UPSmallie

Been meaning to get some of these http://customjigs.com/products/authentx-pulse-r.html http://customjigs.com/products/authentx-moxi.html#reviews

Sounds like a fantastic outing! Might have to try the canoe thing for some pre-spawn smallies when they stack up at one of my Lake Huron fishing holes. Nicely done

Wow! You're KILLING IT man!!!

Schools out and fishing's on! Planned ahead and planned a splake fishing pier trip for this morning's downpour. You can pretty much only catch them if its raining/windy/stormy in the short amount of time after ice out before the water warms up. Sunny days = no fish. It's a less than 2 week window after ice-out to catch them from shore. In the few short hours that it poured, I had a pretty good time. Countless hits, follows, and hook ups. As aggressive as these fish are, it's often difficult to get one in the net. I used everything from husky jerks, spoons, swimbaits, and dead smelt under a bobber. Was close on a couple occasions, but just couldn't quite connect. Then I helped net a guy's 9 lb splake. Literally 9 lbs!!! We weighed it on his hand scale. This opened my eyes a little. Insead of having the dead smelt sit 6 feet under a bobber, he had a bobber setup, but didn't have a bobber stop on, so his dead-bait would just be laying on bottom. This makes sense becuase splake are very opportunistic with their feeding habits. Before I could make the switch on my setups, the guy hooks up on another one! I help him land a 4 lb brute and quickly rig my smelt for the bottom. 5 minutes later and one of my rods gets hammered. I pick it up and set the hook, but the fish pops off right away. When they feel the hooks, they instantly spit the bait out so you have to be quick. 1 hour later and I see my bobber/indicator swimming in circles on the surface going crazy. I run over and slam the hooks. This time the fish stays on. A guy helps net the 5.25 lb beast just as the trebles pop out. Probably my most beautiful splake yet. Life is Good.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Imakatsu-IK-Bassroid-JR-Triple-Double-3D-Realism-Floating-Lure-523-8515/142718768150?epid=1576440897&hash=item213ab39416:g:~4cAAOSwUQlapfLx

Thanks Guys! Fun times to be had in the winter wonderland that is Michigan lol.

