Solo for a couple of hours...

I HAD to go fishing today to test out the power auger with the drill handle (I had mentioned in another post) to see if it worked better.
The conditions on the surface has gotten worse since the last time I ventured out to where I normally fish...decided to give up since there was a very wide/long patch of deep slush out to where I wanted to get to even though I knew it should be better out there. That slush slowed me down so much that I decided, I was wasting fishing time so decided to stop and try... first set of holes, no marks for 30 mins so picked up and moved a bit. Second set of holes. Strange blobs popped up regularly and I am assuming they were smelt (kind of looked like them - they would be interested in the lures but nothing aggressive but I didn't have small smelt hooks with me to try to get some...maybe next time).
After no marks of "real" fish for almost 2 hours, I started to get decent marks right on bottom...I got the first decent mark to chase about 15 ft before it decided to hit. Up came a 20" laker (decent size for eating - cleaned boneless and mudline-less and gave away to another couple who like fish but don't know how to clean fish). About 10 min. later (after dealing with my laker and being able to get back to focusing on fishing), another couple of good marks that I got to chase but they took off. 5 min. later, another good mark right on bottom and I got it to chase about 15 feet up thinking I was going to get it...turned away and back down it went so I dropped to bottom and it came back and I got it to chase again but only about 5-10 feet so dropped back down and did the tiny bottom bounces and I can see the fish still hanging out around the bottom...line goes slack, hook set and this one fought better than the first and actually all the lakers I have caught so far this winter....it was a WF!! Yay!! And it was the smallest fish I have landed this winter so far at just shy of 20" (so I have another fish to enter into the derby....and into bellies). After the first fish being a laker (again), I was starting to wonder Iif I would ever get a WF this season. Hard trudge back to the car...good cardio!

Nice fish John, glad you were still able to land some despite the conditions. The whitefish have been elusive for me as well this season. What is your new drill setup- are you using a Clam plate?

Great job! Good healthy looking catch

Nice catch - tiny jigs will get those smelt to bite. It’s annoying when they’re always there and won’t go away so ya may as well try to catch them

Yeah, I use to do that on Simcoe (and the Simcoe smelts can be huge too) when I fished the whole day so there was time. These days, I can only stay out a couple of hours at a time so I prefer to be ready for something to come into the area than try to get the smelt.

I've gone as cheap as I can...not the best as I have posted on another thread. I have converted my hand auger (8" Finbore) into a powered auger with an adapter than had a swilling handle...that forced me to use my left hand on the drill and brace with my body so the drill can't kick the drill away from the body...using the right hand on the drill, it teds to not kick my right hand away from my body (I can see that causing some potential wrist and elbow injuries). I believe that adapter was about $30 new but I had it for a long time and had bought it on clearance for a really cheap price. I don't see them on selling these things anymore and now know why. I was thinking Clam plate (if you go this route, I would say go with the Clam plate pro even if you can find an older model one...for the extra $5 or so, it comes with a spring already for the switch so it springs back in place...the old model didn't have this and people have made modifications to their plate...easy enough but getting the hardware to do it will cost as much and the time doing it will be wasted.
Drew suggested using the handle that came with my hammer drill (I think most, if not all?, hammer drills should come with this handle). I tested it and much better for stability and control of the drill. I use my right hand on the drill now and the left on this side handle (no more kicking out). It's is a much lighter addition than getting a Clam plate (if weight is an issue), comes with the hammer drill so no extra costs and one point that was not made was that with the Clam plate, it takes a little bit more time to take the drill out to drill your ice anchors with just the hammer drill side handle, all you have to do is detach from the auger and drill away for the ice anchor (leaving the side handle on). No more cost, less weight and the increased ease of putting ice anchors made my decision for me even though a Clam plate looks like a much slicker set up.
The drill is a Ryobi brushless hammer drill that has up to 750in/lb torque (and I agree with others that this is almost certainly the max torque this drill can muster) so is barely enough for an 8" auger (esp. a hand auger)....may do much better with a newer auger but those are not cheap either. It works and I am in no race to drill the most holes...getting 2 holes in to get fishing is sufficient (and it's not long to get 2 holes punched in 12" ice - faster than hand augering even if the drill stalls). Ryobi is far from top of the line but for my home project's purposes, it's plenty enough and being able to use it to drill ice holes is a huge bonus.

I went out in almost the same weather conditions as yesterday. Found a snowmobile track that had brought the slushy areas above the snow and had frozen over so it was easier walking. But I did have to wander off the track and slush city....enough to go slightly over the top of the boots so my feet were a little wet. Only had about 1.5hrs to fish today (got out later). Smelt, smelt, smelt was constantly marked but never anything dense...they were just almost always there. I wasn't planning to move once I set up given the conditions and little time to fish. I only marked one decent fish when I had everything packed up except for the sonar and rod (second rod was already packed)...drop to bottom, tap tap tap....nothing. Started to bring the lure up, up, up and the chase was on...up ~20 ft and fast....and turned away...damn, I thought it was going to hit. Dropped to bottom and back it comes and up up, up....chase is on. 5 ft and....it turned away and for good this time. Oh, well, you win some, and you lose... most. Could have been an average day if that fish hit but got skunked. I'll have to make up for it the next time with 2 or 3 fish Yesterdays' WF is history and kept a little bit of the laker which I thought was pretty good but after one bite by my little one, it was back to the WF he ate of it again.