Weekend ice report

[Chrisper4694]

went for some smallies Saturday just with jigging rods. Slow start, only got 1 at 15". Still tons of fun on the panfish Rod though. Moved over to cong on some humps and weeds but only picked up a bunch of ok and small perch and one nice one along with a pickle dart. Small micro his with mousie or gulp caught all my fish.

Sunday fished in the freezing cold rain for some reason haha. Used the same micro jig with mousie/ gulp all day. Found a bunch of small crappie but they were picky as hell and only caught about 25% of the fish I marked any wrong move on the jig made them swim away. Only one perch on our 8 tip ups,

but then I marked something huge and when I set the hook with my 4 lbs line noodle stick it just ripped line at will. I eventually got it near the hole after having to dance the line around the edges for 2-3 minutes.

Big pike probably 30-34". Not sure how he was still hooked by this micro jig and hadn't gotten his teeth on the line. I maneuvered his head into the hole and had one chance to grab it. I couldn't quite get my hand around it and it slinked downward and swiped the line...bye bye. Heart breaker on one of my arch nemesis lakes to top it off! Left soaking wet and cold kneeling in an inch of cold water cursing like a sailor...after I calmed down I realized I should be proud I got it to the hole on that gear anyway.

I'll be crafting a mini mouth gaff to prevent this from happening ever again. I figure it's safer for the fish and me to gaff its lip with a small barbless hook to get it out rather than pulling it out by its gill plate or squeezing the back of its neck or eye sockets.

[AndyS]

WOW ! That is an interesting report with great detail. You won't forget that day for a while

[UglyStick]

Cool report... and I appreciate not grabbing its gills or eye sockets as that is soooo bad... but PLEASE... no gaff of any kind... a generic boga and lip grip would do just fine... please... respect the fish...

[FASTEDDIE29]

Great report dude. Sounds like a fun day out there. It's definately a treat fighting monsters on the ultra lite jigging rods. I wish you would've got the fish through the hole. Heartbreaker but you'll have another chance to get the beast!

[bunker dunker]

its always the way it go's.you fish bigger jigs all day in search of a monster and nothing. you drop the tear drop w/ a mousie down and BANG its game on.the fight
that you get is well worth it.glad you had a great fight and a good day.

[jimmythegreek]

I agree those fish grabbers are the best for ice fishing, seems all the pike and pickeral I pull up have their mouths open a little to grab them

[Andrushkin33]

Great report man.

Being out in a rain .... man that's insane ... Glad to hear you made it out o.

Andre