Doug & a buddy, hit the Hardwater, on Saturday;

Nice!

Can't go wrong with fresh walleye!

Great! How thick is the ice Paul?

Looks yummy!

Growing up, we always had perch and pickerel (everyone used to call it that) on Christmas Eve as an appetizer. We took sleeves of salted crackers and beat them up with a roller, added garlic powder, salt and a bit of pepper to make the coating. Simple and fast. The fillets were cut into cracker sized squares. Some were coated, others were left as is. All were deep fried. Probably politically incorrect to have deep fried anything these days, but they were great hot or cold.

Nice feed!!

6" at the Bear Narrows bridge, Richard.

They fished fairly shallow, @ 13', to stay out of the current.

Thank's Paul, I hope they wore PFD's.

So, so frikken good !

Would you please get rid of the Rice and get some proper French Fries on that plate lol

We don't have Walleye around here
Its one of the things I look forward too when I go back to Saskatchewan, the best I figure.
That sure looks good!

Nice looking plate!

Darren, We grew up on the east coast of Australia, ate so much deep fried fish & chips, that we look for other ways to enjoy this fantastic protein.

You'll see chips / french fries, a couple of times throughout the season, but definitely not our go to !

lol, I was only ribbing you mate!

Must have been cool growing up in Australia, were you born there?

Yep, moved the family, when Deb & I were 39 & kids were 9 & 11.

Miss the ocean & beaches big time, but not the rat race !

Very comfortable here, with our rural existence & all that has to offer.

Gotta tell you that I do my Walleye in a similar style as you!

I use Pastene Italian Bread Crumbs as the final coating after I lightly dredge the fillets in flour, then egg then the crumbs, then fry them off in EVOO.

What is your biggest to date, my biggest was 32" or for an Aussie 81.28cm. I know, I know picture or it didn't happen lol

Walleye fishing sucks in Alberta!

KB

Never seen pin bones cut out of fish fillets like that before. Guess I learned something today

Them there Walleye Fillets are expertly filleted!

Caught literally 100's of 29-29.95" ers, never an honest 30" or bigger !

Doug & Joe (best bud) both had really solid 29.5" ers too !





I'm not the kind, to long arm them !

Beauties mate love the dark golden color! Typical of Lake Walleyes, notice the pale color of mine and how skinny it was? Because of its color and weight I thought is was a giant Sauger. That was caught in the North Saskatchewan River.

Full Disclosure, that is not me in the picture, that is one of my girlfriends. Russian chick from Siberia. One tight unit!
She was 54 in that picture, nicer body than most 18 year old's. lol

KB

99 I grew up on the east coast of the USA and never had fish with rice , but a l had a lot with grits. mite have to try it LOL

Hi 44mc, You just can't beat Shrimp with Cheesy Grits, Impossible! :o)

KB

Is this early for hardwater for you, 99 ??

I tend to watch the weather up your way just out of curiosity and sentimentality. Couldn't BELIEVE when I saw the high temp for Ignace yesterday !!!!!!!

DANG !!!!!!

Thinking that was a little uncharacteristically cold. Even for there.

Sunset country is a winter wonderland.

Howdy Mate,

Normally walking ice early December & riding ice by Christmas.

Yeah, the weekend into last nights temps were fresh !

Was a little warmer this am at -24*C & a high of -10*C today.

Weekend looks spectacular at lows of -6*C & highs of -1*C !

Good morning New_2_99s,

Our American friends are blissfully unaware of what *C means, you may as well be speaking Chinese hehehe, may want to convert to *F when posting temps!

Keep the great picture coming! :o)

KB

I've only ever been in Sunset country from early June through mid-August..........

I would LOVE to visit at other times of the year. But yinz all have a better tolerance for winter than I do. And we can get winter where I live....... But our spring ice-out is probably 1 1/2 to 2 months before yours !!!!

I'll be totally honest............ My favorite way to catch walleyes in your neck of the woods involves a short-sleeved shirt, DEET and sunglasses. Not a snow machine and a tent.

Good morning Yoder409 I trust you are doing great and added new trophies to your beautiful trophy room this season! How did you make out in your tree stand locations for the deer you were chasing?

I LOVE WINTER FISHING! As soon as the ice freezes, I book my trip to Key West Florida and fish for tarpon. hehehe

KB

Hey, Bee !!!

Nope. Nothing added to the garage this year. Lower back issues have kept me from doing much in the way of serious deer hunting at all this year.........bow OR rifle. I did manage a nice fall turkey. But that's about it.

Winter has been mostly just muddy here, so far. But Florida sho' do sound like a good idea to me right now !!!! ENJOY !!!!!!

Hello again young man!

Really sorry to hear about you back still acting up, I know that feeling all too well. Thank God for Chiropractors, otherwise I would be in big trouble.

Luckily when it comes to Turkey hunting you just need a decent ground blind and you do not have to climb any ladders or trees.

The only great thing about getting older is that you are still above ground. I hope you resolve your back issues and get back to enjoying hunting soon!

