Friday Fish Porn

 In this installment of Friday Fish Porn I thought we would go with some ice fishing photos, as the bite has been spectacular this year. Enjoy!

Friday Night Ice

  This past Friday I was able to venture out to my crappie hole again. Ice is solid, but the waters have mucked up a bit due to the rain we had earlier in the week draining into the lake. Ice was a solid 12 inches, and the fish where still thriving and hungry. Although the size of fish sized decreased a little we still managed to catch some solid keepers for the frying pan. I was so consumed in catching, I completely forgot to snap a few pics to share with you all. We fished from 5:30-10:30pm and managed to catch about 40 crappie with a few bluegills mixed in. With the temps still looming around 32 degrees we should still have a few more weeks of solid ice. As the temps warm throughout the next few weeks, take caution as some spots may become soft and unsafe. Tight Lines and happy fishing!

Brotherhood Fishing

  This past Friday night I was able to get back out on the hard water for the Crappie bite. A cold front had moved in and the sky was clear with the stars shinning bright. This made for a slow evening of fish, but an enjoyable one to say the least. I was joined in my Frabil shack by my brother. We don't get the opportunity to fish together often but when we do, we always make it a good time.

  We headed out to the same spot I had slammed the crappies a few days prior. Set-up by 5:30pm or so and started marking a few fish, but nothing comparable to Tuesday nights event. First fish was a small gill, and another small gill, and another small gill. This had me puzzled to say the least. "They have got to be here" I told my little bro. He laughed and reminded me he is always my bad luck charm. About 5 mins. later he hooked into a nice fish. As he reeled I smirked "bad luck eh". It was a nice Crappie in the 9" range. From there the bite picked up a little and stayed steadily slow throughout the evening. We did manage to catch about 15 keepers by 9:30. We called it quits do to a lack of propane for the heater and packed up and headed in. The Gulp smelt minnow seemed to do the trick again for us, with waxies still catching a few fish. As we made the trek back to the truck we gave each other a hard time on who caught the most and who caught the biggest fish of the night. I always catch the most, but he somehow always catches the biggest.

 This was the big fish of the evening, a nice 12" slab of a Crappie. Good job little brother! It is always nice to spend some quality time with family while have a fishing rod in your hand. Until next time, Tight Lines!

Night Bite Crappies. A Feeding Frenzy!

  The night bite Tuesday  was one for the books to say the least. I was joined by my good friend Scott around 5pm to head out to a new spot I don't typically fish during the ice season. I usually don't fish this particular area due to a shanty town set-up there always. So we figured a week night would be the best time to give it a try. This particular spot is an old gravel road bed with wooden cribs scattered throughout serving as an excellent fish structure.

  As we arrived to the area we drilled a hole and instantly started marking fish. Scott and I looked at each other and said this must be the spot. We continued drilling, set-up the shack, and then started fishing. In my previous post I showed an image of the gold tungsten teardrop jig we have been using. This was the jig of choice for the evening tipped with waxies and a new bait we have been experimenting with. Due to the fact that the lake we are fishing does not allow live minnows for use we had to come up with an alternative. I am on the fence over the issue, but in the long run it helps prevent the spread of disease and unwanted species getting into the lake. With that being said I think we have found an alternative, Gulp 1" smelt minnows.

 The big key to using these on the small teardrop jigs is to cut 1/4" off the head side of the minnow. This combined with the tungsten jig presents a horizontal and more natural presentation. Gulp baits have become the new alternative to live bait. They perform as well as live bait, but last that much longer in my opinion.

  The evening seemed to start off slow. The first 30-45 mins. we only caught 2 small fish. 1 gill and 1- 6" crappie. It had me boggled from the stories I have heard over time at this particular location. Then all of the sudden it was like someone flipped a switch and it was game on.

Nice crappies started biting, and plenty of them. At first they started hitting the wax worm and then slowly turned over to only wanting to feast on the gulp minnow. Fish where marking all over the water column. I managed to catch fish anywhere between 4' below the ice to 8" off the bottom in 14' of water. Crappies are suspending and schooling fish, but this was unlike anything I have experienced in the past when catching crappies through the ice. My depth finder kept lighting up like a Christmas tree.

 Although this is a horrible pic there are some faint marks on the screen which are hard to see. I need to get my good camera out and charged. This went on all night even while we where packing up our gear to head in. We limited out in a matter of 3 hours. We where able to be picky with the size of fish we kept being that we caught so many. We average 10" fish all throughout the night. We caught 60+ fish during this outing between the 2 of us in three hours. Biggest of the night was 12" with a bunch of 11 1/2- 11 3/4" thrown in the middle.

  Now it is time for a fish fry! It was an amazing evening on the hard water and I can't wait to get out and give it another go. Next time out I will have the good camera in hand and get some more and better quality pics for you all. Tight lines!

I'm Back!

  After a long break from the Blogger & website world I'm going to try and make a comeback. 2 years ago I started TrailtheOutdoors.com and it started out on a good foot, but after some complications, growing to rapidly, and not being able to keep up, I shut it down. Soon after I joined the Blogger world with the Illinois Wisconsin Fishing  Blog. Blake Hamilton took me in and let me contribute to his growing blog, in which I am deeply grateful for. As the hunting season approached in Illinois this past fall, I turned all my focus toward that and fell off the grid for awhile. Along with the holidays and my family it was hard to even keep up to say the least. New years came, and I kept telling myself I wanted to get back in the game and start to explore some new options such as podcasts, more videos, and some more photography type work.  It should be an interesting and challenging journey along the way, but I hope you all tune in and follow along with me during 2013.

  So far this year Ice fishing has been phenomenal. I have been drilling holes and setting hooks like you wouldn't believe. I had my first bad outing of the year this past Sunday mostly due to the weather. I will be heading back out this evening to try getting into some slab crappies. As of recently the hot setup has been a gold teardrop jig tipped with either a wax worm or a 1" gulp smelt minnow.

  I should have a report from tonight's outing up in the next few days. Please add my blog to your feed and I hope you all enjoy what is to come in 2013. Tight Lines!