Yesterday's Hillman's report.

[tearin' lips]

Just go back from red yesterday. Left the falls at 6 to be at the minnow station by 8. Fishing at 8:30. Good thing I brought extra gas with for the auger! In the first half and hour caught three and miss several. What a light bite!!! And then the highlight of the day, a buddy of mine caught a forty two inch water wolf. that weighed approx. 19 pounds. We drilled more holes and more holes. Picking up a few more throughout the rest of the day and into evening. Graphed tons of fish, especially after dark, dropped the aqua-vu down and verified that we were on a decent school of crappies that we could just not entice last night. frustrating! All in all a slow day on red, but I don't feel bad as I talked to many other fisherman last night who did much worse than we did. Hopefully it'll pick up in a week or so. Keep your fingers crossed.

Optimist: A man who gets treed by a lion but enjoys the scenery.

[RonZ]

How far out did you go?

[tearin' lips]

We were out approx. 5.75 miles. As of friday there were only a few houses about 5.25 miles out.

[walleye_nut]

How thick was the ice? Is it safe to drive a full size Yukon XL out there?

[eyepatrol]

Mind if I ask what you were using for bait/presentation?

[Bigbartguy]

thanks for the report. Were you out in sleds, atvs, or trucks?

thanks!

[Mark Bryan]

walley_nut, I was up on Dec.28 out of hillmans about 5.5

miles out with my suburban and a trailer full of gear.we

found 18 inches of ice.Next day we went out of rogers

about as far as the road went and were on 12 inches.A

little scarier than the first day.I did'nt venture to far

off the plowed roads.I did see other full size suv's

blazing trails but I'm not that daring.I also hade two of

boys with me so I was'nt going to take chances.Anyway.I

would think you are good to go with the yukon xl.Just use

you're best judgement.Fishing was kinda slow,4 slabs,9

pearch and about 10 eyes.The boys did'nt like it when I

said the walleyes had to go back

Going back up on the 11th of Jan.on our way to LOW.

hopefully the bite is on.Good luck,have fun and be safe!

[tearin' lips]

guys,

It is more than safe to dirve the yukon out there, as I drove my 1/2 ton chevy out. I found anyhwere from 14 to 20 inches of ice. The thicker ice was where there was no snow and the thinner ice was underneath big drifts. I also encountered some slush under these snow drifts so don't go putzing through them. As far as presentation we fished hard(emphasis on hard) and used everything that we could think of. I'd list what did not work, but the tackle that did work is a much shorter list. We ended up using a pale green and glow jigging shad rap and a red 1/4 oz. forage minnow jigging spoon tipped with a minnow tail and a glow sweedish pimple to catch our crappies. Yeah, I never even thought of using the jigging rap, but desperate times call for desperate measures. I used all conventional crappie tackle, but no takers. You name it I tried it. The frustrating thing is that I could see them on the aqua-vu, they were numerous, but all of them were neutral. They would chase, but not hit. Best wishes to you guys and let me know how you do. Maybe I'll meet ya on the pond next weekend.

[walleye_nut]

Hey lips,

what time of day were the fishing biting? And were you moving around alot?

[tearin' lips]

They basically bit sporadically thoughout the day, about one crappie every 45 minutes to an hour. they would come in three's and fours but as soon as you hooked one the others would disappear and could not be found. Marked higher concentrations of crappies around dark and as Hanson posted in his report about one fish would bite to every 6 or 10 on the graph, and it was a very light bite. Definately stayed mobile, brought and extra two gallons of gas with, just in case. only went through a tank and three quaters. I figure approx. 120 or so holes. All of them were extensively fished too. We drilled a majority of them in the morning and then went back and fished them again and again and again. Spent about five-ten minutes per hole and moved. towards the end I didn't even fish the hole if it did not have fish on the graph.