Wishing you and your family a wonderful Christmas :o)

KB

yoder we be candy asses down here if its below 60 its to cold to fish .

KB I love to go to the beach at 4 am to cast net some mullet to fry with cheese grits for BF.

That is a fresh breakfast! I love my Cheesy Grits and make the best, with Shrimp of course.

Nothing beats fishing in the Keys during the winter. It's one of my favorite places on EARTH. I only seen one woman on ice in a bikini, she was a drunken Native American. lol

Do you live in Florida? I would do more ice fishing if I saw this on ice.

Cheers KB

Don’t wanna derail the thread but I wanna hear more about the woman from Siberia, and where can I find one, besides mail order lol

All I will say is that she had a legitimate 6 pack with 5% body fat at 54 years old. She was also a beautiful person on the inside.

Sweet memories :o)

A very merry and blessed Christmas to you and all your'n, as well !!!!

LOL !!!!!!!!!

No candy ass, here. I'll take the flintlock deer hunting when it's WAY below zero (F). And I love me some wally-eye fishin !!! But I will NOT sit my azz on ice to do it.

nice looking Crappies, I did not know we had them in Canada. How to they taste compared to Perch? They look really tasty to me.

Looks like you are one very good cook!

Very similar to perch Darren.

Little "sweeter" than walleye, like most panfish.

That tempura batter was killa !

My favorite breakfast of all time, Perch & Eggs.

Very few Perch in Alberta.

yoder I will hunt in a ice storm but don't fish in one lol

I'm with you !!!

You aren't wrong.

I understand 0 and 100.
That should be 32 and 212. Beyond that, clueless.
But this isn't the American forum, so you all just keep thinking in 10s,
And us stubborn Americans will look it up,😉

Minus 40 is the same on both scales too.

This tidbit of information is not that useful, unless you are in a place like Montana or Alaska though...

John (formerly in Manitoba)

Yep John, cold is cold !



Last winter !

See this, pretty regularly, on January drives to work !

Holly smokes is that today? How do animals survive that??

In Edmonton it is going to be -5c later today.

It's EASY !!!! I just use Bob & Doug McKenzie's formula. "Double it and add 30".

Some temps are cold no matter WHAT system you're using.

No, both last January, Darren !

Gilbert just asked me to take him ice fishing.

Centigrade temp times 1.8, then add 32.

Kilometers to mile, times 6, and round off.

Centigrade temp times 1.8, then add 32.

40 below is COLD!!! I've watched ice crystals grow.

Hoar frost, as far as you can see;



Happy New Year, to you all.

First day back at work, sine Dec 21st !

Spent a couple of relaxing days, on the ice, with Doug & my buddy, Joe !

How many say fugg fishing, and show up for the food?

Paul, you drive a truck out there to plow all that snow out of the way so you can fish your honey hole?

No Marty, this hut was rented, for 2 days, from an outfitter.

My hard shack is not out yet.

More of the spoils;

Went to the hard shack again, with Joe & Judy.

Girls playing Crib between bites;



Bite was slow, but we managed 8 walleye.

Turned 'em into these;



Life, does not suck !

Ice fishemen walk on water. Just saying.

Another few months of pickerel, perch and whitefish coming out of the cold water and onto your plates. Yum!

Doug went out on Saturday, 2 of them got their 20 Crappie, in 3 hours !



Pretty good size, too ! That's a size 12 snow boot.

Went to Doug's, last night, for crappie tacos n beer;





We raised him right !

Pretty good day on the ice for Doug, Joe & I.

3 limits of crappie (30) & some bonus perch.

Good size too !

Cool in more ways than one Paul.

Got after them again, Saturday.

Joe & I only, so limit was 20. Way slower than last week, 20 took 4 hours.

2 Bonus perch & 1 walleye.

Very nice -- love your updates. Great pictures

New 2:
Top of the morning to you Paul, I hope that the rest of your crew is doing well and if you are not, seeing as you've once again caught more and larger than I can dream of - well you know....

My goodness that's a chunky Yellow Perch sir!!!

Are we talking 12" or 14" maybe?

If I caught anything that big I'd have to tear my Stormy Kromer off immediately or it'd get stuck on the corners of my Teutonic noggin due to swelling!!!

Wow that's a lunker.

Hey, as a by the way, have you ever tried bleeding your fish?

I watched a couple videos on it and mean to remember to take some pruning shears with me next trip onto the ice.

It's supposed to cool off again here so if it does, then I'm going to try to go to a local lake where I caught a few last week.

Best to you all this week my friend.

Dwayne

Ha, ha Dwayne !!

Knew that one, would get your attention.

Just shy of 14" !

We used to bleed pelagic species in Australia, Tailor (bluefish), mackeral, tuna etc.

Bleed & into an ice slurry, to cool as fast as possible.

Paul;
Good afternoon once more, thanks for the reply on all counts.

Another question for you if you're so inclined sir, with the understanding that it's been most of a lifetime since I've had walleye and has to be 30 years since I've eaten crappie, but if you were to take a fillet from a walleye, crappie or perch from the same lake, what would you say the difference in texture and taste are?

