basic principle. There is a support structure that sits over the hole, a reel with line that descends down into the water, and some sort of mechanism for tripping a flag when a fish bites.

When the fish strikes it causes the wheel/spool to spin, which releases the flag causing it to spring into the air...TIP-UP! Setup is quite simple:

1. Drill a hole in the ice where you would like to fish, clear hole.
2. Bring your tip-up, bait, and a depth finder to the hole.
3. The line can be lower to what ever depth you like, but since many fish swim near bottom (pike, walleye) you can clip the depth finder to your hook to sink the line all the way to the bottom very rapidly. 
4. Wind your the wheel until its tight and then give it a few more turns. This brings the depth finder (and your bait) off bottom for fish to see. 
5. At this point you can also attach a mini bobber to your line, to mark the depth. That way you don't have to remeasure each time a fish bites.
6. Wind up the line, take the depth finder off, put your bait on, and drop the line back down. Fold the flag into position and wait for a bite! Good luck!

First Ice...Out to Fish

I finally got settled in after my return to the U.P. and was definitely excited to get out and fish. The ice in Keweenaw Bay was non existent on my drive up, but Chassel looked like it had good ice and there were several people out fishing. I got down to Lake Linden on the 9th to find good ice but heavy winds. It wasn't very enjoyable, not to mention that I didn't get anything on tip-ups or a perch rig. Looking forward to venturing North this weekend towards Copper Harbor.