This is kind of long winded, but I'd say worth the read. I'd never ice-fished for splake before, but it had always been on my bucket list. These last few weeks I had heard that they had been catching them down in the usual spot I go to off Lake Huron. School had been keeping me busy and overly windy days had kept me sidelined. Finally, the conditions aligned and I had just enough time to give it a shot. The latest DNR report said there was still ice and the catch rates were moderate. This past Friday I had the afternoon off so I packed up my gear the night before. I'd be tipup fishing with shiner minnows and then jigging various lures and spoons in my main hole tipped with minnows. I get to the bait shop (Wildness Treasures in Pickford, MI) and the guy gets me an assortment of some medium shiner minnows, tons of little ones, and just for fun he throws in a 5 inch sucker minnow. I go to pay for them but he says it's on the house. I thank the man for his kindness and get back on the road. I get to the pier where I catch splake from in the spring time and unload my gear. Out about 300 yards on the ice is a cluster of shanties and fishermen. I get out there and the ice is a lot thicker than I expect. 24 inches of solid ice. I throw out my tipups and start running through jigging lures in my hub. I'm primarily using my medium-heavy Fenwick ice rod and reel combo I picked up from Gander Mountain's going out of business sale. I'd been fishing for about 2 hours when I finally get some action. There isn't much current out there and the water is 16 feet of crystal clear water. You can see right to the bottom. This allows for excellent sight-fishing. I happen to be jigging a 3/4 oz Little Cleo tipped with a couple of minnows when a 4 lb splake comes in hot and bumps my spoon. He then circles around and bumps it four more times before taking off. It's nothing I can set the hook on, but it is some action at least. 4 and a half hours of fishing and I have only seen the one fish so far. I'm jigging the big Little Cleo again with 4-5 minnows on it this time (Chandelier Style). It's 5:30 PM and a blur of movement catches my eye. I look down and see a Splake flash its side and missile-lock onto my spoon! Before I can react, my rod gets ripped down hard and the first splake of the day is on! It takes a while to get him in because you have to wait till they angle their head just right to get up the hole. After 10 minutes I hoist the 5 lb beauty. Alright! I stick with the big spoon and minnow combo. I'm running out of minnows though since all of the ones I'm tipping onto the spoon are one by one falling of the treble over time. I pull in one of my tipups so that I can tip my spoon with the last of my minnows. I have two minnows tipped on my treble and that's it. The only other thing I have left is the 5 inch sucker on my last tipup. I have a feeling that I'll see at least one more splake. It takes a while, but at 6:40 PM, the one I've been dreaming about rolls in. He comes in hot and takes aggressive swipes around my spoon. I know he's going to commit, it's just of matter of when. He makes one more turn and crushes the spoon! I set the hook hard, but the drag is set too loose from the last splake! I frantically try and pump him in to make up for the loose drag, but I'm too late. I feel the treble pop out. Instinctively, I quickly pump in the spoon to the top and tighten up my drag a ton. The splake stripped my spoon completely. I now have nothing to tip it with. Oh wait. I have the 5 inch sucker minnow. I sprint to my tipup and hoist the sucker minnow out of the hole and run it over to the shack. There might be a school close by! I chop the sucker in half and then cut the tail section in half the long way so that I'll have two long strips with bits of tail to mimic what it would look like if I tipped my spoon with 2 minnows. I'm just about to drop my spoon down when I ______ my pants. The goliath I just hooked is right beneath my hole sucking up all of the dead minnows that have fallen off my trebles!!! I can't believe my luck! I know I've said on these forums before that once you hook a fish then it's game-over and you have no chance of hooking it again right away. Could this really be happening?! I drop my spoon down and watch as it flutters down towards destiny. I just know what's going to happen. I bounce it in front of it face. He takes a hard lunge past it, circles back, and then Chokes It Down Hard! The fight takes me literally 15 minutes and pushes my 6 lb suffix to the test. After what feels like an eternity, I lunge my hand into the icy waters and grab hold of my new PB Splake. The beast tapes out at 25 inches and comes out at 6.75 lbs. Mission Complete. I get home and one of them is loaded with not just minnows, but a crap ton of tapeworms. I didn't realize it till after I had filleted both fish and threw them in a bag together so it is what is. I've been told by fisheries biologists that they can't physically reproduce since they are sterile and only plant-based fish, so I don't feel too bad. Well it looks like I have an excuse to get back at it while the ice is still strong. FISH ON!

TOAD. Well Done!

Nice. I pan fried pike roe this past winter and it was crazy because the eggs were popping out of the frying pan like popcorn. The ones that held together tasted like really really really fishy tasting scrambled eggs soaked in fish oil lol. With a lot of salt and pepper though, they were manageable Gorgeous Fish!

Yes! Glad someone else knows what nipply means. Most people just look at me weird. Nice haul as well

Dang! That stinks. I see people doing well on the Erie tribs and some on the Ontario but yeah most likely during those times you are talking about. In Michigan the restrictions are pretty loose. As long as your not fishing a designated trout stream I'm pretty sure they're open year-round in the rivers. Fun fish if you can find them.

If you are going to keep one I'd recommend bleeding it out in water or on ice. Usually I'll run my fingers under the gills and rip a few and then throw it on the stringer and let it sit in the river I'm fishing. They tend to taste pretty good this way.

There's some solid runs on the Grand and Kalmazoo practically all year. I'd try and contact some of the local bait shops and see if they can give you some pointers. This time of year spawn and beads seems to do best under a float drifting though holes or bends in the rivers. The fall is my favorite time to target steelhead because they are flat out aggressive. This past fall I caught some on just about everything - 2/5 oz Little Cleo spoon, 1 oz custom purple spinner, Pre-Rap Mag Wart, Pre-Rap Short Wart, spawn, just about anything that will attract their attention and anger them works well. A steelhead plug strike is second to none. Best of luck. Once you catch one you'll be addicted for life.

