Hell with the Ice

[Smallie]

This ice fishing season is already a monht to long i'm going through summer with drawls like no tommorow. Just think of how much we look foward to wetting our line for the first time of the soft water season. I've been dreaming of this for over a month now.

It's a great spending countless hours out in the boat with great friends testing our skills to the highest limits evey time on the water. 2003 tournaments are being posted daily making it more eager to get back on my boat wich may as well be a house boat.

Guys ice fishing is great sitting around playing cards beer cold on the ice. Lots laughs just plain old bull ****ing. But in my mind the only place I want to be is on the trolling motor setting the hook into some pig with fat belly.

How long can a person take this misery.
Anybody know of a good bass addict mental institute.

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Cory Putnam
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[Crawlerman]

Hey-- I've caught numerous bass off tip ups, and while jigging for bluegills and crappies; it can be done, espically in lakes that bass are the pre-dominant preadator fish in. I'm hoping to set up some tipups with shiners this year on Orchard off the dropoff near the reeds and see what I can get. I had a blast there this summer with some nice bucketmouths. Sure.. your not pitching that $6 lure at them but eh.. those things never catch bass for me. Pike yes, bass: no. Most of my bass fishing is done with live bait-- so it's a matter of a Slip bobber and minnow VS a tipup and minnow. Not too much difference for me... (Minus more fun with a fight of course...)

[Crawlerman]

I release most, yes. Espically the larger ones. The smaller ones around 12" make good eating, but the larger ones have tougher and occasionally "muddy" flavored meat... and thus we also want to preserve the larger fish, right? I see no harm in taking the smaller 1 lbers home for a fry; A lot of people have misconceptions about the flavor of bass, but the smaller ones can be quite good. I stay within my limits; and with even the smaller ones I usually only take 2 or 3 home with me at most.

I see your point on prefering to fish them open water, I do too. They are more active when the water is warmer, and put up a better fight. It's also impressive when a big one decides to break the water; they can put up a fairly good display of Aerobatics if they so choose to. I'm not a hard core typical "bass fisherman" in the fact that I target multiple species of fish. I've just found it hard to convince bass to take artificals in metro lakes where they are regularly sought after and released. Unlike pike (who if mad seem to attack anything) They seem to learn what a "plastic lure" is after awhile. The only bait I've had any sucess with for bass is Crankbaits, but having to go into a lot of the heavier cover they don't work all that well.

And I am going to have a chance to do some open water fishing, perhaps with some Bass-- as I am going down to AZ in a few weeks; my grandpa has a boat down there he brought with him, and we are going to try a resivor he knows of that is fairly close to him. I heard they are stocked with trout and Largemouth, and a few other species.... lucky me

[Dano2]

Your right, bass are good if you prepeare them right, well, atleast to your likeing.
I use to just catch them for fun too.
Then my buddy told me they are good eaten,
I cut my fillets in chunks, soak them in milk for an hour or so, then do the old shake and bake except with shore lunch and then fry em, mmmmmm

[Smallie]

I don't want to catch bass through the ice. The only place I would like to be cathching bass is in my boat.

By the way I hope your releasing these fish that your cathcing. I just ask because your using live bait?

[Crawlerman]

Yup. And theres a lot of meat on even the smaller 1lb class-- it's actually healthy to take some fish of that size class home for the population. Less competition for the big uns. I dunno.. Smaller Bass of that size don't taste all that different from a Bluegill in my opnion...

[Chev_trucks501]

Hey Smallie,

I hear ya! Is the ICE gone yet? I go ice fishing maybe once a year... I just can't get the hang of sitting there looking down a hole.. Can't wait till it comes off. I'll be breaking ice with the boat just to get it out. Hang in there. Only a couple of months left!

Chev

[catchin'whopper]

I hear ya smallie and chev truck!!!

Maybe the best idea is to plan a spring break trip south to Texas or something. I have done numerous trips to Lake fork in mid march and it is the perfect break between hard water and open water. the anticipation to be getting on the water down there albeit sometimes seems long, but it offers the perfect interuption to winter blahs. You get back and you have a month and a half to open water/season, and you can start using some of the bedding tactics you learn in texas on the wisconsin lakes that open early!! it is a blast! big fish too, common to catch 3-5 pounders all day long, fun to see the 8-10 pounders every now and then too, stopping your heart! i had a 10+ on but had the drag too tight, heard the piano spring breaking *ting* and came back with a bent hook on my jig and lizard, what a trip though!!

[Crawlerman]

I'm going to AZ next week; The resivors down there hold mostly trout and bass I'm told.. will have to wait and see.. but it will be a change to actually cast a line again . Ice fishing's fun too.. but open water is da bomb

[Smallie]

I can't take it any more Jan 24-27th I will be pitching jigs. It's only 5 hours from Alexandria. 50 to 70 degree water depending upon what part of the lake your fishing.

It's a good time it will be my third season of doing this its usually about 10 to 35 degrees much colder than the actual water temperature.

It's just good to wet a line during this boring winter ice.

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[Lew]

Hey Smallie, I'm already itchin' for soft water fishing myself. It doesn't help when I keep reading posts on Riversmallies.com from smallmouth fisherman in the south and east bragging about catching fish on New Years Day. I'm hoping that we'll still see plenty of snow in February and early March so that our streams won't stay so low and then a nice spring without major flooding. I know I'm asking for a lot, but if you don't ask you certainly won't get. Good Fishing Folks!

