Ice

I'm ready for some, just saying!

I'm with ya!

we are a long way off! Heck they area long way off in Michigan!! Now that deer season is almost over I'm ready for it too!

Up by Traverse City in MIchigan it was fishable mid last week but they had warm temps and rain. A few weeks away for sure unless the bottom drops on temps.

I ice fished last year more than I had in quite a while simply because I bought one of those adapters to attach my 18V drill to the auger. Went threw 24" of ice in 30 seconds .

I could drill around 15-20 holes on one lithium-ion battery. I have an older Mora auger and a 18V Ryobi drill with high/low. You have to use low or it wont drill.

So, heck yea bring on the ice.....h.h.

My son in law was catching fish on the ice near Traverse City, MI last weekend.

I'm ready.

Nope…..Not going to have ANY ice this year. Going to be dry and in the 50's all winter. Sorry guys, but last winter kicked my azz!!!

I want some ice then I can make fun of h.h. And Arby's

But last year you caught Arby's

Boy.....talk about an insult.. and to think I thought you were a nice kid h.h.

We will see who makes fun of who..... :p h.h.

You might as well surrender

what size auger??

can you post a link?

I have the drill already...

Fished northern Michigan last year when we had 30" of ice. Son in law had one of those fancy rechargable electric ice augers and I wasn't too impressed.

Grant it, 30" of ice is extreme, but we could only get about a dozen holes with a charge. No doubt you could get bunch thru 12" of ice.

If you have to do any serious augering, I'd go with an LP or gas powered unit. No question that you will have adequate power.

Another thing to mention. For panfishing, hand auger work go with a 5" or 6" auger. No need to cut larger holes, an 8" auger is a heck of a lot more cutting. I'd like to find a 5" rig.

I believe my auger is a mora 7" and my ryobi drill is 3/8" but they recommend 1/2" but my drill worked fine. Drill must be 18V or bigger and have a high/low switch or it wont work.
I bought my adapter at a local bait shop and paid less than $20.00. h.h.

http://www.amazon.com/Ice-Auger-Cordless-Adapter-Fishing/dp/B004C75G2O

Never :p :p !.........let the game begin!!!! h.h.

Boy those 100 blugills taste good that I caught ice fishing today......

Luke, how many you catch today???? h.h.

haha Get him HH!! Welcome to my world - wouldn't have it any other way.

So wheres the ice? I'm sure you didn't leave the state

So where the pictures?

Don't count if there no pics

Forgot my camera.......... h.h.

Yeah you did

You've gotta phone right?

My new phone wont transfer pictures to my PC. You know I wouldn't lie to ya...!!!!


Thought about going today but decided to make another 10 lbs of deer bologna....its better than Arby's..... h.h.

Need to get Luke skinning and fleshing those coons and beaver. Less time for him to trash talk you H.H. haha.

You lied by saying you know I wouldn't lie you ya! why won't the pictures transfer? Do you have a grandpa phone

Yep....old style grandpa phone. Need a blue tooth in order to transfer pictures.....one of my teeth is black , think that would work... ???

Well good job catching no fish

Love it! I can't wait to be cleaning a few gills from the ice!

We need to hire Hornharvester and IT guy! LOL, I put all my dad's trapping pics up! He sends me a text and i take it from there, someday i will get paid!


HAHAHAHA, as you can see above i was still logged in as him! LOLOLOL!

The battle is on h.h.

I was looking at my pond today and it have about 1/4" of ice....wont be long now until the fat lady sings!!!! h.h.

Wait your a lady?

I bet that Ice is gone now

Most likely is but Im to lazy to walk down to the pond to find out....

I figure about the time you have to go back to school the ice should be good enough to fish......bummer for your side.. :p h.h.

Getting cold for the next few days! Hope it stays that way!

Ive got a Mora blade sharpening machine I inherited from my father. He and I use to sharpen blades for many bait shop owners here in NE Indiana. I have to do a little work to it and test it out but Im thinking on sharpening Mora blades again especially since they are selling for around $30 for a new set.