We used to eat smallmouth and largemouth here, but again it's been a long, long time since I've eaten one of them.

From the same lake as a perch for instance, a smaller bass was pretty close in flavor but perhaps a wee bit more "tough" in texture? A little?

Thanks for the bleeding info too, I might try it just to see what I can see.

Again congrats on the lunker perch, that's a dandy and then some.

Best to you all.

Dwayne

Hmm, interesting thought, Dwayne.

With the understanding, I'll happily eat all 3, I'd say the crappie & perch are finer grained & possibly, a wee tad sweeter, than walleye, but all are neutral, on a "fishiness" level.

bon appétit, Mate !

Paul;
Good afternoon once more my friend.

Thanks for that reply, I very much appreciate it.

That's interesting to read for sure and not entirely surprising to me somehow - but still good to read from someone who has done it recently.

A buddy and I were talking about eating the mostly planted rainbows from our local lakes and we were in agreement that the taste varies lake to lake and then for sure within some lakes during the year.

His thought was when the algae blooms hit its time to stop eating rainbows, but said he thought brook trout held better flavor longer and in different lakes.

When I was just getting back into ice fishing 4 winters back, I went with a buddy up to a mountain lake near his place where we caught some nice 14"-17" rainbows.

My goodness though we should have left them in that water....

If I was going to guess Paul, I'd make a guess that the local rainbows have sold more smokers at Can Tire than any of the sales flyers have.

Thanks again, much appreciated.

Dwayne

Hey 99. Did your boy think it was colder here in Bottineau than where you are nowLol. Edk

Hey Ed,

Doug says colder here, but windier there !

Sound about right ?

Windy here? Hard to believe. Edk

ERK;
Good evening to you sir, I hope the day was well behaved for you and you're keeping warm enough in the latest cool weather.

Thanks for the chuckle, I had to look up the spot you mentioned and see that it's not far from Virden where we used to have family - who moved to Winnipeg where it's never ever windy either.

Actually some of the Winnipeg family have a cabin down at Rock Lake which is just north east of you folks too if I'm not mixed up once again.

Way back in the day I was chatting with a fellow from Wyoming who gave me the impression nowhere else in the world had wind and cold like they did. While I allowed that it was prone to be brisk there, we'd been downtown Portage and Main a few times that we got frostbite going from the vehicle into the store.

Ah, prairie winters!

Best to you folks.

Dwayne

We missed the snow here but got the 20 below but only a 7 mph breeze. Toasty in my recliner. Hope the storm people do ok. Edk

Yeah, no snow here, yet either.

Brutal temps though.

-38*C here, on the way to work.

Sun's out & -22*C ambient @ 11:25am

Paul;
Morning sir, holy smoke that's cold!!

Just got back in from a lake 5 minutes from the house - Vaseux Lake - where I'd done okay for perch a week ago.

It's only -5° but really quite windy.

Drilled the hole and the ice felt punky this morning and was about 4" thinner than last week.

Tried to put up the tent and immediately one anchor point got ripped off the tent.

The anchors really, REALLY were cracking the ice too.

Since Vaseux is part of the Okanagan River system, they vary how much water comes in and out this time of year and there was some open water on top of the ice south of me.....

I give up!!

Back home, microwaved what was left of the morning coffee, built a fire in the garage woodstove and will see what it takes to repair the tent in a little bit.

All of these are First World problems to be sure.

Best to you all today my friend.

Dwayne

We got 12 walleye (3 person limit) on Saturday;



Then 20 crappie (2 person limit), 3 walleye & a perch, on Sunday;



Tempura battered crappie;

Just got back from cruising the Caribbean & Mexico !

Little cool here, lol !

Doug & a buddy, got a couple of dandies, while we were gone !!!





Little bit of wildlife, on the trail, going in;

Paul how thick is the lake ice? The lakes are open here in Iowa.

Thinking still 2+ feet Richard, haven't been out since our cruise.

Thanks Paul.

Saturday;







Sunday;







It's good to be us !

Good going Paul, do the crappie's mean you were fishing Wabigoon?

Not wabi, Wabi !!!

Noice!!! Didja get 'em on jigs?

Crappie were rattlespoons, tipped with minnow heads or wax worms.

Walleye were jig & minnows.

Interesting world, Paul is fishing trough two feet of ice, Barry is cutting grass, and killing copperheads.

Yeah, on account of you can't catch copperheads through the ice. But I hear they're great beer battered and deep fried.

We're somewhere in between in Central Ontario. We had a few warmer days with rain and the snow is almost gone because of it. But it is -3 Celsius (26 Foreignheat) and sunny outside. No one is ice fishing here.

New recipe for us !

Deb made Parmesan crusted crappie fillets, man were they good !





Cheers;

That sure looks good Paul!

Last kick of the cat, as walleye closes this week, till 3rd Saturday in May !







Been a real good hardwater season, for us !

Looks like another great day New_2_99s, congrats on the fatty. I sure miss the walleye fishing east of Alberta, that's for sure!

KB