Okay Fishing – Frustrating Season

[WalligatorGetter]

Well, here goes my first report.
My ice fishing season has started out a bit slow, and also pretty frustrating. The walleye action hasn’t been bad, but it hasn’t been as good as last year either. I’ve been catching a few most of the times that I go out with one or two usually being big enough to keep. I’ve been using the big, number 7 and 9 jigging raps in bright colors such as firetiger. Also, I never tip them with a minnow head. It doesn’t seem to make any difference in the amount of fish that I catch, and takes a lot of hassle out of it. The biggest problem with putting a minnow head on a Rapala, for me, is that the added buoyancy of the minnow head dangling beneath tends to flip the bait over on the free-fall, which usually results in the hook getting tangled in your line.

I’ve been fishing in 24FOW in the Kipling area. However, that is going to change soon. This brings up my second subject – how frustrating this season has been for me. The reason that I won’t be fishing there much longer is because I’ve been pushed off of that spot. It is my number one spot, and a fantastic spot it is. I took limit after limit there last year. And I had it all to my-self too, well, except for my buddy QuackerWhacker2 who I didn’t mind a bit. This year, however, that spot is nothing but a shanty town. And in that shanty town, there are a couple of different people who seem to want to get rid of me. I don’t have a permanent shack, and every time I go back to that spot one of them has their shack sitting right over the top of the holes that I fished in the prior day! Hmm . . . seems like an awfully strong hint to me! I’ve gotten suggestions on what to do about it, but I just can’t do things like that! I guess the only thing to do is to give up my number one spot to these guys – even though some of the, smart ***, alternatives would make me feel a lot better. The last thing I want is to give them their way, but it’s public water and there are no rules that say that you cannot set up 20 feet from somebody else, or take their holes knowing dang well that they will return for them. Therefore, the only thing I can do is leave.
Some people . . .:mad:

[duckiller2]

You have caught more fish than anyone I know. I think you could drill a hole in the sand and catch fish. 2009 total you said was 211 keepers both boat and ice. Even last night you caught fish in you 3rd spot this year because of those other shacks. If you want to move I will go with you. If you want to stay I got your back. Do what is right and you will never be sorry. Forget those other shacks lets just fish. I do wish we had it like last year though :)

[fatdog]

i understand where your coming from. there should be a law on how close a shack should be from you but there never will be. but everyone should keep what i call a shacks distance away from you. i like to be by myself because of noise reasons. try to stay away from any groups, well until they move in and their kids drive laps around you with snowmobiles. oh boy..

[WalligatorGetter]

Yeah, it really is frustrating when your spots get congested. I don’t know if I would go as far as to say that there should be a law on how close you can set up to somebody else’s shack though. I guess I think that it should be on a first-come first-serve basis. I don’t think that it is very fair to place a permanent shack out on the ice and consider that spot and anything within 30yrds in any direction reserved for yourself whether you are there or not. I guess what I am saying is that people just need to use common sense. If there is a shack on one of my spots and I know that nobody has been there for a week, I’ll fish pretty close to it. However, if I know that the guy comes out every night, I usually won’t fish within 40 or 50 yards.

[WalligatorGetter]

Well, here is the update from my search for alternate fishing spots. Today I decided to give the open water a try for two reasons, A) it felt really good to set up hundreds of yards from the nearest shack, and B) I thought that the big hawg walleyes (the ones I like to fish for) should still be using their fall open water patterns this early in the winter. I set up out in the middle of nowhere over 40 FOW. Going out there, I knew that I would not be coming in with a limit because there is nothing out there to concentrate the fish. However, I also knew that if I caught a fish or two that they would most likely be very sizable fish. That is why I like to call this method “Hawg Hunting.”
I tied on my ‘go-to’ bait – a #9 FireTiger jigging rap (baitless). However, the method that I was using to fish with it is more thought of as a lake trout method than a walleye tactic. I would drop it down to within three feet of the bottom and snap it up 3 feet or so several times really fast, let it sit for a few seconds, and snap it some more. If nothing came in, I reeled it up about five more feet and repeated the process. If nothing came in then, I’d reel it up five more feet yet. I pretty much fished it anywhere within the bottom 15 feet of the water column.
I ended up marking way more fish than I thought I would. That technique seemed to be extremely effective at calling in the fish from a distance. I only caught one fish, and one dink, but I had many more come into view that wouldn’t bite. The fish that I did catch, however, was a pretty nice one – 30 inches, 8.5lbs. She came in near the bottom. And after rising up three feet to my rapala, she engulfed it, and I do mean engulfed, I could hardly reach it with my pliers!
Anyway, probably something I will be doing again soon. However, I wouldn’t even attempt it without my lake trout technique! I can’t even get them to look at live bait this year! I have been fishing with tip-up/suckers all season and am yet to catch a walleye on one. I have caught a couple pike on them though, nothing wrong with that, but it is somewhat disappointing when you’re expecting a 26 inch walleye and a 26 inch pike comes up the hole.

[The Bait Shop Guy]

I thought that the big hawg walleyes (the ones I like to fish for) should still be using their fall open water patterns this early in the winter.


I have been fishing with tip-up/suckers all season and am yet to catch a walleye on one.

If you want to target bigger fish with live bait, you're going to have to beef up the size sucker minnows you've been using. The ones you've been getting are too small. You'll need to start using the bigger 8 to 10 inchers. I'm not saying you can't catch big fish on small suckers, but bigger is better when targeting "tanks."

[WalligatorGetter]

Hey, thanks for that input Chris. I wouldn’t really say that I specifically target the “Tanks” though. They are simply the ones that I enjoy catching the most. I have nothing against those tasty 18 inchers either. They just don’t get me exited like the 10 pounders do. That is the biggest reason of why I buy the smaller suckers. They just seem to be a good all around bait. The hawgs will eat them, but they aren’t big enough to intimidate the 18 inchers either. However, I’m sure that you are right about the hawgs preferring the 8 inch suckers. If I enter the Jug Borbeau tourney where it is hawg or bust, I’ll have to get some of those from you, or, maybe even if I don’t. As I said before, I haven’t caught a walleye on a tip-up yet this year, which is funny because I did decent on them last year. I guess I need to try something different. Oh well, things change from one year to the next. Have you heard anything about what the people who are catching fish on tip-ups are doing (rigs, depth, etc. . .)? Are they all using the big suckers or are some people catching fish on the smaller ones like I am using?
Thanks,
Oh, and by the way, I went fishing tonight. I caught 8-10 little dinks, and lost a monster. I’m not quite sure how big, but the mark, the fight, and the dead weight all suggested that it was bigger than the 30 that I caught last night. Isn’t that always the way! Oh well, at least I saved myself the $250 to have her mounted.