Early ice pike...

[Random guy]

ICE? How is the ice? Ice predictions… Reports of ICE!

As we scroll through the forums these topics are becoming more and more frequent. As ESOX hunters many of us are getting tip-ups ready for first ice pike. That clear black ice, the sight of browned weeds floating below your feet and the image of a flag springing up while the spool spins into a blur.

I know I am pretty excited to go set a couple of tip ups and kick back in the folding chair and wait for the pike of a lifetime to come sliding out of a ten inch hole.

In the back of my mind I worry about all of the great guys that frequent this forum full of bait chuckers. I would hate to lose any fellow sportsman to the frozen depths under the ice. With that said please be careful as we venture out onto the fresh ice, remember ice has no feelings and it doesn’t care about your family left behind.

So watch your step, pay attention to the ice, how it has formed cracks, and if you have any question at all about the safety of what your doing give it a couple of good cold nights to drive that ice down a little farther. That big ol pike will wait for you, she has to eat every couple of days.

So good luck, be safe and may you post many pics of big fat nasty ol pike.

[fishin magician]

I have a early ice spot that I will be hitting hopefully soon. The first few inches of ice has been the ticket over the last couple years. Soon as it thickens the mighty norts leave the area. It is like clock work.

Not un-common to get 20+ flags in one day.

[Steve Foss]

I fish first ice on a sheltered bay of Birch Lake near Babbitt. Big, big pike. Pike over 20 taken every year. This'll be my third Birch Lake early winter. Last year (or was it year before? time goes so fast when you're getting old), iced a big very fat 39-incher. Wind was so strong and temps so low I just did a quick length measurement and put her back without a girth measurement because I didn't want her eyes to freeze over and didn't have a damp rag there.

That's the biggest pike I've iced, and I'm planning to hit that bay on Saturday. There's ice already, though not much, and our low temps are at or below zero the next two nights, with single digit lows on Friday night, with highs in the teens tomorrow and Friday, and 25 on Saturday. That'll be ice enough, I reckon.

Once it hits about 3 p.m., I pull up the tip-ups and fish evening 'eyes from my portable at the same spot, so it's a nice double-duty location.