Hardwater fishing report

[Ken]

Just thought I'd throw in something different again for you warm climate folks.

What is hardwater you ask? Well, it's ice!

We got ready at 4pm and hunkered down on a few old holes (from yesterday while Matt and his dad was out).

The 4pm Express was right on time...at about 4:30 ...but really, it's just an approximate timing thing

Matt's rod was bouncing and after a short spirited fight, up came this little guy.



After a while of no action, I went to check my other rod that was in shallower water. Then my deep rod went bouncing and I ran to set the hook. This pike came up the hole tail first



We had a pike each and decided to check out a new spot. We fished there for a good hour and had someone came by to ask "How's the fishing" and chat about our experiences for quite some time. When he left, Matt and I decided to return to the original location.

I had just dropped my minnow down and was digging into my backpack for my headlamp when my rod was bouncing. I went to set the hook but the fish had let go.

Matt said "I have a few words for people like you..." when his rod started bouncing as well...and another fish let go...

In between that time, I had dropped my minnow back down again, found my headlamp and was just about to put it on...and my rod went bouncing again...this time, got it!



Now it's almost dark...and Matt said the crappies are moving in (he missed a 5" crappie in the shallow hole). So we rigged up with smaller minnows. I had to watch my rod tip with my headlamp since I'm blind at night . About 15 min later, I had that characteristic crappie tap, and the subsequent sideways line movement. So I waited for just another second and set the hook into a decent crappie



After another 10 min, I had another crappie on...which was about the same size. Another 5 min later, another 10" crappie came up.

This whole time, Matt was sitting and waiting for the non-existent bite...so I though..."Hm...maybe it's my headlamp that's attracting fish under my hole."

So I tossed my headlamp to Matt...and in 5 min, Matt had a fish on. It looked like a bigger fish and we thought it was a nice crappie...turned out it was another pike and this one cuts Matt off. Bummer

After that, Matt puts down his other pike rod down but we had nothing came by for 10 mins...so we decided to pack it in for the day.

For a while, I thought I couldn't catch fish on the ice anymore, especially after fishing hard on 3 Haliburton lakes...Nah...still got it!

[Ken]

For those of you who wonder about how we do it...here's a picture from another trip that shows it pretty well...



We drill a hole in the ice with an 8" auger (think shaved ice machine...pretty much the same concept...a blade on the bottom and a metal auger to bring the shaved ice up the hole).

Once we drill through the hole, the water rushes up and fill the hole. The remaining ice that was shaved is now part of the slush that's in the hole. So we use a scoop to scoop out all the slush.

Next, we set up our icefishing rods. We usually use bait like minnows, waxworms and maggots. The rods that we use are short rods between 24"-36" long. Most of the time, we use light lines from 4-10lb.

And the rest of it is pretty much like regular fishing. Drop our bait rig down the hole, and wait

Alternatively, we can use jigging spoons and jigging lures. It's lots of fun and I'd say it's one of my favourite way to fish.



Here are just some more pictures...

On our way to Haliburton driving through a snow squall...



And after 2 hours later, it's still snowing!



The scenery at night...after it stopped snowing hard.



One of the lakes we fished in Haliburton



My buddy Matt waiting for a bite



My "rod holder"



More scenery during the day time on our way home

[skunked]

Thanks for the report. Sounds like fun. What's the largest fish you've ever caught through the ice? Must be pretty crazy with that 3 ft. pole!

[Ken]

My heaviest fish so far is a 4lb lake trout and a 4lb pike. The longest fish is the 4lb pike...which was 24" long. Yeah, it's really fun fighting a fish on a short rod. Plus, you're fighting a fish through a hole, so you are restricted to a circle of 8" diameter for your line above the water. Sometimes it could bbe a real challenge!

[Stan Wright]

"Hard Water"..... that's good. LOL I've been in Hawaii too long for that kind of fishing. Is that normal snow fall or were you in that big storm thing that shut everything down the last few weeks? I'm geting cold just looking at the pictures.
Nice catch, thanks for sharing.

Aloha,
Stan

[Ken]

Hey Stan, no, that snow is pretty typical. It's what we call a snow squall (whipping wind and heavy snowfall). The snow we had was lake effect snow. As cold wind blows across the Great Lakes, the wind picks up moisture from the warm lake. Once the wind reaches land, it cools down again and the moisture condenses and freezes into snow. It happens often in Ontario and in the states that surrounds the Great Lakes (especially New York...and especially Buffalo )

We went out today again...took a 2 hour drive (one-way) just to get skunked (we got a little rod bass...but that wasn't what we were looking for). We had the GPS to retrace a spot where we hammered them last winter...it got good weeds this year but we found no bites. Oh well, that's why they call it fishing.