Jan 19th-21st Temagami Region, mixed bag

On a smaller lake in the Temagami region this past weekend. Temperatures were frigid, consistently -20 or lower.

Bought a new Mr. Heater Little Buddy and it was a dud out of the box. Went to screw on a fresh 1lbs. tank and immediately heard hissing, started spewing flames from all directions when I went to ignite. Ended up melting the plastic near the connection. Anyone have any issues with this particular heater?

Set up in 30 feet at the end of a bay. Lots of fish came by, high marks near the ice and tight near bottom as well as the occasional suspended marks. Tried a new fly pattern meant to replicate a wax worm, tied it a foot above my bottom presentation. First fish took the fly, an aggressive cisco:

Day 2 was slightly warmer but still cold. Fish seemed to be a bit more active and ended up landing a nice whitefish around 10am after playing several marks. Took a live dace rigged about 3 inches off bottom above a dropshot.

Wow thats a nice size cisco !!

Later in the afternoon, I went to check the dace on my set line, reeled up a foot below the ice and noticed a mark appear just below. I began to lower my rod, peered down the hole and saw a pike inhale the bottom dace. After thrashing at the hole, I pulled up the pike just as it had sliced my leader. An hour later I landed another small pike but this one was right off bottom and felt like a small walleye on the way up. Overall our group caught a dozen cisco, 3 whitefish, 7 walleye and the 2 pike I caught. Despite the cold front, we managed a decent mixed bag of fish.

The second photo is actually the whitefish! I only managed the one photo of the cisco with the fly in its mouth. We did catch a few larger whitefish-sized cisco though.

Very nice! I love a good herring! Nice whitefish too!

Nice healthy looking fish.

Good couple day adventure by the sounds of it… too bad about the heater.

Nice fishing trip. Did you tie that fly yourself or store bought?
I have a Little buddy but it's an old one and may have been of the days of better quality products with that company? I seem to hear more problems with new heaters from Mr. Buddy.

Something I’d like to pick up in the future but these were from a fly tyer named Brian Smith. He ties incredibly realistic flies. I went for a refund rather than an exchange on the heater. Going to browse around more before getting another.

got some nice fish and some good times, nothing wrong with that. Lesson learned aways try new things out before going, can't trust anything anymore to work out of the box. My buddy heater is great, but like mentioned it must be over 10 years old.

Had the same thought, should have tested before the trip^

If it's the little tank top...mine never really worked but never catastrophic...I upgraded to a single element dual setting buddy, it has been good after I figured out you have to open the tank, don't use 1 lbers, very slowly. Nothing more money can't fix...

This one:

I have a little buddy heater with a single ceramic.

When I bought it, it worked for two months and then started shutting its self off. Turned out to be an issue with the thermocouple. This happened during Covid and no one from Buddy Heater would contact me back. After a year of Covid shut downs ended I contacted them again and spoke to them on the phone. They were great. They completely understood the issue and fully warranted the part.

Since then it has run flawless.