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Lew

[kt]

I know the feeling guys. Winter sucks! Nothing beats a quiet summer morning at the crack of dawn on the lake busting big bass. In my mind i can visualize the aerial leaps of a four pounder disturbing the peaceful morning. Man i can't wait.

[SluggoMaster]

For Arizona reservoir fishing, this time of year, I recommend going with natural brown or orange crawdad baits on a football head jig. You need to find the warmer water, which can be difficult, since all of the runoff comes from the mountains up north. The bigger fish come from *small* rocky coves with *some* wood cover, which there would consist of Yucca trees, and other submerged cacti.

Scott
(Occasional AZ bass'er, since I live in MN)

[Crawlerman]

We didn't catch any-- bass, trout or otherwise. On one of the resivors there was a shallow sandbar that had warmer water where we saw multiple people fishing. We scoured that area and got nothing. We saw one guy come in that had one nice Largemouth and a smallie on a stringer-- but I was too busy helping get the boat on the trailer to find out what he was using. We threw everything from live Nightcrawlers to plastic lizards, crankbaits, inline spinners, topwater lures.. etc. Wish I would have seen this post eariler, as I might have run into town to buy some plastic crawdads, ah well. Grandpa had his mind set on Golf today, so we didn't get out. Ah well.. it was nice to be able to have a chance to drive a boat again and wear shorts... It's gonna be a LONG winter from now on.. I'm allready starting to think of what needs to be done on the boat next year...

[This message has been edited by Crawlerman (edited 01-12-2003).]

[Smallie]

I Just can't see myself eating a fish that tastes like dirt when you can catch so many other species that taste good.

Bass are not an eating fish there a sport fish for fun.

Sorry I just strongly believe bass fishing is a sport.

[Smallie]

Crawlerman,

go to Alexandria Area lakes for show all topics from last year. Check it out page 5 on the release article. Then get back to me and give me your thoughts.

[Crawlerman]

Bass taste like Dirt? I agree-- LARGER fish lose their flavor-- but have you ever tried a smaller one? They have nice, clean flaky meat. Small bass rate up with Walleye in my book for table fare... but I agree-- the bigger ones take on a whole nother flavor and texture. It's almost like two different fish. The big ones are the ones that matter, eh? And I usually only take 2-3 of the smaller ones home with me.. well under my limit. I see no reason to limit out with Bass..

[Crawlerman]

Oh.. and that article doesn't mention anything about NEVER keeping fish to eat; as you said-- eyes over 18" go back. I can come to an agreement there. I have to admit I've kept many fish that were larger than I should have-- but I was a kid then-- what would I know? At the same time I am not going to give up my love for eating some, and I do say some, of the fish that I catch. I usually only keep enough in my freezer for a couple of meals or one fry.

[Smallie]

Crawlerman, thats great i'm glad that you are consistent with releasing sponars. Most of us have all kept a fish that was to big for eating. Now we are starting to realize we cant do this any more to proctect our love and passion. Good point but no I will not eat any small bass although yes I use to once in a while. WHen I was younger.

Atleast you eat a mixed bag of fish.
I hadnt had a meal of fish yet this winter until last night. Few decent perch and nice eating walleye.

Good Fishing

[basser]

Good article Cory. I agree with keeping a few small ones for eating. I noticed that in your article you said to not put a fish you plan to release on a stringer or in a livewell. Makes it kind of hard to tourney fish if you dont bring any in!

[Smallie]

Basser,

hey that would make it **** hard to compete.
Those are the qoutes from the DNR in that article"

Thank you I thought that we need to stress more attention to fisherman still practicing these old methods.

[Cyberfish]

><}}}("< ---I release 99 percent of the bass i catch, but I wouldn't say they all taste bad, depends on the water they came from. I had a shore lunch of bass while in the BCWA, it was almost the best fish I ever ate.
If you want the best tasting fish, and no limits, try burbot! nothin' better!

[Smallie]

Crawlerman , where in the states were you?

Too bad for those bass on a stringer I don't why anyone would ever want to kill a smallie.

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[Crawlerman]

Arizona. Eh.. I agree the two fish he kept were a little big for "keeping" but I have no problem with keeping bass under/around a pound for eatin purposes. These looked like 3-4 lbers though... Anything over 2 becomes tough instead of flaky for eatin anyways and sometimes retains a muddy flavor.

[Crawlerman]

Yes.. I'd like to try Burbot some day, unfortuneatly it's really not an option in my part of the state.

Walleyes in the Metro are eccedingly hard to catch for me.. they are a lot rarer and smarter then other parts of the sate. And I won't eat fish of the Minnesota or Mississippi; thus limiting number of good walleye waters. I am also more of a Bass/Panfish fisher as they are easier to catch, in this part of the state atleast.

Thus is why I keep about a quarter of my smaller bass to eat. Again-- usually fish 11-13" between a pound and a pound and a half. They are usually kept with bluegills and/or crappies, as as I said eariler I never keep my limit. Catfish are a treat, but getting them out of a body of water other than the Mississippi or Minnesota river is a challenge. I hope to do more exploring for cats and eyes on the St. Croix next year however. Largemouth Bass have just been an easier fish to catch for me, and I gotta have some good eats once in awhile. The walleye elludes me, and I don't think fishing for eyes is nearly as much fun as bass, in the metro area atleast. Fishing eyes on Mille Lacs is a blast and I have no problem letting them all go.