We had planned to shore fish this weekend as we have access to a private dock that is on 15 - 30 fow with current so have been told that it rarely freezes. When we arrived at noon, we were disappointed to see it frozen solid. While we were driving to our shore spot, we had seen several areas where people were ice fishing so figured the ice was thick enough in these areas and decided to resort to Plan B.
We didn't really have our ice fishing gear ready but headed home to see if we could scramble some stuff together. Since it wasn't too cold or too windy, we decided to not bring the pop up so just needed one small sled for our gear. Turned on the fish finder and it was working - bonus! so was the auger after a few pulls - bonus! Grabbed some smaller tackle and rods and headed out to the ice.
I picked a spot that we had fished before in about 10-12 fow with a chance to catch perch and pike. There were two people on the ice and a third one was heading out as we arrived. We chipped away as we walked and also had our picks around our necks just in case but felt very safe on the ice we were walking on. We drilled 4 holes to fish and found there was about 6" clear ice and 1" white ice. Within 5 minutes we both caught a fish so were happy to have avoided a skunk.
Things died down a bit after that and we both were thinking the same thing that maybe a pike had moved into the area. About 1/2 hour later I had a bit weight on my rod but came off almost immediately so it seems we were correct in our assumptions. Finally things picked up again and in a flurry of action we had 3 big perch on the ice after both of my rods went off and Glenn's did as well. It slowed down again for a bit when we saw one of the other fishermen catch a decent size pike.
After both groups went in, we decided to try out some other holes and had non-stop nibbling from perch at the hole that the pike was caught at and pulled in a few more. Since it was starting to get dark, we decided to call it a day. We caught about 20 perch total and kept 4 for a meal. Since this area is so close to work and home, we figure we could head out after work once it stays a little brighter out in the evenings.
The two biggest perch....
Had to resort to Plan B, Not bad results
