Through the Ice (part deaux)

I posted pics of ice fishing in MN last time as well, but here are a few more. And I am happy to report that there is fish porn if you scroll down.

The place is an area lake near Bemidji, MN. Not too terribly far from some of the best Walleye fishing in Northern MN, - Red Lake. (Red Lake was nearly fished out by the commercial netting operations of the local Indian tribes, but thanks to strong conservation efforts, has made a total recovery in a very short period of time.)

My parents house is right on the water of a much smaller lake a few miles outside the city limits of Bemidji. The honey hole is about 100 yards off their dock (or where it would be in summer). We take the ATV out there, carrying our short list of essentials: ice auger, shelter, propane space heater, tip ups, shiner minnows, jigging rods, and beer.

We are planning to only fish the twilight bite, due to family obligations. We are allowed 2 lines each, so we drill holes for the shelter, set up the heater, then drill holes outside the shelter within view of the portholes and set our tip-ups there.

It is -13F (before calculating the windchill factor).

We are after Walleye, but we'll happily take a decent Northern Pike as well. We always do "ok" there, but it is not epic. It is instead very close to home and we can maximize fishing time without burning up the precious WAF+Xmas tax.

But as soon as we make our sets, rig our jigs, and crack a beer, the first flag is up. I run out to deal with that, and my dad get a solid hookup as I'm unzipping the door. I pull up an 18" walleye (perfect eating size), and dad lands one of the biggest Walleye we've taken out of that lake - summer or winter - a 25" lunker. It was female and likely full of eggs so we released her, but the other one we (literally) put on ice.

2 nights later, my brother and I were doing the exact same thing in the same spot, and were just about ready to call it a night when we saw (on the vexilar) something come up and take a look at my brothers jig. He worked it like a mo-fo and finally sets the hook. It's solid. He fought it for about 5 minutes and by this time it is nearly full dark and we only have the light of the propane heater to see by. But it is enough to see that this is a BIG fish. He is having trouble getting the approach angle correct (remember, he needs to get it to come head first out of an 8" hole and the ice is 12" thick).

Finally it pops out, and this is one beautiful fish. 28" Walleye! CPR and drink another beer before heading in to a walleye dinner from the previous 2 days.

Hope you enjoy the pics and the vid!

Peter

A few more pics:

Looks fun man. I'd take semi-decent (or in your case apparently great) fishing right outside the doorstep any day of the week. I think ice-fishing just made my bucket list, but preferably with temps at least above 0.

And here is a video (warning on a cuss word).

The light really sucks, but if you watch it high quality and full screen, you get a pretty good idea.




And one more - no action, but you get a little idea about the lake surroundings. This was done in the afternoon on a "warm" day, we spaced a bunch of sucker minnows around a shallow bay hoping to tie into a big Northern Pike.

Last couple of pics. (people are always asking about going gloveless in -13F. If is freakin cold and you don't have long before your fingers literally hurt like hell. Funny think is how warm the water is by then.

Check out my red hands less than a minute after I shed my leather mittens.

Very cool man. Seems like another world from what I'm used to. Nice pictures too, looks like they came from a SLR or something. Thanks for posting up, stay warm!

Thanks for sharing, that's a different world for those of us born and raised in the bay area.  Looks like a kick.

Thanks for the pics, Peter. Are there muskies in the lake?

I'm stoked that you enjoyed the pics! - ice fishing is definitely a kick and I miss it.
The camera is a Nikon D7000 and I was using a fixed 35MM lens as it is the fastest lens I own (1..

@Hojoman - there are no muskies in that lake but there are in some of the neighboring ones. I've only ever caught 2 in my life, and neither one of them trophy size.

There is such a thing as lazy ice fishing too. During the winter, some of the larger lakes get ice house cities which pop up. Snow roads are plowed on the ice, and you can get deliveries right to the house. The houses themselves are little trailers complete with stoves, bunks, and TV's. I've done that with guys before, but more to drink and play cards than to fish. When we are fishing, I prefer going after it a little more hardcore.

But yes, PhishPhood, above 0F would be much more pleasant! The video during the daytime was +10F or so and was really nice. I was getting drowsy sitting in the sun and listening to the ice groan.

That's sweet, I've never experienced ice fishing but would love to give it a try someday.  But yeah, preferably without the 'minus' temperatures!

Thanks, Peter. Keep in mind when taking pictures with water, snow, lots of white in the background...that your pictures sometimes are underexposed...sometimes considerably. So, if you have a photo editing program like Photoshop, Photo Elements, etc., click on the Auto Contrast feature to overcome the underexpsoure possibility...sometimes the improvement can be startling.

Howard

Thanks, Peter. Keep in mind when taking pictures with water, snow, lots of white in the background...that your pictures sometimes are underexposed...sometimes considerably. So, if you have a photo editing program like Photoshop, Photo Elements, etc., click on the Auto Contrast feature to overcome the underexpsoure possibility...sometimes the improvement can be startling.

Howard

Thanks Howard - I use Lightroom 4 for post editing. I was having trouble with the snow pictures trying to keep the balance of subject bright but maintaining some detail in the snow. I use autocontrast and then tweak the settings from there - usually exposure, contrast, highlights, whites, and blacks.

Did you think these photos were too underexposed?

Peter

No. But sometimes you don't notice it until you auto contrast.