Minnesota Ice Fishing (non-yak)

They thanked me for brining balmy weather from CA. It was 15 degrees out. But it was -25 the week before, with little wind or snow, and that made good ice.

Already ice houses were popping up on all the area lakes, and reports of a some of the more brave (foolhardy?) driving their trucks on the ice abounded. Our first test holes revealed a solid 10 inches of good clean ice.

I flew in last week for an early Christmas and was dying to get some fishing in. Of course with all of the relatives there, we couldn't really just abandon the whole family in order to get our fishin' fix, but as it turned out it did not matter - the bite was turning on and off like clockwork:

It would start at 4pm and turn off at 5:15, so we'd load up the ATV at 3pm, drive the couple hundred meters out right in front of the house to the drop off where we'd set up the pop-up shelter, drill 6 holes (2 for the each of us), light the propane heater, set the tip-ups on the outer holes, rig the jigs for the inner holes, crack a beer and have our "happy hour" on the ice.

3 days of this provided some great action, 4 walleye, and about 8 or 9 Northern Pike. Nothing huge, but it made a meal, and there was no better way to catch up with my brother and my dad on life in general.

Here are a couple of pics, and a link to the online album for anyonw who wants to see more. I'll try to load up a couple of youtube videos as well.

http://picasaweb.google.com/prthompson/IceFishingMNXmas2009?feat=directlink

Precious moments last a lifetime. Nice catch!

Ob thats so cool. Have a great Christmas. Now you have to bring your bro out here so we can take him on the big blue.

Ob thats so cool. Have a great Christmas. Now you have to bring your bro out here so we can take him on the big blue.

You can bet a big part of the discussions on the ice was about planning that very thing!

Merry Christmas to you all as well.

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havent been ice drinking, oops i mean fishing in years, thanks for the pics and report, happy holidays, cameron

Ice fishing looks like a lot of fun. Thanks for sharing.

Jedmo

very cool looks like a blast. Closest thing i have done to ice fishing out here is throw boulders into south lake in the sierras to brake the ice to get a line in... But equals epic fishing...

One of the nice things about ice fishing is you don't have to worry about putting your fish on ice to keep it fresh   Thanks for the wonderful report, pictures, and video Peter.

One of the nice things about ice fishing is you don't have to worry about putting your fish on ice to keep it fresh  

My wife was shocked when we brought a fishcicle inside after an hour and after it thawed out, it's gills started going again!

very cool report dude, thx!

lol...thats crazy!

How did you get your kayak through that little hole??? 

Gotta have me some of those cool looking headwarmers.
Nice fish.
And that's some thick ice.

One of the nice things about ice fishing is you don't have to worry about putting your fish on ice to keep it fresh   Thanks for the wonderful report, pictures, and video Peter.

Bet the beer never gets warm either