Upper Prior Report 12/23/06

[work sucks]

Just got home from the first ice fishing trip of the year. Started fishing off the island near the public water access on upper Prior (south end) at around 3pm. Brought one of my little guys with, so it wasn't exactly hard core run and gun fishing. Another fisherman came over to borrow my auger due to some trouble with his. When he brought it back he offered me up a couple of very large golden shinners that he caught...yes caught as thanks. I was fishing in 15 FOW with 25 foot just behind me. I decided to drill a hole between me and shore in 10 FOW. I put one of the big golden shinners (7 inch) down under a tip up. We tried several different approaches in the portable with no success. When we decided to pack up...there went the tip up that I had the big shinner on. When I walked up to it, I noticed it wasn't moving. I set the tip up aside and saw the line was way off to one side. After pulling up the slack and feeling a little "weight", I set the hook. There was definitly a big fish on the other end...The first time by the hole I saw that it was a big pike. After a few attempts by her to bail...not to mention cut my hand in two spots by the line flying through it...I iced her. For the first trip of the year I caught a 38.5 inch 14lb 3oz pike. It is funny how one fish can make a otherwise unsuccessful outing one to remember. Especially for my 6 year old that was with. Now he can't wait to go again.

For those of you wondering, there was 6-7 inches of good ice with a little crust layer on top from the rain this week.

[beer batter]

Sweet! Nice first post.

[Maximum12]

Nice fish!

Weird...we were fishing in St. Paul two weekends ago & we also caught golden shiners (a first for me), six-seven inchers. Unfortunaely, putting them on the tip-ups in the same manner yielded nada.

We were out this afternoon on a small Eagan lake & there was less ice than I thought there ought to be, 3 1/2 inches. But it was good ice & uniform - still a little short for me to be walking around on. And we caught only a few panfish, nothing on the tip-ups or jigging spoons.

[walleyeguy2006]

Thats really cool man, It's good to get the kids invalved. Glad to hear you both hade a memorable experience. Those are kind of things I remember with me and my father when I was a kid. That's the kind of thing that sticks with ya.

GOOD FISHING!!!

[SkinnyVinny05]

how much ice ??

[buzbunni]

Gotta keep reading Skinny .

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For those of you wondering, there was 6-7 inches of good ice with a little crust layer on top from the rain this week.

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