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Where are the recent reports?


jltimm

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I wanted to give it at least one last try and was wondering if there were any "hot' bites to report?

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Was out Saturday for the last ice fishing of the season. The perch bite for me this year has been tough. I went out of Hunters with the wheeler. It was a mistake pulling the trailer behind the wheeler, should have taken the sled. There is a lot of slush, water, and soft ice on top which made the going tough. The weather couldn't have been better. Worked the 3 mile area all morning with only 1 jumbo. Headed over to 2 mile mid day. Tried 6 to 8 spots with nothing but dinks. Finally found them off the reef in 31 feet of water on the east end of 2 mile. Nobody else around this area. The next 2 hours made it all worth while. Aggressive jumbos up to 13" would come in waves. Minnow head outfished larve. They were coming up 6' to meet me on my way down. It was a great way to end the season. Left at 3:00 because I was concerned about getting off the lake pulling the trailer thru the slush. Tough to leave that bite but was a good move. It was really getting soft by shore. I can't imagine the shoreline holding up much longer. I am already thinking about next ice season.

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JLT....We were up there yesterday and it was slushy mess! I seen some vehicles on the ice, but I don't know where in the he11 they would have come on at? With the surface ice conditions I encountered in spots, they were taking a huge chance...!

What used to be roads are shallow lakes now and the snowy slush will slow an atv right to a crawl. The 4x2' and the 3 wheelers even with chains were even having a time of it...I suppose the 4x4 atv's were all right?

With a buddy on the back and pulling a sled, some of the deep stuff would bring you to a stop. It got worse as the day went on of course and the landing at Liberty Beach was getting pretty mulched up as were the areas at the ice heave.

There was still plenty of ice, but I ran into a couple of areas out about 3 miles, that was snow, about 4 iches of weak ice, water and then good ice. There is still a great plenty of ice, it's just getting on and getting to the spot.

Some guys walked out from Hunters, to one of the spots we were fishing...but as you know, if you don't get on those perch right away, it's a waiting game if you can't move around and hunt for em. How far you gonna hunt on foot?

If you sit on one spot and they don't come back around then the long walk and the time spent is just that, spent time.

We did managed to get a bunch of fish....I guess for the three of us we got maybe 50 perch and had fun landing 4 walleyes. Here's the thing...one of our crew sat on a couple of hole all day and he only caught 2 smaller fish, my brother and I were hole hopping and caught the remainder.

Alot of small stuff though and you really had to work em! I believe we kept only about 20 fish, but man did we have some beauties!

It's a good way to end the ice fishing season...I'm sure there is still some ice fishing left, but my mind is going to other things now and it won't be long before open water panfish begin. Have to start getting ready for a new season of everything! smile.gif

On a sour note, one of my friends sunk his trailer over by Lybacks yesterday. He was towing it with his atv and they went over a break and the trailer broke through in about 7 feet of water. Luckily they got it out and no one got hurt, but they took some big chances doing it!

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Thanks for the reports so far guys! I was thinking on trying it tommorrow cause it's supposed to be sunny and 70!Now to figure out which spots to try?

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Be careful on Mille Lacs, I went out today on the west end and didn't do too good. I hot footed to one of the flats. It was only about 1/2 mile out. Its okay I needed the excerise. Be careful on some of those water puddles on top of the ice. I encounter a few that I could see that there was only about 2 inches of ice. Avoid all puddles. I guess I ended my hardwater season with a sour note, but I guess theres always next season. grin.gif Good luck yalls and stay safe.

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Saturday was my last day on ice. Just my opinion. Here on out is too chancy for me.

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Yep, you are right. If I would have driven my Subaru onto the lake, with my luck if it stayed the same as last week, I would have probably fell in. Looks like it is open water time. I might come to the big pond with the canoe for some slabs in a week and then the boat comes out. Good luck yalls and stay safe. grin.gif

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I went out yesterday for another waste of time on Mille Lacs.It was nice out, but the fishing had something to be desired!

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I went out on Sunday for the last 2 hours of daylight. It was interesting fishing in a combination of rain/fog. The ice around the access points was getting pretty bad and I can only imagine what the high temps did yesterday. We did manage to catch a few fish which made the trip fun but I suspect it was my last hardwater trip of the year. p1010099dn4.jpg

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