Ice Fishing 2022-23

[Fish Felon]

Tis the season.....first time out....had two tip-ups out at sunrise, had flags on both not long after.....

First fish through the ice of this season for me....

Doing the dishes has become a lot more fun again.....

[Fish Felon]

Other flag was a dink pike.....walleye went back the pike did not.....

Also caught a dink crappie before calling it quits (they're actually harder to pattern and catch here early....usually Christmas to New Years is when they start being predictable as clockwork).

So a Trifecta of species to start the season. I feel so gangster it's like my name be.....

Lil Bow Wow!

No...wait....

Aicht-two-oh-fowl-Urgh!

Ya heard

[Nershi]

Nice pics. Are you from wi? Gonna hit mille lacs soon? I heard guys are out on the north end on 6 inches.

Got out this past weekend and fishing was great on the home waters and a lake down the road. Pretty crazy action when the fronts were moving in. Had a big ole fish fry. Between Mexico and early ice I think I’ve ate fish dinners 14 out of 17 of the last days. Guess what’s one the menu tomorrow…

Off to the circus of red on Friday. Gonna do some ice camping in portables if my buddy with the castle doesn’t come up.

[Fish Felon]

I'm kind of from Wisconsin, why do you ask?

I might dink and dabble with Mille Lacs at some point, but will be going after perch mainly when I go with a tip-up or two out for walleyes. Lots of perch....lots of Y2 approach 9" to 10" so on the small side of jumbos. Next year jumbos will be a thing again on Mille Lacs.

The DNR said the perch were gone because the lake isn't as fertile as it used to be....too clear....too many invasives....climate change....all lead to a decimated perch population.

Turns out none of that was it.....

All the walleyes over 23" died from starvation in 2020. When I say "all" I almost literally mean it.....virtually every last fish over 23" starved.

And then perch exploded in numbers and growth rates are phenomenal.

Turns out the only thing holding the lake back was too many big walleyes....AKA eating machines that destroy perch populations. Put the knife to every big walleye you catch on big walleye lakes. There's nothing worse for them in terms of walleye recruitment and having adequate perch/forage populations.

How bad are zebra mussels to fish?

So bad that at Cass where zebes were found six years ago......that ever since zebes made if into the lake the perch population has skyrocketed to an all-time recorded high. Not only that, but growth rates have increased dramatically....almost to rates unimaginable.

Perch at Cass now reach the same size in year two as they used to grow to in year three prior to zebra mussels. Yes....Y2 perch are the same size as Y3 perch pre-zebes.

That's insane.

So perch grow to be jumbos in only two years versus three thanks to zebes....and the perch population is literally the highest ever recorded since they started annual surveys in 1982.

Oh, they also keep the big walleyes in check at Cass too.....the only one of the big ten large lakes to always have had a state limit of six fish with one over twenty. The DNR very wisely did that to keep Cass as the control group.

Funny how it's been managed the best.....it turns out the less the DNR fukcs with shit? The less fukced up it is.

Never had anything but a state walleye limit and awesome walleye counts every year, no shortage of forage, and probably the best perch lake in the state right now.......

Funny how that works....

[Fish Felon]

P.S. nice fish Nershi!

Sorry....wasn't following on the Mille Lacs question. I caught the walleye right in front of the cabin off one of my crappie cribs. I haven't fished Mille Lacs yet.

[lanyard]

If only Kwackillincrew could post up some iced lakers so I can have the trifecta reinforce that my life is mostly a barren desert of my own making.

I need one of those "Ghosts of Hunting past/present/future" things, where I turn my life around and go back to being the hunter/angler I once was rather than a suburban d-bag.

[Drunk_Dynasty]

Haven’t been out yet. Drove by Devils yesterday, only ATV travel but the ice looked good from Hwy 2, which says well, nothing.


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[Fish Felon]

I need one of those "Ghosts of Hunting past/present/future" things, where I turn my life around and go back to being the hunter/angler I once was rather than a suburban d-bag.

It's tough once you "lose it." I thought I'd do all kinds of duck hunting this year.....first year in either four or five where I was totally legal, nothing I had to worry about in terms of buying a license, possibly getting checked, legal to drive.....totally back to normal....legal with the same rights and privileges as every law-abiding citizen. So I figured I'd be getting the itch and hunting a lot....get myself back in the game after involuntarily being benched on the sideline. A lot of guys fall out of hunting by choice......call it a change of priorities....work, family, caring for parents, etc., but ultimately they have the option to buy a license and go hunting, but they choose not to....or to hunt much less.....maybe seldomly when the rare opportunity arises, or if nothing else.....go the minimum amount required to keep up traditions and more importantly relationships that were forged afield they still value, very much.

