A Windy Day on the Ice!!!

[Matt Johnson]

I made it out with Ray Esboldt to North Center Lake today. We found the crappies but not the size we wanted. Mostly 7-10 inchers. But boy were they aggressive! They were more then eager to meet the jig half way and inhale it on the way down. Made things easy for us We searched shallow and deep and couldn't find the slabs. The wind and conditions made things a little difficult but we managed. Glad that Ray brought along the 4-wheeler and the Ice Grippers, or else it would have been a long day

After fishing North Center until about 11am we headed over to Chisago Lake and met up with Exudedude for a little more panfish action. We found the crappies and gills but they were not as active as in the past and the conditions spooked the fish. The wind picked up and fishing productivly got harder and harder. We managed to catch a few nice gills. 14-15 feet of water.

The wind and slippery ice conditions sure made things interesting today. Walking on the ice without Ice Grippers wasn't what I had in mind, but we made due. (Ray just had to carry us ) A day on the ice is still better then a day not on the ice.

Good Fishin,
Matt Johnson

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[This message has been edited by Matt Johnson (edited 12-28-2003).]

[Big Roy]

I was out on Chisago also today, got some nice sunfish and a few crappies but I have not seen blowing like that since I rented Deep Throat.

[CrappieJohn]

Hey Matt, we had the big blow here as well. I was out at a local lake and at times the wind would literally pull the water up and out of the hole. You certainly did not need to jig your bait unless you were fishing the column up then down. Saw four other FMer's there- Bogsucker, Jim W,Dennis Steele, and Dark 30_ trying to jig up some catfish, but I left before they had any luck. My fishing buddy and I were able to entice a bunch of sunnies into hitting, no craps though. I think I'll go back to the river with the boat when the wind is blowing and let it do something constructive for me.

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Sure life happens- why wait....The Crapster....good fishing guys!
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[RK]

Hiya,
Yeah, kind of a wierd weekend on the ice. Was up in the Walker area and fished Leech and a couple smaller lakes. Water all over the ice, and you had to sort of pick high ground along cracks to drill holes in some places or you ended up fishing in a whirlpool, which drives me nuts. Leech for walleyes was poor, but got on a small carry in lake and did ok on crappies and gills Sat. am. Later that day I met up with a friend to try a different lake for crappies. Drove out, and the ice was perfectly clear, with 1-2" of water over it. Was sort of eerie. My girlfriend had never driven in a vehicle on ice before, and she was a little freaked out. Got some pictures of my truck sitting on what appears to be open water, which should look sort of cool.

Wierdest thing was finding the spot. My partner and I were looking for an isolated hump that's sort of tough to find. Usually it's a lot of stop, dig, pour a little water and shoot through the ice then move a little and do it again. This time I just set my LX-3 in my lap, hung the transdeucer out the driver's side door and started driving. My friend did the same, so here were 2 trucks driving in circles shooting through the ice at 20 mph. Never done that before

Worst part though is all my gear's soaked. It's now scattered all over my basement airing out. Usually it all just lives in the back of my tahoe all winter, but I'm afraid I left it in there it'd all freeze together and I'd have a Frabill/Carhart/MarCum/Mr.Heater/Thorne Bros. freezer brick...

Cheers,
RK