12/30/2007 Report!

[Shack]

Well, busted out on Mille Laces for the first ice fishing to day. I was heading out to a lake north of the big pond and found out the bite has slowed down to nothing on that lake and decided to try out luck at Mill Laces (and I do not mean the casino). After a heated debate in truck, Cove Bay was the new place we changed our plans for. First off, I parked at public, but Jays roads are top notch . He is heading his road out onto main lake now. I will let him update further on his roads. I saw Jay and his truck, but they where very busy cleaning, clearing and pulling all day. I did not get to talk with him. Can not miss that plow.

Well started off in shallow (8-10’) and had good luck on perch. The perch where small, but the big ones would role threw every once and awhile. Unfortunately, the big ones did not bite today. We saw them down hole and on camera, but could not get them to come in close to strike. I saw some of the biggest jumbo’s I have seen in awhile today, but all they would do is flick their lips at bait and not connect. Like said in another post, minnow sized perch are all over the place in shallow. Clouds and clouds!

After the jaw dropping perch came threw, a couple of school’s of 13-18” walleyes came threw. They also where not eating today. We then headed out to Sprit Island. It was a white knuckle ride threw. During the day, you can see the slush/pressure ridge’s from a ways a way. The snowmobiles go right threw, just gun it. You can see where wheelers had gotten stuck and they had to dig out of almost a foot or so of water and slush. I say white knuckle, because some years ago, I have gone over area’s like this with sled and broke threw ice, when we have years like this with our ice. Got out by Sprit and marked fish, camera’ed fish right away, but after set, up they where gone and never came back. One alert should be the thickness of ice, south west of Sprit. Its only like 4-5” thick with slush. I was shocked, because of the 10” plus in bay and starting out on main lake from Cove.

So we headed back to Cove and tried some spots shots here and there for structure or something that was holding fish. We never did find anything. Ended after noon/night back in same spot we started the day and found same small perch, but no Jumbo’s. Gave’er until after prime walleye hour and packed up.

Warning for ATV’ers going out in early AM or night. Make sure you have someone else with you. You will get stuck going cross county at some point. We helped out two people to night get unstuck with their ATV’s. Its sure would suck being out in the middle of no where and be stuck.

Good luck!

The only way I would go out on Mille Lacs right now and head cross country.

This is what was watched for hours on camera today.

Pretty much sums up the day with this catch.

I started out the day thinking a large presentation was going to be the thing to do. But in the end, it was crappie jigs and minnow heads that got the bigger perch to bite.

All in all, we still had fun and made it back with out a major issue. Helped some people on the way and just got done have dinner and going to bed. I can not wait untill the next trip up..

[mshs1]

sounds like the slush is a problem, but the photos are GREAT. Can't wait to head out---more photos

[HuskerBob]

We hit the ice today out of Lybacks...not to beat a dead horse, but unless you have a sled...stay on the roads. We got stuck a few times in the wheeler but stayed pretty close. We fished at Tundra for about 3.5 hours this afternoon. The bite wasn't great, but we managed 4 perch (the biggest was 11") and 1 fat 17" eye. All in all it was great to be out there and I'm looking forward to round 2.

[Bigtime22]

Still slow going on the pond. Travel is tough, stay close to the roads. I was out today and caught (2) 17's and a 21". Still slow going, fishing and traveling. Hope to get out again in the coming days.

[troutmadness]

two of us walked out of wigwam about 2 miles to some structure, managed to get 1 12" and 3 15" walleyes along with about 6 nice perch. biggest was 14 ounces. we also got an eelpout too.

real good fishing till noon. then nothing really to speak the rest of the day. lots of lookers though.

[Juan Grande]

We went out of Lybacks and fished Banana on Saturday. Set up in about 28 feet to start the day and stayed there a few hours. Marked fish on the Marcum most of the time, but I think they were just small perch.

Moved up to about 17' on a nice break for the evening bite and got nothing. Had one hit on a shiner, but missed him.

There was a tournament weigh in at Lybacks when we came off the ice. We chatted with a few of the fisherman and it was kind of cool to hear where they fished and what they used. Dave Genz and Adam Johnson were both in attendance.

[Shack]

Sorry, lost my post. I will repaste it.

[Shack]

Quote:

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real good fishing till noon. then nothing really to speak the rest of the day. lots of lookers though.

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That was pretty much our story also. I think the AM is the key time of day right now.

