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For all non ice fisherman


tacklejunkie

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What do you do till open water? I do not ice fish myself so i go into a type of hibernation state till spring. What else do all the non ice fisherman do to keep busy till spring

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You could try fishing the hard water. Who knows? You might just become an icefishingjunkie. grin.gif

Sorry, couldn't resist.

Bob

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I was in the same boat, no pun intended, up until last year I started to ice fish. I haven't caught anything yet, but it's still fun, fishing, and outdoors, I am hoping to learn ice pike fishing this winter. Good luck,

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I icefish, but I wouldn't call myself an icefisherman. Icefishing is more of an excuse to get out of the house than anything else, for me. I attend or watch a lot of hockey during the hard water season. You could clean and lubricate your reels. I like to have a lot of outdoor fires to help speed up global warming so I can boat all year. grin.gif

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I ice fish but only when I'm very confident in the state of the ice. In the meantime there's flies to tie, lures to make, and rods to build.

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I seem to write a lot more- play fantasy football and basketball. Hardly ever read during the summer but find time in the winter. Just because you don't ice fish don't mean you are alone. I just saw an article that estimates only 25% of fishermen ice fish, But boy are they vocal and active! I have and will fish on the ice from time to time but I am a Bass fishermen and I like to be on the move. Hard for me to freeze in one place. Well it's not hard but I would rather be in my boat under the sun with a warm breeze in my face!

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i just started my winter chores on my fishing equip. pulled all the line off reels that need to be replaced. will go over all my lures to repair and sharpen hooks. clean reels and check all the rods. clean and gease reels, then start in on the WISH books! grin.gifdel

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I'm with delmuts on this one - work on getting everything organized, cleaned, sharpened, lubricated, and replaced 9as necessary) for next year and then devour all the open water fishing magazines and catalogs that show up in the mailbox until I wear the print off the pages planning for next season.

Only other thing I do is start to plan the fishing trip to Table Rock in late March/early April which gets me out on the water and bass fishing nearly two months before open season here. If anyone is interested I'll be posting more info here shortly in some form.

Daze Off

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My question would be, "Why not take up ice fishing?"

If you are that much of an open water fisherman, why not give ice fishing a shot?

Seriously... there has not been a single person yet that I've introduced to ice fishing who has not been hooked hook, line, and sinker. Hook up with someone who knows what they are doing, has good quality gear and knows how to use it, and you will have one darn good time on the lake!

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I fish year round and there is no way I would give up my ice fishing.I fish for panfish more on the ice and I go on a lot more trips to places like LOW and Red lake. Plus I think the fish tastes better grin.gif Minnesota winters are to long not to ice fish.

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Slow down guys!! do we realy need another guy out there drilling a bunch of holes one hour before dark two feet away from your house, when you been there for 5 hours!! Just kidding, If you dont go south for the winter, You better take it up. It makes the winters go by soo FAST!! laugh.gif

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i used to! now my hands can't handle cold.( expl. in order to shovel snow, i have to wear liners inside lined mittens.) tried to set up my ice house but the mittens were a BIG pain. tried to get by with gloves, but hands were very stiff, snow white,had no feelings after a few minutes.no good water around here that would justify a wheel house, so i hibernate! del

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I'm with Hanson and jimalm, Why not? I like ice fishing 3x better. Don't get me wrong I love open water too, but ice fishing is a blast!

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You could get into rod building, tacklecraft, flytying, jig tying, etc...

I do all that plus pound the ice and we have a few almost year round open water options. Mix in small game hunting, raquetball, they gym, archery, a girlfriend, and work and there are not enough hours in the day...

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I was in the same boat as you a few years ago. In fact I think I made a post nearly identical to this one.

I ice fished when I was younger, but I wasn't introduced very well. Substandard gear, lakes with no fishgrin.gif, and questionable ethics.

I lost interest fast.

Fast forward to the first time Hanson took me out with all his "goodies".

I knew I was in trouble......

Next thing I know my garage is stacked with gear and my weekends for the entire winter are almost already planned.

When you go out with the right people and the right gear, it's tough to beat.

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Too cold. I have a son who is in hockey and that ties up my winter. I spend too much money during the open water season , also. Just no interest in it. Love the open water, though. troll big water and rivers for walleye, salmon, lake trout, and all i can think of now is I hope spring is early

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Hey...I love ice fishing and wacthing that red line rise up to the jigging rap and thump it is like crack!!! I fish just about everytime of the yr hard or soft water and i love them both....but in the deep freezes of winter starting about now I long for what i love better open water... its really close but nothing beats an orange sunrise and a warm breeze after a hot day and listening to the laping of the waves on the hull and wearign nothing but shorts and sunglasses and a fishing pole grin.gif

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I'm already looking forward to the big fat brown trout and the little yellow shrooms of April...Oh well, this is my Wife's chance to spend some time with me smirk.gif

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I think it would be great for the DNR to ask a simple question when we apply for next years liscanse[DO YOU PLAN ON ICE FISHING THIS SEASON/?]

WE POLLED PERSONS ATSEVERAL SPORTS SHOWS SOME YEARS AGO ABOUT THE FISHING THEY DO IN mINNEAOTS,AND ONE QUESTION WE ASKED WAS ARE YOU GOING TO ICE FISH THIS YEAR ?wE WERE SURPRISED THAT ONLY 15% SAID THEY HAD ICE FISHED IN THE PAST 5 YEARS.

i THINK THAT MIGHT BE HIGHER NOW BUT IT WILL BE MY PLANS TO HAVE IT ON QUESTIONS ASKED FOR NEXT YEAR 2009.

iTS FUN SO IF YOU ARE SKIPPING IT TRY A COUPLE TRIPS OUT ,YOU MIGHT LIKE IT.

