Thanks Waskish Minnow Station

[Tripleplay]

Rented from Kelly and Jonny on February 14th for just the one day. Yes, that cost me a special house pass but that is a different story. Had my 15 year old along as well as his cousin (18 yrs) for the second year in a row and also my brother-in-law for his first ice fishing experience.

I can't say the fish were jumping through the holes but it appears we did pretty darn well and it probably could have and should have been better. I started the day with getting a very large pike (I'm guessing 15 lbs since I've caught 8-10 lb'rs the last two years on URL) up and into the hole myself only to be stymied by nobody in my party moving to grab the fish in the hole for me! Well I did another lift and bent/squatted to go for the grab and she dropped back into the hole enough to break me off. Would have liked a picture but she was ultimately going back into the water anyways so no big deal.

First fish in the bucket mid-afternoon was a 14" crappie on a red, rattling varmint that about pulled the rod out of my hand it hit so hard. This was after I released a slot walleye (also hammered the varmint) at 20". A couple of little walleyes for the group also released in the afternoon. By bedtime we had 5 crappies and one walleye in the bucket with a number of missed bobber sets. (red glow by far was dominant although a gold fat boy accounted for a crappie) Called it a night with 3 rattle reels out at 10:30PM. At midnight we had the first rattle reel go and I thought I had a small walleye only to make the mistake of trying to lift it out of the hole alone and another crappie went flopping back into the lake for somebody else to catch. 1:30AM missed another rattle reel (the bell would actually jingle once and then 10-15 seconds later would go 2-3 times and stop, by then I had it figured out which reel was going and would wait for a jingle again and then try the set) Missed rattle reels from 2:30AM to 3:10AM four times until I decided to start fishing! (rest of the group was barely coherent at that hour) I fished for about 35 minutes and literally marked or drew in 7 different fish and never enticed a single bite. Went back to bed and at 5 AM another rattle reel was missed. Talk about light bites or what. FYI---of the three rattle reels only 2 of them were touched during the night and both of those had red glow on them (either a red glow tube or a small bannana type jig).

Finally got the group moving around 7:30AM and we added a couple of more keeper walleyes and another crappie with more than a couple of misses along the way. Final totals:

6 crappies (not counting the rattle reel lost fish)

1-jigging (red)

1-gold fat boy (bobber)

4-bobbers red, blue or pink/white glow (3 came on Shorty's

special red or blue jig he showed the boys!)

3 walleyes kept

1-jigging (red, rattling varmint)& 1 slot releases

2-bobber red or pink/white glow

One very legitimate 15" crappie (yes, I know how to correctly measure them), 3 at 14"+ on the stick and 1 at 11 inches.

I was the only one jigging and although I didn't catch the most crappies (nephew did by far) I did out catch the rest of the group all put together (just a buch of little walleyes up'd my numbers).

Very good times and a very comfortable house that set up real well to fish 4 in with some room to move around. We'll be back again with Kelly and Jonny for sure although the once a year trip doesn't exactly cut it for me!! Finished up and cleaned fish at Westwinds and up to LOW for the rest of the trip.

[LABS4ME]

Great report tripleplay! 6 crappies is a good number for one nights fishing... way to go!

Good Luck!

Ken

[chaffmj]

Nice report Tripleplay! Thanks for posting it. By this time tomorrow I will be fishing up at Red. Can hardly wait.

[Wookiee]

very nice report. Good to hear some crappies being caught.

[t rex]

My hopes are rising for march with every good report