Had some fun on Da Pond today.

[DTro]

It sure was a nice day on the ice today. Aanderud and I headed North to try out Paul's freshly plowed road out to the Mud Flats. Our intention was to chase the aggressive Tulibees out there. We did this quite a bit last year and had a blast! For anyone that hasn't targeted them as a primary species, I highly recommend it.

We stopped in a chatted with Paul for a few minutes, picked up some bait and our road pass and headed on out. We were greeted by a thick fog as the sun came up, and after we arrived and starting unpacking, it was quickly discovered that we only had one Flasher. I won't say who forgot theirs, but it wasn't me.

So as a run was being made to rent a unit from Paul (thanks Paul) I stayed back and started drilling a bunch of holes along the edge of the flat, up on top, and out in the deeper water in "no man's land". I hopped around a bit and found a fish pretty quickly right on the very edge of the flat. The silver streaker couldn't resist the gold rattln flyer with a short mono dropper.

This was a good sign because one Tullie usually means a bunch more!

As a bonus we ran into some nice Perch and also a few small walleyes.

After flurries of fish up until about noon, the bite REALLY fell off. We hardly marked a fish between 1 and 4, and then as our shadows got longer, the bite started to pick up again. Pretty much the same as in the morning. Tullies mixed with Perch and 1 nice eater eyeball.

There were a lot of people out on the Flats today and we found our best luck was out on the the deep side no mans land away from the crowd. This was about 75-100 yards off the edge of the flat in 36FOW. The fish seemed to prefer an aggressive jig style with an occasional mud pound and then a finesse finish. The Perch we caught were absolutely plump full of larvae and were purging them after coming through the hole.

We had about 19" of ice and Paul/Appeldoorns has a very nice road out there. On our way back we discovered that Paul had found a crack opening up and we were greeted by him with rerouting instructions over a new bridge (when do you sleep Paul?)

Good times and we even got to take a handful home for a meal/smoker!

that big red orb hitting the tree tops never gets old....until next time

[Huntin&Fishin]

Nice Report and Pics!

[griff321]

Now I have no choice but to head up this week. Thanks.

[certified jumbo]

sweet!!!!

[Cheetah]

Making it look easy out there yesterday. We found just the opposite. Didn't see anyone else doing much better. Can I have your coordinates?

[DTro]

Well I've been on both sides of that one when it comes to the bite.

I was happy to get into what we did considering the large number of people out there and how few fish we seen others catching. I think we finished the day with 13 keeper Perch (tons of dinks mixed in) 16 Tullies and 3 walleyes.

As with every day on the ice, you just keep trying things until you see some sort of pattern. Yesterday it was getting out deeper and hole hopping.

All things considered I think it was still a pretty slow day compared to some trips we had last year. A lot of people feel that the bite only gets better as Feb rolls into March. Not much Walleye season left, so it's great excuse to get out there.

One tip I can offer is to check out Tony Roach's videos he puts up on YouTube and Facebook. He does substantially more drilling and moving then we do, but he always stresses the hole hopping aspect or "Ice Trolling" which involves working the structure looking for "Christmas Trees" on you flasher (referring to school of fish being marked). And then when you find them make every effort to pick as many fish off as you can. For example, Brian found a school yesterday in one of his holes and he nearly caught half of our days total in that one school. He was getting that fish unhooked and the jig down there as fast as he possible could. Sometimes you only have a few short minutes until the fish move on.

[randallt]

Looks like fun

[fishersofmen]

We were out on Saturday as well. A beautiful day out there, my 9 and 10 year old boys had fun just running around on the ice all day in sweatshirts. We got a few perch and a few eyes, one was 24". Its funny you mentioned the Tony Roach vids Dtro because we were watching them on tube before we left! Moving around is the key for sure, I was surprised to see so many people with portables just sitting in one spot. A ton of people up there, every single tiny piece of structure on that lake had 1-100 houses sitting on it. I was just laughing driving around with the gps on trying to find any spot with structure that was left alone and eventually just gave up and fished deep.

[rbs]

Awesome job you guys. Never caught a fish until prime time...left the lake with 6 between 16-17"...was very hard to get the keepers...kept getting the "oversized" type after dark.

[Rippinlip]

Looks like a blast, Thanks for sharing Dtro.

[Jeremy airjer W]

Those tulibees are great pan fried!

[Kyle]

DTro,

I also love to chase Tullibees! I haven't been able to get on them this year yet like I did once last year. I love to smoke them. I would like to hit mille lacs within the next week. Are you interested in teaming up for a day on the pond?

[DTro]

I try to get up there as much as I can, but it's quite a drive for me. I'll shoot you a PM Kyle if I decide to head up anytime soon.

[Stick in Mud]

Great report, Dtro....there are lots of places on the northwest side that have NO ONE on them and are full of tullies. You don't want to drive out up there, but you can get on some completely unfished flats if you've got a snowmobile or a wheeler.

[Nilsfisher]

Great report! Looks like you guys had a blast.

I haven't ice fished up there in years! I fish it fairly often in the summer months.

Mind if I tag along next run you make? or meet you guys up there?