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I used to love ice fishing, then I found this thing called Pool 4 of the Mighty Mississippi. Boat gets in the water all year, and I can normally catch more fish then the ice guys. Until the season closes in the rest of the state, you will see about 2-3 boats max, and the river is beautiful.

I say road trip to Red Wing grin.gif

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In the Mpls Star it quoted a DNR office as reporting that only 10 to 15% of fish caught in Minnesota are from ice fishing .

Yet all we ever hear around home is that ice fishermen are taking all the fish

go wonder smirk.gif

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  • 3 weeks later...

I would try it and at least get out a couple of times a year. I prefer open water, but this is going on my third year on the ice and the more I get into it the more fun I have. Do a get together, they are a blast on the ice and it's always great to meet new FMrs. If you absolutly don't like the ice, you can always get a fishing game for your PC or game system. :-)

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WII - has 3 fishing games. That keeps me somewhat satisfied until open water. That and buying new gadgets for the boat, new tackle. Winter is a great time to buy open water stuff. Its alot cheaper.

I may ice fish once or twice a year, but I guess you can call me a sally. Im not big on walking on ice, even if its 24" thick.

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 Originally Posted By: only ice
It makes the winters go by soo FAST!!

Ain't that the truth.

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  • 3 weeks later...
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  • Your Responses - Share & Have Fun :)

    • Brianf.
      I'm not there, so I can't tell exactly what's going on but it looks like a large area of open water developed in the last day with all of the heavy snow on the east side of wake em up Narrows. These two photos are from my Ring Camera facing north towards Niles Point.  You can see what happened with all of snow that fell in the last three days, though the open water could have been wind driven. Hard to say. .  
    • SkunkedAgain
      Black Bay had great ice before but a few spots near rockpiles where there were spots of open water. It looks like the weight of the snow has created a little lake in the middle of the bay.  
    • LakeofthewoodsMN
      On the south end...   Thanks to some cold spring weather, ice fishing continues strong for those still ice fishing.  The bite remains very good.  Most resorts have pulled their fish houses off for the year, however, some still have fish houses out and others are allowing ATV and side by sides.  Check social media or call ahead to your favorite resort for specifics. Reports this week for walleyes and saugers remain excellent.   A nice mix of jumbo perch, pike, eelpout, and an occasional crappie, tullibee or sturgeon being reported by anglers. Jigging one line and using a live minnow on the second line is the way to go.  Green, glow red, pink and gold were good colors this week.     Monster pike are on a tear!  Good number of pike, some reaching over 45 inches long, being caught using tip ups with live suckers or dead bait such as smelt and herring in 8 - 14' of water.   As always, work through a resort or outfitter for ice road conditions.  Safety first always. Fish houses are allowed on the ice through March 31st, the walleye / sauger season goes through April 14th and the pike season never ends. On the Rainy River...  The river is opened up along the Nelson Park boat ramp in Birchdale, the Frontier boat ramp and Vidas boat ramp.  This past week, much of the open water skimmed over with the single digit overnight temps.   Areas of the river have popped open again and with temps getting warmer, things are shaping up for the last stretch through the rest of the spring season, which continues through April 14th.   Very good numbers of walleyes are in the river.  Reports this week, even with fewer anglers, have been good.  When temps warm up and the sun shines, things will fire up again.   Jigs with brightly colored plastics or jigs with a frozen emerald shiner have been the desired bait on the river.  Don't overlook slow trolling crankbaits upstream as well.   Good reports of sturgeon being caught on the river as well.  Sturgeon put the feed bag on in the spring.  The bite has been very good.  Most are using a sturgeon rig with a circle hook loaded with crawlers or crawlers / frozen emerald shiners. Up at the NW Angle...  Ice fishing is winding down up at the Angle.  Walleyes, saugers, and a number of various species in the mix again this week.  The bite is still very good with good numbers of fish.  The one two punch of jigging one line and deadsticking the second line is working well.   Check with Angle resorts on transport options from Young's Bay.  Call ahead for ice road guidelines.  
    • CigarGuy
      With the drifting, kind of hard to tell for sure, but I'm guessing about a foot and still lightly snowing. Cook end!
    • PSU
      How much snow did you get on Vermilion? 
    • Mike89
      lake here refroze too...  started opening again yesterday with the wet snow and wind...  very little ice left today...
    • Hookmaster
      A friend who has a cabin between Alex and Fergus said the lake he's on refroze. He texted me a pic from March 12th when it was open and one from 23rd when it wasn't. 🤯
    • SkunkedAgain
      I don't think that there has been any ice melt in the past few weeks on Vermilion. Things looked like a record and then Mother Nature swept in again.   I'll give my revised guess of April 21st
    • leech~~
      As I get older it's really not just about sending bullets down range.  Some of it's just the workmanship of the gun and the wow factor. The other two guns I have really wanted which I'll never have now because of their price, is a 8mm Jap Nambu and 9mm German Luger.   Just thought they always looked cool!  
    • jim curlee
      I had a guy hit me with a lightly used 1969 BAR, he wanted $1650 with an older Leupold scope. More than I think they are worth, I made an offer, he declined end of story.   You know if you look at the old brochures, a grade II BAR sold for $250 in the late 60s, $1650 would be a good return on your investment.    Why would anybody want a 50 year old gun, they are heavy, have wood stocks, and blued metal.  I guess mainly to keep their gun safes glued to the floor. lol   You can probably buy a stainless rifle that you never have to clean, with a synthetic stock you never have to refinish, is as light as a feather, and for half as much money, perfect.   I'm too old for a youth gun, although I've shrunk enough that it would probably fit. lol   No Ruger 10/44s.   Jim      
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