Little Bay de Noc Fishing Reports

catman · Guru

Time for ice!!!

THE BAIT SHOP GUY · Senior Member

From a report that I got yesterday, water temps in the upper bay are at 36 degrees. A couple cold, calm nights is all it would take.

Tomjohn - PERCHER · Guru

C-mon guys..Cross your fingers for cold nights.

slammer · Senior Member

Hey !!!

Time for ice !!!!! --- Besides the ice in my drink for a change!!!
You aint a kiddin it's time. Time to get the ol girl out of the house so I can start tuning my arsenol of Ice Darters and Raps and what nots in the indoor pool again.
Works great for testing the action on all my new lures , as long as I don't fall off the diving board...again!!!
This 40 + degree weather isn't helping matters much. Had a nice early season last year and hopefully we'll get out early this year again.
Looking forward to reading posts here and will be posting myself, Not that it will help anyone other than where not to go...LOL.
Hey Catman, keep us posted on the ice conditions over on your end , and hoping to get togeather some time for some fishin and some laughs!!!
Slammer!!!

catman · Guru

I would love to get together on the ice Slammer, we just need the ice. It can quit raining anytime! I think the Rapid River is higher now than in the spring!!!

jbryer10 · Member

I'm off to the garage on this rainy day to re string my rods and tip ups! Speaking of tip ups anybody have any secrets they use to rigging? Single hook or treble? weight? Do you prefer to let them run or set the hook right away? Thanks in advance!

Fin-Addict · Veteran Member

I like to release many of the bigger walleye I catch thru the ice so I usually set the hook on my tipups pretty quickly when I think there is a fish on. I want to snag the fish with the hook in its mouth before it has a chance to swallow it. I think my hook up ratio would improve if I let them chew on the bait a little longer, but I think the survival rate is very low for a gut hooked fish.

Everyone rigs their tipups differently. Here's what I do:

Spool up the reel slightly over 3/4 full with 20# white dacron line. I like white over black line so I can see what angle it is at when a fish is running. I don't completely fill the spool because the line will gain thickness throughout the day due to ice/slush buildup.

On the dacron line I thread on a small button that will easily slide up and down the line to use as a reference point to mark the depth and to tell how much line a fish has pulled out. Many guys simply use a small clip on bobber or splitshot for their reference.

I attach a 5 foot leader to the dacron using a small Spro hyper swivel with palomar knots. I prefer Seaguar Fluorocarbon Leader Line for my leaders in the 10 - 15 # range.

On the business end I tie on a #6 or #8 treble hook with a palomar knot. I prefer Gamakatsu or Owner hooks. For weight I use a #4 splitshot about 12" inches up from the hook.

I also use hole covers with my tipups so I don't have to screw around on days when it is cold or there is blowing snow.

I'm gonna go thru all my gear this weekend and make sure everything is ready to Rock-n-Roll. Good luck guys....I can hardly wait and just might have to practice jigging in the living room with a couple of beers this weekend!

Tomjohn - PERCHER · Guru

Fin-Addict...I'll bring over a 6 pac and we can jig together.

jbryer10 · Member

I was already jigging in the garage! I made a new base for my camera so it can sit on bottom and I was just makin sure the angle was right! kinda funny lookin at my rap through the camera... gotta have it just right before first ice! Glad I'm not the only one this excited for ice..... Thanks for the advice fin, I tend to neglect tip ups cause I like to jig them up so much I don't bother... but now that I can have 3 lines I have to go for it.

catman · Guru

I simply use 20 pound dacron for the mainline to a ball bearing swivel, then about a 4 foot leader of 17 pound test flourocarbon line to a #6 or #8 treble hook. I'm like Jim and try to set the hook fast so a large walleye doesn't get gut hooked so I can release her. I'm even thinking of not using tip-ups anymore period after having a fishery biologist explain to me the importance of having LOTS OF BIG fish in a system for spawning purposes to sustain the fishery. He explained it this way... It's true you might actually have a higher percentage of eggs survive from a smaller walleye, but that percentage means nothing because of how many more eggs a large walleye will spawn. For example, you could have 10% of the 500,000 eggs from a smaller fish survive giving you 50,000 fry. A large fish might spawn 2,000,000 eggs with only 5% survival, but this gives you 100,000 fry. So even though the smaller fish might have more viable eggs, fish for fish, she won't contribute as much to the system as a larger fish does. Does this mean I will give someone "crap" if they keep a big fish, nope, not as long it's legal. Nor do I care if folks use tip-ups. But for me, I just don't get as much joy bringing a big fish up on a tip-up as I do fighting it on a rod and reel...

THE BAIT SHOP GUY · Senior Member

I like to run things a little different than Kevin and Jim, (really, no two people run their rigs exactly the same.) I like to use black 15 or 20 pound coated dacron for my main lines. The black is much easier to see on the ice and snow, and the plastic coating keeps the line from absorbing water and freezing on the spool on a really cold day. The thicker line is also easier to hold with cold hands. I just use a good sized split-shot to mark my depth setting. I tie a good ball bearing swivle to the end of the main line, then attach an appropriate leader for whatever I'm fishing for - pike, walleye or perch. I have several Tackle Buddies loaded with dozens of leaders, so changing them is a snap. I prefer single hooks to trebles, when using minnows under 6 inches long. I seem to get fewer "drops," with a single hook than with a treble. I also feel they do slighlty less damage to fish, if you plan to release them.

Bring on the ice!

slammer · Senior Member

Hey,
Checked the depth in the pool again last night and it's still 10 feet and still no ice.
Better open a few more windows. Got a new snag in the carpet , as the hooks on those Ice Darters are damn sharp and catch everything. Got it fixed before wifey found out. She'll know the season's in full swing when I start using the pool for a minnow tank again and keepin the live fish in there till I feel like cleaning them. Nothing like fresh fish for dinner!!! Found a few nice suckers in there that I bought from Chris aka (Bait Shop Guy) last year. Boy, talk about lively !!! wink

Catch ya on the Ice !!!
Slammer!!!

catman · Guru

slammer wrote:

Hey,
Checked the depth in the pool again last night and it's still 10 feet and still no ice.
Better open a few more windows. Got a new snag in the carpet , as the hooks on those Ice Darters are damn sharp and catch everything. Got it fixed before wifey found out. She'll know the season's in full swing when I start using the pool for a minnow tank again and keepin the live fish in there till I feel like cleaning them. Nothing like fresh fish for dinner!!! Found a few nice suckers in there that I bought from Chris aka (Bait Shop Guy) last year. Boy, talk about lively !!!
Catch ya on the Ice !!!
Slammer!!!

Damn you crack me up biggrin

.You ever think about doing stand-up???