Home Forums Fishing Freshwater Any ice fishermen here?

I fish perch, gills and crappie commercially for something to do in retirement. We can sell our panfish here on Lake Champlain and I go out most days open water and hard water seasons.

Nice one

I leave the ice fishing to my youngest son. He and several friends just got back from Fort Peck Reservoir from their annual 2 or 3 day trip. They spend the night on the ice and usually have good luck. . These three Walleye are all over 29" & over and the Northern is 30+ inches. They use minnows my son catches and sells.

Long armed or not those are some dandy walleye. I usually don’t keep big ones of any species. I make exceptions for walleye and crappie.

Do you know what the forage base is in Fort Peck Reservoir? Those are some of the fattest walleyes that I've ever seen. Smaller heads on them too which means that they are relatively younger fish. I've got a 30 and 32" on the wall from Canada, but while they have huge heads aged by our DNR at 18 plus years old, they look anemic compared to those Fort Peck fish.

I've only gone twice, was working in Northern Utah last year. There are worse places to be fishing at. Mostly perch we caught, but some rainbows and bluegill. Fun experience. Would love to catch a big walleye or pike. Guy that took us lost a rod and reel to a muskie on a different lake a few weeks later.

I think the main forage base in Fort Peck is Ciscoes planted in the 80's as a forage food for the Walleyes and the Lake Trout. Their main food is fish----probably what ever there is available. This group of guys usually catch a few up 14 lbs when they go. They also catch a lot of other species on each trip.
This winter they just about didn't go due to the unseasonably warm weather. He said they had 9" of ice .
I think that biggest, fattest Walleye was 31 1/2" .

Those are some really thick fish. Those walleyes are all over 10 pounds. Great catch!

Dean

that all looks like a great way to spend a cold winter afternoon. i envy you guys up north that get to do that on a regular basis.

Not for the next 2 weeks !

Just like the 70's. damn

I've done OK this winter, but struggled with the walleye. A group of us went cisco fishing this morning and I finally scored a Walter. It's the 4th walleye to be caught in this 80 foot-plus deep hole. Most guys, including us, don't think to look for them this deep around here, preferring to fish the 30-50 foot areas and structure/drop-offs.

We got into some cisco as planned, landing around 50 between all, which was a bit slower than expected, but still fun. Here's yours truly with a decent walleye and a Master Angler cisco.

What do you do with those Cisco? They look a lot like our shad, which are an oily mushy fish we only use for bait.

They're a relative of whitefish, so aside from being a little boney, they're decent eating even though some consider them not fit for food. I like them, but prefer perch, walleye and pike for the table.

The funnest part is that cisco are aggressive and they school, so the action is often fast and frequent. They also fight hard. The 18"-ish cisco fought noticeably harder than the 21"+ walleye did.

This is what we like to catch here in Idaho

Thanks for all the ice fishing photos, brings back great memories. Grew up in central MN and used to go out with my grand father and catch crappies all winter long in the late 60s. Now when I get back I get out with my 80yr dad and we have mixed luck, but still a great time. Headed back in late March for some pan fish. I'm also still looking for my walleye of a lifetime. When I get it I will post it up lol.

Gorgeous spring weekend, up here !!







Loving this new auger !! Weighs 3lbs + drill !

Nice pics. Ice fishing here only on the smaller lakes

I picked up the same auger a month ago. Nice and light. Ive only used on ice up to 6 inches. How is on the foot plus ice?