One more thing about wheelers and the slush, if you start to get stuck, I would turn around. Some tried to trudge forward and I am sure spent a lot of time digging them selves out and only to find they had to turn around.

Most slush area's are about 50' wide, but we gunned her threw some slush area that where over a 100' wide. Most times good ice is going to be 40-80' away. The pressure ridges are not huge, but some where open. Make sure your gear is strapped down good when going over the pressure ridges, or you will be going back and possibly risking going threw to get your auger or polls. Even though they are not huge yet??? They still have jagged shards of ice sticking up you have to break threw or go over and open water.

I think the reports on the lake are slow now, because the lake ice is still new to most of us this year. I at no point felt during our trip yesterday that safe ice is every where. This is making most of us hold off on structure, that may have produced fish. Now I have my Mill Laces Ice legs on, next time we will push further. I hope to be back out on the pond in the next week.

[MidCoast]

Quote:

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Well, busted out on Mille Laces for the first ice fishing to day. I was heading out to a lake north of the big pond and found out the bite has slowed down to nothing on that lake and decided to try out luck at Mill Laces (and I do not mean the casino). After a heated debate in truck, Cove Bay was the new place we changed our plans for. First off, I parked at public, but Jays roads are top notch . He is heading his road out onto main lake now. I will let him update further on his roads. I saw Jay and his truck, but they where very busy cleaning, clearing and pulling all day. I did not get to talk with him. Can not miss that plow.

Well started off in shallow (8-10’) and had good luck on perch. The perch where small, but the big ones would role threw every once and awhile. Unfortunately, the big ones did not bite today. We saw them down hole and on camera, but could not get them to come in close to strike. I saw some of the biggest jumbo’s I have seen in awhile today, but all they would do is flick their lips at bait and not connect. Like said in another post, minnow sized perch are all over the place in shallow. Clouds and clouds!

After the jaw dropping perch came threw, a couple of school’s of 13-18” walleyes came threw. They also where not eating today. We then headed out to Sprit Island. It was a white knuckle ride threw. During the day, you can see the slush/pressure ridge’s from a ways a way. The snowmobiles go right threw, just gun it. You can see where wheelers had gotten stuck and they had to dig out of almost a foot or so of water and slush. I say white knuckle, because some years ago, I have gone over area’s like this with sled and broke threw ice, when we have years like this with our ice. Got out by Sprit and marked fish, camera’ed fish right away, but after set, up they where gone and never came back. One alert should be the thickness of ice, south west of Sprit. Its only like 4-5” thick with slush. I was shocked, because of the 10” plus in bay and starting out on main lake from Cove.

So we headed back to Cove and tried some spots shots here and there for structure or something that was holding fish. We never did find anything. Ended after noon/night back in same spot we started the day and found same small perch, but no Jumbo’s. Gave’er until after prime walleye hour and packed up.

Warning for ATV’ers going out in early AM or night. Make sure you have someone else with you. You will get stuck going cross county at some point. We helped out two people to night get unstuck with their ATV’s. Its sure would suck being out in the middle of no where and be stuck.

Good luck!

The only way I would go out on Mille Lacs right now and head cross country.

This is what was watched for hours on camera today.

Pretty much sums up the day with this catch.

I started out the day thinking a large presentation was going to be the thing to do. But in the end, it was crappie jigs and minnow heads that got the bigger perch to bite.

All in all, we still had fun and made it back with out a major issue. Helped some people on the way and just got done have dinner and going to bed. I can not wait untill the next trip up..

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Cool Pictures!!! Keep them coming in !

[Shack]

Thanks guys, for the interest in my images. I like to take pictures, but I like taking picture of monster fish much better. Hopefully on the next trip. Here are some more images from Sun. trip. I wish I took more, but due to ride and slush factor, I kept camera tucked away to much.

Also for bait, we used rainbows, fat heads and crappie minnows. Mostly used heads and small jig to get perch to bite. This might be what to do, or not what to do???

Another image of shack!

Open lake shot.

This is the cock pit in shack.

This shows you how shallow we saw the Jumbo's come in and the school's of walleye. Next time I will get some water cam shots of fish.

.

This one gives you an idea of what of the snow and slush. This was a good area as far as the slush goes. It was worse in other spots. I liked the idea of mounting the seat up high in my shack now, keeps the feet off of slush

[wingnut38]

nice pics shackbash.