Ice Fishing

“How many people Ice Fish? We have about 7 inches of ice I will be out fishing next weekend. I need to get some perch to fill my freezer..”

“I used to ice fish every winter, now I mostly just go smelting a coupla times a season. I like that better since I don't have to invest in equipment and there's more action. No to mention entertainment from the adjacent shacks. :)
And smelts are the yummiest!”

“We make it interesting. There is nothing like fishing with a case of beer. And then there is fishing with a pink of black berry brandy. That is what makes it fun”

“A mere case of beer?? boy, you gotta ice fish in Maine...
;)”

“twig. that is just for me. Every needs to bring there own beer.”

“I like the tip-up method the best. Also enjoy lantern fishing.”

“ahhhh I see kodiakman, then I deem you smelt camp worthy...

Just the other day a friend mentioned ice skating around the "tips ups" on the pond - first time I'd ever heard that term. We call 'em traps. And beer or no, that is bo-ring!Unless I'm on a lake where I can fish for smelt while I'm watching my traps, then it's ok. I'd rather catch a bunch of smelt or perch than one togue or bass, even though it is pretty exciting. Just not often enough is all. Or night fish for cusk when you only gotta check the traps once an hour is ok.

The derbys around here are a lot of fun though, and I like to to see the pics of huge Northern Pike. Mean lookin' suckers they are.”

“I ice fish every year around New Year's Eve on Lake Superior for Splake. One February, I built a ice sled and cross country skied across the Lake Superior ice and camped on Basswood Island, in the Apostile Islands, fishing for Lake Trout. Backpacking and ice fishing go together.”

“.'Unless I'm on a lake where I can fish for smelt while I'm watching my traps'
twigeater

On what lakes do you catch smelt other than the Great Lakes? And how do you catch them?

I have used gill nets on trolley lines in Lake Michigan at Chicago, seines in Lake Superior at Duluth, and dip nets in rivers along the North Shore of Lake Superior. Is there another way to catch them, other than commercial netting?”

“Damariscotta Lake in Maine has smelts. I really don’t know how they got there, but they may have come up from the ocean or been hatched there. We fish for them with a jig pole, using 2 or 4 lb test, the lure is a Swedish pimple with a piece of cut bait. The limit is two quarts and you have to have a fishing license. There’s a five line limit, so you can jig for smelts with one line while watching four traps. Sometimes you catch white perch with the jig pole, there’s no limit on those.

The Kennebec River has smelts because it’s tidal. You can fish from your own shack, or there are places that rent shacks. I guess it has to be the right kind of place along the river to get smelts, like an eddy or something. The shacks are lined up like a city, close to the shore. You rent the shack for the duration of the tide, $28 for a 4 person shack. The shack has electricity, a wood stove, is stocked with wood (and they warm it up for ya), wooden boxes to sit on, holes cut the length of the shack and each side has a string of lines with hooks, I think it’s 12 lines on each side. Your first bag of bloodworms is included. BYOB, but you can order pizza and such, or cook the smelts as you catch them – there’s no limit and you don't need a fishing license. Weekends it’s great fun just listening to your neighbors get trashed.

I’ve never dipped, but I know a lot of people do. I’d like to try sometime.”

“twigeater - Thanks for your information. If there are tides, then you are probably talking about ocean smelt. I've never caught fish by the quart! I do not recall any limits on fresh water smelt.

Fishhouses are something else. I had mine own in MN. It was deluxe and wintertime was always partytime in a fishhouse colony.”

“(looking sheepish) 'Mine own' should be 'my own.'”

“Yes slimmer, the Kennebec river smelts are ocean smelts. The lake smelts are not since they live in fresh water all the time. The lake connects to a river that connects to the ocean that other anadromous fish - alewives - run up to spawn. (there's a fish ladder that the alewives use that's pretty cool, pitiful thing to watch though) I really doubt that the lake smelts came up from the ocean, I think they were put there. Otherwise, I think we'd catch some alewives in the lake also.

We used a homemade wooden shack that stayed on one lake, but for ice fishing on other lakes we used these things called clams. Looks like a big black suitcase that opens up, set up a tent like thing over it, open up the bottom, and voila!”

“telling the man at the Winn Dixie which flounder filet laying there on the ice I want !!!!”

“for ice fishing. He came in late in the afternoon and my brother and I were crashed in the living room. My cousin asked if we did any good ice fishing. I told him that after we chopped a hole big enough for the motorboat, we were too tired to fish !!!

ummmoooo ha ha ha ha ha”

“I was in Minnesota a few years ago and it seemed that ice fishing was popular activity in winter. They have the cold weather for it and lakes are everywhere.”

“Two Hunters From Michigan:
A guy buys a brand new Jeep Grand Cherokee for $30,000 and has $400 monthly payments. He and a friend go duck hunting and of course all the lakes are frozen. These two guys go to the lake with the guns, the dog, the beer and of course the new vehicle. They drive out onto the lake ice and get ready. Now, they want to make some kind of a natural landing area for the ducks, something for the decoys to float on. In order to make a hole large enough to look like something a wandering duck would fly down and land on, it is going to take a little more effort than an ice hole drill. So, out of the back of the new Grand Cherokee comes a stick of dynamite with a short, 40-second fuse. Now these two Rocket Scientists do take into consideration that they want to place the stick of dynamite on the ice at a location far from where they are standing (and the new Grand Cherokee), because they don't want to take the risk of slipping on the ice when they run from the burning fuse and possibly go up in smoke with the resulting blast. They light the 40-second fuse and throw the dynamite. Remember the vehicle, beer, the guns and the dog? Let's talk about the dog: A highly trained Black Lab used for retrieving. Especially things thrown by the owner. You guessed it, the dog takes off at a high rate of doggy speed on the ice and captures the stick of dynamite with the burning 40-second fuse about the time it hits the ice. The two men yell, scream, wave arms and wonder what to do now. The dog, cheered on, keeps coming. One of the guys grabs the shotgun and shoots the dog. The shotgun is loaded with #8 duck shot, hardly big enough to stop a Black Lab. The dog stops for a moment, slightly confused, but continues on. Another shot and this time the dog, still standing, becomes really confused and of course terrified, thinking these two Nobel Prize winners have gone insane. The dog takes off to find cover, (with the now really short fuse burning on the stick of dynamite) under the brand new Cherokee. ----BOOM!----Dog and Cherokee are blown to bits and sink to the bottom of the lake in a very large hole, leaving the two idiots standing there with this "I can't believe this happened" look on their faces. The insurance company says that sinking a vehicle in a lake by illegal use of explosives is not covered. He still had yet to make the first of those $400 a month payments”