Me? I didn't really have a choice.....well, in some aspects I did.....made some bad choices that resulted in limiting my choices to hunt. Some of it is on me. I'm not going to go into why I think a significant portion isn't on me.....dealt with some stuff that I didn't do, but the way the systems we have work.....unfortunately a lot of it is guilty until proven innocent. Lost firearms privileges through the Civil Court system are absolutely that way......any woman in this country can go in and make up a bunch of shit about her man and without even getting in contact with him let alone a statement.....papers are rubber stamped as if you did what she's saying you did, and there is zero repercussions for them after proving they're liars who made it all up when you finally get a chance in court usually months to even over a year later. DWI that I fought and got off took over two years.....I literally had my license automatically suspended for a year and got it back before I ever made it in front of a judge......full year of lost driving privileges before the preliminary hearing where they go over the charges and make sure you understand them....not even offer up how you'll plead, but just showing up to say "yes" you understand what you've been charged with and what the possible penalties are.....jury trial took over two years to happen. I get found not guilty but I've already lost my license for a year, had my driving record severely **** for over two years where insurance is insane, any employment where you need a clean driving record isn't a possibility.....not to mention the shitload of legal fees paying a decent attorney.....all to deal with a bullshit case that "on paper" is supposedly like it never happened since I wasn't found guilty of it.....yet for not being guilty it sure felt like I was, had to serve three days, face all kinds of punitive shit like not being able to drive or technically buy alcohol, go into a bar......

So yeah, anyone who thinks our criminal justice system is innocent until proven guilty, and especially if they think that for civil court?

I hope you never have to find out how much so that isn't the case. Watch out for a woman scorn and don't walk home from bars....I guess that's what I learned from all of it as far as what actions I should try to avoid repeating.....


So long story longer, I get back in the free and clear and go ballistic on the ducks this year.....

.....shooting a whopping whole two mallard drakes, which I saw out front through the window, grabbed a shotgun, and jumped them out front. The first one I dropped the only one I could've dropped.....the other drake out of the trio were out farther and got up first.....the other one I shot out of a group of 8-9 that turned out to be tamies. Could've waxed all of them but when you water swat the first one and are expecting them all to flush and they don't....and then swim back at you when you retrieve the one because they think you have bread?

Makes it different.....like squashing ants....no sport to it


So anyways, don't feel too bad....I've largely lost it too. But I still like to ice fish a fair amount for some reason. I've got a good set up for it plus there's nothing else to do. I'd still choose sitting outside on a nice day not really doing anything over it if given the choice.


With hunting and fishing, waterfowl hunting especially......once you quit, or are forced to quit.....it's not coming back for most. Once you get out of the habit of getting up at 3am to freeze your fukcing ass off and possibly might not shoot shit......that part doesn't matter....if it was a guaranteed slaughter fest and amazing hunt......I still would choose to sleep in and stay in a warm bed.....then either go fishing or get drunk with some chicks and try to get laid. Honestly? Pussy is cheaper than hunting and more fun to me these days.....lot more time spent in warm beds versus being sleep deprived and freezing your ass off.


I get now get why waterfowl hunting is a dead pastime. We represent the last generation for it.

[Fish Felon]

Haven’t been out yet. Drove by Devils yesterday, only ATV travel but the ice looked good from Hwy 2, which says well, nothing.


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They have to be driving pickups out on Devils by now......I drove the permanent out here two days ago. 8" to 9" of great ice....that never once popped or buckled.

An SUV isn't much more weight on the ice than a phag-wheeler.....for the same reason why a polar bear displaces less weight than a human......a freaking animal weighing a ton can walk on thinner ice than a 200lbs human. Significantly wider wheel base on an SUV means the weight is being displaced over a much larger area.......

Nissan Xterra hauling a 8×16 camper onto the ice was no problem two days ago on 8" to 9" of ice....phenomenal ice.....best ice I've seen in years....which counts for a lot. It felt like I was driving across a large concrete slab....shit never even popped. I put the house out last year two weeks later on a foot of ice and had my heart stop and nuts go into my chest at least three four times thinking I was going to die..........

Ice isn't ice.....this year we got premo ice

[Drunk_Dynasty]

Did not see a single pick up. I was actually surprised by the lack of people out there. Granted I went across Hwy 2 and not 19, but my buddy wanted to putz down to the casino for some reason, very few folks out that way as well.


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