Finally hit the ice for real
I bought some new toys last year but due to the crappy winter I never got to try them out. Some of the new gear includes: Eskimo 650HD hub shack, Marcum underwater camera, new tackle, and a Pelican Trek 94 sleigh.
I went out in January, set everything up, drilled a hole and hit a gusher! Ended up with 4” of water on the ice! I was by myself and was concerned about slush, so packed up and went home without wetting a line or trying our the camera.
Fast forward to this weekend. The weather was super mild, so I decided to hit the ice. My objective was to try a nearby spot for jumbo perch. The ice was hard-packed and no water came up when I drilled through the 2’ of ice. So I set up everything including the shelter and foam mats for a floor covering. Although I didn’t land a fish, I did see a few perch on the screen… but they weren’t jumbos.
Sunday was even milder so I went back to the same spot to give it another try. I managed to land one whitefish - which i saw first with the camera. Very cool! The day was super quiet and I only saw one other fish - another whitefish which cruised by without giving my lure a glance.
I would say that the trips were a success as my overall goal was to get familiar with everything and to see how much gear that I could pack into the sleigh. I really want to get out ice camping so this was a pretty good practice run.
Here’s a photo from January when 4” of water came up through the hole. I tried attaching the image of the fish using the underwater camera but it wouldn’t load. Very frustrating!
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