Erik's fishing rants

Ive looked into building a actual track system for the mini bike by using a old truck tire with the side walls cut off. Seems like I could make one pretty easy like this one. Generally here though the snow on the lakes is pretty thin or frozen hard.

 

I've got an old 1976 340 f/a arctic cat jag that i restored for my ice fishing mobile....pulls me and my jet sled full of gear out on the lake just fine.

 

Alright winter, any day now you can make some ice....

We started getting ice, then it snowed 18 inches, then a few days later it was 50 degrees and raining hard... all the ice we had is gone and we are starting over.

Going to AZ next week, so hoping to get a little bit of fishing in while there. Packing my 4 piece travel rod that I know my wife is going to have a problem with it coming with, but she got me the rod last year for the exact reason of bringing it on vacations with us.

I just need to figure out what baits I should bring with me or if I should just buy a few while there and bring them home with me. Im leaning more to the buy there and bring home so I have more baits at home

 

Alright, fishing report from AZ was we caught nothing. But I did get some sweet lures while there. I got some vibrax minnows that you cant get here in MN. They are a rapala cd on a bluefox inline spinner.

 

Finally ordered a nice baitcaster rod tonight, I got a few cabelas/bass pro gift cards. I ordered a 7f medium heavy st croix premier. Didnt have enough to get the reel I wanted (curado dc), but I have a abu garcia silver max kicking around that I plan to put on there until I get a few more gift cards to get the reel I want.

I peeled the 20lb braid off the silver max tonight, and spooled it up with 17lb mono. I like the feel of mono better than the braid on a nice rod. My ugly sticks are mostly done in braid since those rods are less sensitive.

 

I think I have a tackle bag problem..... I keep buying new ones hoping to find my holy grail of bags. Just got a new YVLEEN sling bag, its actually super nice, has a shit ton of loops and special pockets. I just need to figure out how to fit the things I want to bring with me into it. It can hold two 3600 box (3 slim ones) a few bags of soft plastics, and all my normal tools (pliers, scale, lip grip). I need to get a new terminal tackle box that fits though. But generally I dont use much terminal since I mainly fish rapalas, jigs, and curly tail grubs.

Im going from a bag that fits 4 slim 3600 boxes, 1 3700 box, a double sided 3500 box, and a few more things. Generally I dont use 90% of the things I bring with me when I have my big bag, so downsizing should help me pack lighter.

 

Finally getting out to go ice fishing today! Weather report was for 20 degrees, but its -9 degrees.... glad I got a tent and heater. But Im going with a guy from reddit that I did some kayak fishing with in the fall. Picking up some minnows, a few big ones for the tip ups and about a dozen smaller ones for the walleye and crappies.

 

First ice trip today was a mild success! Got 1 crappie and a few hard strikes. One strike tangled my line in my friends line and he ended up reeling in my bait while I was trying to fight what I thought was a fish.

 

Got my new baitcaster rod today! While looking it over the first thing I noticed was there was no "made in the USA" sticker on it.... wtf, I guess the new st croix premiers are made in mexico now. Not that its a bad thing, but I was hoping my money would be going into the pocket of someone here in the midwest.

 

Friggin lakes here aren't even frozen over yet. This is really unusual. Hopefully it'll get colder soon. I didn't even renew my fishing license.

 

Yeah, we had a really late start this year too. It went from too warm for the ice to form to too cold to be outside... I am hoping next weekend its going to be a little warmer so I can go hole hopping.

 

Playing around with my tackle boxes for summer, I combined my jig and inline spinner/blade bait boxes to drop me from 4 boxes back down to 3. These 3 boxes fit perfect into my new sling bag. Super excited to use this new bag for kayaking, its about half the size of my old bag, holds about 75% of what the old box holds and has a waterbottle holder. The only things that I cant fit in the new bag is my terminal box and my 3700 soft plastic bin. But was able to put a few bags of hooks in the top pouch and a few bags of soft plastics in the bigger bottom pouch (I only use a few soft plastic, but carry a ton of them).

 

I've got my master tackle box loaded with all sorts of stuff as that, but have limited my use to only several that are the most productive for what i'm fishing for. Seems some of the old wordens flatfish and newer yakami mag lip crank baits still are the most deadly throughout the season for trout. Panther martin spinners are good to, but you need to know the best times in the season to use them.

 

Got a little bit of ice fishing in today. Just went down to the goldfish pond, ended up with a single green sunfish, but had a few bites that I didnt hook. Going to swing by fleetfarm and pick up a deadstick rod holder since I am sick of just laying rods in the snow.

 

Got my new rod holder, though the only ones they had were jaw jacker clones. They are illegal to use here in MN, but at least I can use it without the spring part set. But if I travel to other states, I can totally use it.

 

Added some new lures today, they can be used both open water or ice fishing, but they are rapala ultralight rippin raps. I got 2 gold and 1 chrome. Going to try one of them out tonight hopefully, Kids have a sleep over, wife is coloring hair with the neighbor, so im going to hit the ice around 6pm tonight. Not sure if Im going to bring the shelter or just deal with the cold, temp will be around 7 degrees out... I think I need to buy a single person flip over. I do want to hole hop a bit more tonight than usual so I can try to find where all the fish are at.

 

Nice, what species are you targeting at night?

 

Walleye mostly, but crappie too. Plans changed though and Im going out tomorrow... but I also found a smoking deal on a single person flip over ice house. Got a clam Kenai pro for $350 ($100 off), just need to go pick it up later. I also grabbed a few z-viber micros to try out.

 

Nice, usually seems like the walleye bite slows down a bit after 5pm for me. Usually just seem to catch burbot after that.

Let me know how you like the clam. I was also thinking of getting a smaller flipover for solo trips.

 

I should of gotten a small single person flip up last year, but I got a 4 man tent incase my friend wanted to come with... but he refuses to go ice fishing. Setting up the big tent and hauling the big sled for a single person just ends up being a waste of time. Now I can set everything up inside the little flip over and be ready anytime.

As for the walleye, here they usually bite right around sunset, then the crappies come out. I wish we had some burbot here, but I have to go further north for them.