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Water
Bodies Services Interactive Misc.
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Last Ice Walleye
I got the chance to head out with a friend of mine and his brother to experience some late season walleye action. It was an all day outing and all seemed good to go. We met at the lake and walked out pulling our gear on small plastic sleds or carrying it in five gallon buckets. The nice thing about this time of the year is the cold night temperatures harden up the snow into a nice weight bearing crust that makes walking nice and easy. Location for the walleye was determined by my good friend Tom. He set us up on an under water finger point that held a constant depth up on top but dropped nicely to a nice tapering slope to deeper water. At this transition is where we set up. As we could set up six lines we covered the area. Two at the drop, two up shallow and two a little deeper. Bait of choice for this time of year are minnows that are 4-6 inches long. Either a plain hook and split shot or a 1/4 ounce jig once through the dorsal of the minnow was what seemed to draw the most interest. These were set up on 3 foot home made ice fishing rods. The reel's drags were loosened right off. The rods were set in rod holders and then watched. We were exchanging some talk when Tom took note of a subtle bouncing of his rod. "The minnow is doin' the dance 'o' death." he says as he slowly gets up. All of a sudden Tom's rod is bent over and the drag is singing. It was like the starter's pistol, at the 100 meter dash for the sciatica nerve foundation, fired and the funky hobble was on! Tom took the rod out of the holder and opened the bail to let the fish run. When the line stopped spooling out, Tom closed the bail and adjusted his drag and set the hook. There's no mistaking the massive head shakes of a big walleye. As the water is cold and we were suited with super line and strong leaders the walleye was at the hole in a relatively short time. I guided the walleye out of the hole and promptly gave it to Tom for a few quick photos. Nice fish! Weighed in at 9.21 pounds.
Tom landed one more respectable walleye and his brother iced a nice one. As like anyone else I had to wait until the next day to catch one. Ice conditions change very rapidly. I was comfortable on this day but the next day had my heart pounding as it was very soft and had us being very careful. Be sure to wear a floater suit, have hand held ice spikes and a length of rope in case you run into trouble.
Roger Mayer.
MacIntyre or ScrapIntyre? A little look at the "side lines" of what's going on. Lower End Oil Change. A little tid bit on the ol' outboard
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