Best story of the past season

[pikehunter]

I don't know about anyone else, but I'm getting cabin fever waiting for the opener.
Just thought as the ice season has ended, (or is ending in some places) some of us could share our favorite story of the past ice fishing season.
(I love to hear the stories on this site.)
Anyway, thought it would be a great way to bid ado to the season that was ...

Happy fishin!
(ain't it always?)

[WallEYES]

PIKEHUNTER
It ain't over yet!

[jigglestick]

i'm not a very good critic of my own work, but i would have to say the one that sticks out in my mind is the "weekend with burny" post on url. thanks again burny (bruce)
use the search feature at the top and dig it up. worth the effort!!

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keep your stick on the ice!!! jigglestick I.B.O.T.#5

[Guest]

I am 37 years old and still don't know good advice when I hear it. Leave the Otter at home you told me. I would be cursing it all the way.
I was in a group of 5 that went camping in the BWCA. There the last day of Feb and first weekend of March. First mile was ok. Cross the lake on skis. Next mile nasty. Steep hill about 1/2 mile long, glare ice all the way up. Step off the ice flow and we were knee deep in water. On a hill! Turns out that there was a beaver dam on top holding back a small swamp. I crawled on my belly using ski poles as picks to get to the top. Still not cussing my Otter.
Camp on missing link. 34 degrees, sunshine, one brook trout, great day. Slept great in my -40 bag and 4 season tent. I set it up against some rock near shore. Shoveled snow to form a wind break on the other 3 sides. Best camp ever.
Next day, started out nice. Pull my Otter to and then to the other side of Tuscurora. No fish. Big snow storm, temp drop. Blaze trail all the way back to portage. Cursing my Otter!! Cross portage back to camp. Hate my Otter!! Just in time for chow. Spagetti and sauce, garlic toast.
Two kids didn't show up befor dark. Cold and snowing. Myself and friend back to Tusc with lanterns. Searched for 3 hours, no signs of where they entered woods, all tracks snowed or drifted in. Back at camp by 10 pm, soaked, dehydrated and exhausted. Two boys a sleep in their iglo. Turns out they blazed trail back from Tusc through some nasty blowdown. Just couldn't make time. I was not angry, just happy that all was ok.
Slept great.
Woke up to -35. That is 35 degrees below 0. My bag really works good. I was sore and exhausted. New snow. Break camp. Head back to cars. It's Sunday and the trip is over. At least with the exception of the walk out. I tried to light my Otter on fire. (kidding) I hated my Otter. I was so exhausted. Why can't I listen. One of the kids actually pulled it the last mile for me.
Drank lake water the whole trip, still not sick.
Lessons learned.
1. Go light. No fishing tents
2. Be in shape
3. In my case, forget the fishing and just go sking. It was wonderful. No other people the whole weekend!
4. Take your drinking water out of the hole before you drop the smelt with the garlic fishing attractant down it.

This will be an annual trip. It was way too fun. The cold was nothing because I had the synthetics and the wool.

Thanks to this trip, I have been dieting, and working out. I went from 250 lbs to 228 (6'4 frame) and can run 2 miles up hill. Those college kids will have nothing on me next year.

You all have a nice site here and I appreciate being able to be a part of it. If any of you are looking for some Western Wisconsin Mississippi River action I might be able to help. At least point you toward a great site/message board where all your questions would be promptly answered. Kind-of like this one. E-mail me for the site. I don't suppose the administrator wants it posted here.
Woolybugger

[Surface Tension]

LOL
woolybugger I remember that bit of advice.

http://fishingminnesota.com/ubb/Forum4/HTML/000928.html

[Guest]

I had a record year for hard water fishin this year as I was able to go on 9 weekends. I know this does not seem like many times for youse guys out there but it's a rare thing to get good ice out here in eastern Ma. My best day was in Feb. Got out later than I wanted cause you just can't find good bait places here that open before 8:00 am. Punched my five holes and before I could get my tip ups in a guy comes over and starts punching holes no more than 20 yards away from me! Of course that kinda gets me mad but I get over it. I don't even have 3 of my holes baited when I get a nice 16 inch bucketmouth bass. Then I get another one two minutes later 17 inches. Then I start getting Yellow Perch bang bang bang I'm running all over the place catching them. The other guy is getting zip so I feel even better. He comes over to be buddies and try to find out what the heck I'm doing to get all these fish. Of course I'm not giving him my secrets. Then he asks if there's any Crappie around so trying to be nice I tell him "I got a bunch over there on the other side of the pond next to the Yellow house" He heads off to get some and just after he gets setup I catch a nice 13 inch Crappie and start hootin and jumping up and down to get his attention to show him the fish. Payback is hell!!! Maybe he will ask to fish so close to anybody next time!

Wishin2BFishin

[loc9fisher]

i know you guys have better stories than this one, but this is my first year ice fishing and this story makes me chuckle at my own dumb luck.

i was up in the Aitkin area with a friend and his uncle(both have been fishing for year) for the last day of the pike/walleye season. and i was told his uncle has a little "tourny" everytime they get together. uncle likes to target the big fish and what he uses for bait was bigger than most of the panfish i caught this year, so uncle thinks this way he's a shoe-in winner.

so noon comes around and im sick of sitting in my portable by myself, sore butt, and not caught a fish in a few hours, i talk the guys into grilling some burgers. we were out grilling and having some cocktails for an hour/hour and a half. well, all this time i left one of my lines down, a simple poor man rig - hook, 6lb line, apple sized bobber, and a 2 foot long muskie rod - all gifts from the father-in-law who thought i should start ice fishing this year. oh yeah, even the shiner was given to me.

ill be honest, i didn't think anything was going to bite. i left the bail open just in case my moronic luck decided to kick in and a fish would happen to take the tempting shiner. after an hour or so, i get cold so im gonna go warm up and check on that one line. as soon as i open the door i notice the rod is not in the same place as when i left, so i look at the hole and the apple's gone. i grab the rod, notice the bail's tripped and almost all the line is pulled off the spool. and by almost all i mean that the line had only a couple of wraps left on the spool.

so i start reeling line back in not realizing there's a fish on the other end. a couple of minutes later(and not because the fish was fighting) i finally get all that line back and a northern coming up the hole. so i grab him and notice that the line is wrapped around his top jaw 3 times and was just barely hooked in the side of the mouth. hooray for dumb luck!

anyways i ended up catching a 6lb northern, my biggest through the ice. took a picture and let him go. and i also learned what i shouldn't do next time i go eat lunch.

[deadeye]

I think that my best story was from the Fishing minnesota get-together on Burntside lake. I got there late, said I would get a fish and I did, my first laker, 32 inches of fight. then after everyone had a couple beers they all piled into the ice house and broke the floor. It was a good time! ><>
deadeye

[pikehunter]

I'm not sure this fits into the "Best story" category, but this season I had the unpleasant experience of taking my longest in-portable trip across the ice.
I simply stood up to stretch and WHOOOOOOSH, 200 yards across the bay later me and my portable finally came to rest.

[The Chemist]

I believe mine will be that of helping my 3 yr old son catching his first channel cat a 4lb'er through the ice. He still talks about it, and of the FM'ers that we have met out fishing.

[dfv87]

1st trip out on the ice with my new portable, drilled holes to check depth all over a point, finally decide to fish HERE. open up the portable get it in position and brab my gear sitting on the sled turn back just in time to see my portable skidding on the ice (with no snow) across the lake. a 8 minute ride on the atv to grab it off the shore and then pull it back , leave it tied to the atv we fished and had a great time. Spent other times catching more fish but laughed and had the most fun that day.