The ice may be melting, but the fishing couldn't be better! In January I stumbled upon a whitefish honey hole and despite being hit or miss I still have yet to get skunked from it. I've been going about once a week on weekends and averaging between 3-8 menominees (or round whitefish) in the 8-17 inch range. A few of the bigger lake whitefish can often be seen cruising by but I've never been able to actually hook any of them. Went out with a buddy a few weekends ago and we totaled for 12 fish, 11 of them were menominees with the big 17 incher I got beating out the 15 inch minimum for master angler! Looking forward to seeing what the 2018 MI patches will look like. Also ended up catching a random wild rainbow trout at 13.5 inches! We tried again last weekend and teamed up for a dismal 6 menominees. I wasn't sure if the whitefish fishing had faded for the year. After my classes ended today, I figured I'd kick off my "Spring Break" - More like second winter break, by going after the whitefish again. I headed out to my honey hole and set up shop. It's sight-fishing in 15 feet of clear water with a tiny tear drop jig and wax worm so it can get a little tricky to see at times. Thankfully, today was extremely sunny and the fish were out in full force. I fished for about 5 hours and saw well over 100 round and lake whitefish just coming in non-stop waves. They wouldn't bite at all for long windows and then for short windows they would just crush the wax worm. Setting the hook on them is pretty hit or miss but ended up with my new best 10 whitefish in one trip and was lucky enough to catch one of the bigger lake whitefish at 19 inches!! I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw that I had him landed on the ice. Had to stop fishing because I ran out of wax worms and it was getting too dark in the water for me to see. One of my best days ever on the ice. Still a solid 12 inches so will have to hit it a couple more times before the open water shows up. Fish On!

Beauty!

Nicely Done! Love me some steel

A win is a win!

Nicely Done and Sweet Story!

My best advice is to find the weeds that are vibrant green and flourishing as well as signs of baitfish - perch, shiners, etc. If you kayak into weedy or back bays and are stealthy enough, you'll often see the pike cruising right in front of you. Ice out onwards is a good time to go after them so about late April, early May. Jerkbaits on a steel leader are always a good bet.

Same here. Sorry man. It is a gamble for sure, but I'd just analyze the feedback

I got my 580 G Fathoms from Ebay and they came 100% fine and authentic. I bought mine through a sunglass retailer on ebay though.

Dayum! Well done!

I've been pretty busy with school picking up, but have still been able to make the most out of my weekends. Last week I went out and got a couple perch on the minnow and bobber, a ton of throwback walleye, a throwback pike, a 17 inch walleye, and then lost a monster 3 lb walleye just beneath the hole using a moonshine jigging spoon. It was a pretty good time. Then this past Sunday my dad happened to be walking our dogs down the road and told me there were a couple shanties stacked out near an island only a half mile from our house. I went and checked it out and started sight-fishing a teardrop and waxie for whitefish in about 10 feet of clear water. Using an ice saw I can extend the hole to about 2 feet to make it easier to see. About 20 minutes in and a huge pike rolls up, probably pushing 30 inches. I call up my dad and he brings out my walleye and pike lures with my dead minnows. Shout out to my dad. The pike comes back and takes some hard shots on my #5 Perch foil Jigging Rap tipped with a full minnow. The fish is so finicky though and spits the jig rap out every time I go and set the hook. I head back out again after class Tuesday for a few hours and only see a couple minnows. On Friday I went to the local bait-shop, bought some big sucker minnows and threw them on tipups. I’m jigging a #7 Silver minnow jig rap with minnow when the beast comes back! He charges the jig rap with mouth wide, misses, reloads, comes back and INHALES the bait. I set the hook hard, but he spits it out just in the nick of time again! By this time, I’m feeling frustrated and the tipups never trip once. About an hour later I’m jigging the #7 jig rap again when the fish shows up once more! This time he’s not aggressive and only circles the bait. Keep in mind this is the exact lure he spit out an hour ago. Without hesitation I pick up my #5 Perch jig rap rod with steel leader and minnow and drop it down. The pike comes back with interest but still doesn’t commit. I decide to change it up and start jiggling my rod-tip with fast twitches. It makes it look like the minnow on the treble is having a seizure. The pike spins on a dime, comes up to the lure, fans his fins, and then takes a big bite! Set the hook hard and couldn’t believe he was on! Came out to be a fat 4.67 lber at 28 inches and was only hooked by ONE BARB on the jig rap treble!!! Sight-fishing for pike has to be the most exhilarating kind of ice fishing I’ve ever experienced, and a 10 minute walk away to boot!

Thanks! Definitely. You never know what to expect when you throw your bobber into the turbines.

I know I've already posted these catches, but I had some leftover footage of some bobber-takedowns on the Atlantic Salmon this past summer so I figured I'd put it into a video. Something to look forward to this coming summer. Fish On