Just Wrapped - Last Hardwater for This Season

Sunday morning at 1130 my nephew and i hit the road bound for Abitibi. Had to make a 45 minute pit stop at the cottage to pickup gear and had a few anxious moments with the truck. Truck is brand new and i misjudged the range and we almost ran out of diesel in the middle of nowhere. Found some with less than 2 litres left in the tank. Tank is 136 litres and put 134.2 litres in when i filled it. Got to hotel fine had a few drinks and hit the sack.


The next morning dawned sunny, clear, no wind and plus 4 or 5. Absolutely perfect. At the end of the road preparing for the 8km ride by snowmobile to the lake:


https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...1a768383_k.jpg


We went in on the Munro Lake Road and drove 20 km in to where the trail starts. Road condition was terrible and it took 90 minutes each way to travel the 20km. Truck could have done it faster without the snowmobile trailer but that trailer is a highway trailer and any faster and i fear it would have come apart. Few pics of the road:


https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...6fa7f28b_k.jpg


https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...4a217745_k.jpg


The trail in was in fantastic shape and the smoothest i ever remember it. Some years it is horrible. Set a personal best and covered the 8k in 12 minutes towing the toboggan:


https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...16ed9a60_k.jpg


We set up about 2km out from the end of the trail. 24 inches of clear solid ice and 9 fow. Weather both days was sunny and warm and all fishing was done open air:


https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...5dd4b899_k.jpg


Both days saw many walleye, sauger, goldeye and even some perch caught. We kept a limit of nice walleye and put a whack back. Also kept about 20 goldeye for the smoker. Sorta lost track but i think it was about 24 walleye, 15 or 16 sauger and a ton of goldeye.


Select pics:


https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...121fae3a_k.jpg


Nephew:


https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...b26459c3_k.jpg


Myself:


https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...cccb7912_k.jpg


13.5 inch Goldeye:


https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...22be99e2_k.jpg


https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...121fae3a_k.jpg


https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...61068e4f_k.jpg


Largest Walleye was 21 inches and a bunch 17 to 19 inches. Was a great few days other than sunburned faces which i will happily accept.

Sounds a good close of the season

Good to hear !

What a great report, glad you could get one more trip out on the ice.

Awesome report as always glad you had a chance to head back north.

Sent from my SM-G975W using Tapatalk

Nice report Species and glad you were successful

That's quite a treat to be able to have a mess of Goldeye to smoke !. Speaking of smoke, that pic of the truck hood looks like there's the telltale trace of smoke coming from the hood vent. Looks like a bad head gasket?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Fenelon

That's quite a treat to be able to have a mess of Goldeye to smoke !. Speaking of smoke, that pic of the truck hood looks like there's the telltale trace of smoke coming from the hood vent. Looks like a bad head gasket?

---

SmartAZZ! Shoot me a pm if you're ever in Dufferin or up around Nip. We'll chomp a bunch of goldeye, drink some whisky and shoot the chit.

Great write up and trip Joe. I didn't get out ice fishing once this year:madman:

Sorry Species! My twisted wife made me write that childish reply. I told her that's not funny - it's like kicking a man in the pills when he's down!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by huntnmachine

Great write up and trip Joe. I didn't get out ice fishing once this year:madman:

---

Well that's a drag Terry. I did about average this year which considering ice conditions and knocking myself out actually means pretty $%^& good. Managed 11 days on the ice this year. 7 on Nip and 4 on Abitibi. If i had not concussed myself there probably would have been 3 or 4 more days out on the ice. Probably landed 150 to 200 fish and had multiple days and species where i got my limit. Actually had a first this year when my son and i had that bomber weekend. We got checked by the MNR coming off the lake and CO was like holy &^*% - all legal - first time a CO has ever taken a pic of my catch all spread out on the ice.

Glad you're ok, and had a good ice fishing season. Living in Southern Ontario, we do not have much of an ice season anymore. I'm getting to old to manually pull my Clam out on sketchy ice for miles to get to the perch grounds. Lake St Clair and Rondeau Bay have been just that the last few years. If I can't use my ATV or sled I'm not going.....sad but true