The muskokas, Laker Day

Today was the best day I've ever had ice fishing, I was up in one of my favorite spots and I put 9 lakers on the ice myself, all on the tip up. Non stop action all day. Every single one tangled with the other lines so I was re-lining and untangling all day but well worth it. Probably would of had more if it wasn't for that. All decent eaters. The three of us selectively harvested and kept 4 fish between us.

The day started in epic fashion. We showed up at the lake by 6:15am. Out on the lake and setup by 7am. First thing first I left my big buddy in the back of the truck with all of the propane and it was frozen stiff wouldn't ignite. We played around for an hour trying to get heat in the -33 weather. Thank god there was no wind.

Finally we give up and my one buddy had a propane burner and 1 tank in his backpack. We turned it on so it would warm up a bit and we started fishing. I dropped my first tip up down and focused on rigging my jigging rod. Keep in mind that these are brand new tip ups and I'm new to tip ups in general. I just got my rapala airplane jig tid on when out of the corner of my eye the tip up is yanked down and into the hole in under a second. I drop my rod and dive for the hole. as the tip up gets pulled just out of my grasp I'm up to my shoulder in the hole with my sweater and coat soaked through every layer. (remembering our heater isn't working yet. I drop every curse word in the book while my buddies are howling in laughter and I stare at my tip up being dragged down further and further out of sight. Thinking quickly I grab my jigging rod and drop my jig straight down to the bottom in 71 ft of water and start jigging like a mad man. sure enough a minute later I get a snag and realize what just happened and I start jumping up and down losing my S#!T on the ice pointing and laughing at my buddies.

I reeled up my line and grab the other line and sure enough my tip up emerges out of the deep lol. Then I start winding it up thinking the fish has gotten away. it feels light. get it about 15 feet from the hole and see a little laker just swimming along with my spreader. First fish of the day haha. My buddies could not believe what happen.

I then went on to put 9 on the ice while they each only landed 1. So who really had the last laugh? I'm going back on wednesday going to try a little deeper for some big guys.I could fish for everyday for the rest of my life and that would never happen again.

the keepers

Great save!!! Appreciate taking time to post.

Did the propane in your larger tank 'warm up' once you got the small stove working?

-31. Wow!!!

If tank frozen -one consideration to warm it up slowly is to immerse in water. Sometimes the water freezes to the tank but once going, have tank near the heater . . .

Thanks bluenote. We did get the main heater working around 9:30. The small burner did work well. We resorted to putting the tanks in our armpits in our jackets haha but that just made us colder and didn't really warm the tanks up that much. That is a very good idea by submerging them in water I imagine the water is still much warmer than the -31 weather outside. I will put that in my playbook.

Thanks for the advice

nice fish. glad you didn't lose the tip up!

Thanks bluenote. We did get the main heater working around 9:30. The small burner did work well. We resorted to putting the tanks in our armpits in our jackets haha but that just made us colder and didn't really warm the tanks up that much. That is a very good idea by submerging them in water I imagine the water is still much warmer than the -31 weather outside. I will put that in my playbook.

Thanks for the advice

If the water is wet then is at least 31° warmer than the tanks.

Have to be aware of risk of running tanks while in water -the water will freeze to tank . . .