New used FL-8 and Beeds Lake

[Selmer]

I had President's Day off from teaching so I decided to stay local and head out to Beed's Lake, I live in Hampton. Had a great time catching 6-8" gills and a few crappies, one 14" largemouth. The best part of the day was running into an older gentleman that was crabbing at me for not having any sonar equipment, I told him I can't afford it right now, but I do well without it. He said I have a second FL-8 back at home in Hampton with a new battery and battery charge indicator that I'll give you for $100! I couldn't pass it up so now I have my own FL-8, it worked great gettting the suspended crappies in the evening. I always used dad's Zercom Colorpoint up in SD, but that's a long ways for me now. Just thought I'd brag a bit aout my great deal.
Selmer

[Little Worm]

That's a deal. I live down in IF but haven't made it to to Beads yet this year. I know people that did real well on the northerns using tip ups but that was several years ago. I think it has been slow for a while. Glad to hear you did well.

[delmuts]

hey guys ! keep me posted on beeds lake once we have open water. have been wanting to come there and take my uncle out a few times. ( he lives in bradford and is fighting with cancer for the second time) i haven't fished it for many years. thanks . del

[goodyy7]

Ill give you $120 for the vex
congrats on your new toy...hope you enjoy it! Anyone else doing any good out there on the ice???

goody

[Selmer]

I think the most being caught at Beeds right now is what I came off with and the guys around came off with. I was fishing with two guys around 65 that have lived in Hampton for over 30 years and have seen the lake drained and mapped it out when it was drained, they know the lake real well and aren't scared to move to find some fish. The bass was fun and the bluegills and crappies are on the small side, but the still taste good! They told me there used to be a good population of northerns in there until about 3 or 4 years ago some guys really cleaned house with tip-ups, but it look to me like there is good spawning habitat and the northerns should be increasin in population, it's just that the majority of people are fishing with waxies or wigglers. I'm tempted to try some dead smelt, they've never used them, always used chubs for northerns, but smelt outfish chubs hands-down in my home country of South Dakota. Good luck fishing!
Selmer

[Little Worm]

On my way home from Southern Iowa today I stopped at Moffit(sp?) and Big Creek. Lots of snow on the ice and the first time I had ice fished either one of them. Got no fish on Moffit and saw a person catch a crappie on Big Creek. I didn't have a lot of time and was in and out of each very quickly. The others on the lake that had been fishing for a while had not caught anything either.

As for Beads, my dad used to work with the guys that cleaned the northers out of there. They would go to a creek and catch chubs. One creek was south of Hampton on 65 and the other was the one that runs out of Beads. They said they would drill a hole in the creek and catch them out of 6"-12" of water and use them for the tip-ups.