[Xplorer]

Here's my 2 cents worth. Stayed in a sleeper about 3 miles out on WW's road. Fished friday afternoon early evening out at the end of the road, only a couple eye's and perch to show for it, marked very few. Went back to the shack and and made dinner and picked up about 7 walleyes. Left the rattle reels down all night and did not have a hit. Got up saturday morning and decided to head west on the sleds. Started about halfway between the end of WW road and the shacks off the south shore, nada and didnt mark anything. Then headed out to 7.54 miles west of WW access. Ice was @16" wherever we went and clear. After picking thru some ice chunks closer in the going was great. Found the end of Kelly P's markers and went further west. First spot, had 2 walleyes and one slab in the first 10 minutes. then a lul, so i punched another 8 holes in the vicinity and got 2 walleyes quickly. Then 2 pike and a perch, very little on the graph tho. Then i went 1/2 mile south and tried, 2 perch. Decided to head back for lunch at 1 and return (another group of 3-4 guys on wheelers had pulled up about a couple hundred yards east of us). Got back out at 2:15, father in law wanted to go back to original spot so i dropped him there and then i went SE a ways (the other guys had moved about 1/2 mile north since we left) Fished those areas til 3:30 and only a couple eye's. Then picked up the FIL and headed in to about 6.5 and fished til 8, only picking up another perch and a few eyes.

So no "motherload" was found by us, but the weather was great, fished outside all day long. Sounds like we needed to be further north off of Hillmans road but thats the way it goes. Sure do love that GPS!

Ended up having a nice fishfry late saturday night, tho it ended up being alaskan halibut that the FIL had caught last summer, instead of crappie

Had a great time and will be back next month to give it a try again!

[moose099]

The wife and I fished one of Kelly's houses 41/2 miles out Fri and Sat. Very slow Fri. 7 Walleye, 10 perch and 0 Crappies. Sat. 10 Walleye, 1 perch and 7 Crappies. The best is yet to come.

[Pikester]

Saturday sounded like a pretty good day Moose. We have a sleeper rented w/ Kelly-P the weekend of the 20th, hopefully we have some luck. Thanks for the report.

[kelly-p]

It looks like Xplorer checked over things SE and W of my last markers and it didn't payoff. Today I am sending some people into where Hudec's road normally ends to try it. Reports (uncomfirmed, nobody saw the fish) of some people limiting NW of the end of Hillman's road about 1 1/2 miles. That would put them about 8 miles out. I see they left their wheel house out there so maybe? Hanson is very diplomatic when he calls them hard drifts speed bumps. They would knock a train off it tracks.

[hanson]

Kelly-

Those bumps are something else when you can't see them in flat light conditions. Yikes! My buddy in the back of my extended cab cracked his head on the ceiling of my truck pretty good.

I guess it was just a friendly reminder to slow down.

[kelly-p]

There should be a camara on that set of 3 at about 4 miles. Bottle gas tanks only fit in the back of the Mazda with about 3 inches to spare lenghwise. The other day I was in a hurry and forgot about them. I was able to end for end the tank in the back of the truck at 30 mph. #1 saying 50 feet either side of them, "OH $%^* this is gonna hurt".

[FishPiCkLeS]

Quote:

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Hanson is very diplomatic when he calls them hard drifts speed bumps. They would knock a train off it tracks.

---

I assume you found another couple speed bumps off the beaten trail since Justin and I tried to help you out on Wednesday... You better put a skid plate under that Mazda and hit um harder bud... You might just slide over those drifts...

Sorry, I couldnt leave it alone...

[kelly-p]

The speed bumps on the road are bad enough but that birch tree in my yard the other night was brutal.

[Random guy]

I think the Armed Forces should do away with the Hum V and get Mazdas. That little truck has been on the front lines for some time now and it's a tough little solider. That whole situation kinda reminds of that old movie "Kelly's Heroes", with Sutherlund standing up in the tank yelling "forward hiiiiyo" with his leather hat and goggles just looking for a tank to shoot with his paint loads.

[kelly-p]

Sutherlund would have made a great plow driver! Or in Patton's words, "when in doubt attack the %&*$#@^&".