Luke dont stand a chance this year! h.h.

Let me know if you get that machine back up and running, HH!

Will do. h.h.

It don't have to do anything with how sharp it is. It's all about the SKILL and you probably only drill through Arby's walls

Sharp auger makes for more fishing time and fish like a clean sided hole.

Im stopping at the bait shop tomorrow for some spikes and a couple secret lures......I'll be fishing next week while you are in school.......hahahahahaha! :p :p :p h.h.

I may invite you down here while he is in SCHOOL and take him an Arby's fish sandwich for lunch after we catch a bucket full.

Poor little guy, that would break his heart! :p :p Talk about rubbing salt in a wound! LOL

Heck maybe we'd get to meet his girlfriend too h.h.

Heck....I'd drive over just to watch that...

After this rain, looks good for making ice! Some guys are fishing up north on 3". They have more guts than me!

HEY LUKE...!!!!!!! You got school tomorrow..????

You get two guesses where I will be... :p :p h.h.

Weedy,

Ive got to get a bolt and maybe a new grinding wheel and the machine should be ready maybe by tomorrow. h.h.

Cool! I have a set that needs attention.

H.H. - Luke wanted me to send this to you:

Im might use that coupon since its 4 degrees with wind chill of -13 up here this morning with a high of 12 for today. Dont mind the cold but hate the wind. h.h.

Actually I don't have school today :p

I bet you aint on the ice either! Its mean outside right now! I just came inside from feeding the dogs and turning on their heat lamps and no more outside for me today. Fishin will just have to wait. h.h.

There is fishable ice in the northern part of the state. Ue caution, because it will vary lake to lake, but people are fishing.

This is "shanty" weather!!

Guys need to be really careful with water that falls and leaves space between the ice and water with the heavy rains last week. Had an experience with this when I was in my teens.

Guys have been fishing at Tri-Lakes for 3-4 days and many other places up north here. With -10 to -12 below temps forecast ice should good by this weekend. h.h.

Here is a Indiana Ice fishing website...

http://www.iceshanty.com/ice_fishing/index.php?board=6.0

Few mods to the old box today! Added some rod holders! Ready to hit it Sunday!

That is a really nice setup.

Dad made that box yeArs ago. My son and I converted to spinning rods and figured we needed a way to keep them clear of each other so the side pods were added today in the kitchen. Too cold in garage!

Agree. Going to make one. Be better than the ole yellow bucket I have used for years.

Seemed like everyone used to fish with a pull behind sled / box about like that. Used to see some pretty ingenious designs.

In recent years, seems like most drag a pop up shanty with their gear, so they can get out of the wind if it gets too nasty.

For years I had one that was open in the front where I'd sit the lantern and then lean over it for warmth. The number of times I caught coveralls on fire was unbelievable. Brings back some crazy memories.

Ive seen a couple wood boxes catch on fire on the ice! One in particular the guy was up moving around and his wood box caught on fire and the fire was 3-4ft high before anyone noticed it. He lost most of his gear. h.h.

That would be horrible :rolleyes:

Another time on Snow Lake many, many years ago, we were having a New Years day party at a friends lake home and two guys were ice fishing out in from of this house.

It was a brutally cold day so he opened up his front door and invited them in for a beer and too warm up. After a beer or two one of them looked out the window and said "Oh crap" and bolted out the door. His wooden box was in flames. He used snow to put it out but the wasnt much left of the box or his poles. We all had a big laugh over his mishap and he too thought it was kind of funny. h.h.

Luke, you heading to Arby's tonight? I think tomorrow the fat lady is going to sing......... :p h.h.

No I'm spending the night at a friends lol And if you don't catch nothin where are you going?

Plan to hit ice tomorrow on a farm pond. Friend of a friend gave me and my two boys a nice shanty and looking forward to getting my little men on some gills. Hope I can post some pics tomorrow!

Pics after the trip Bucks!

I know they've been on the ice in Atterbury for the past few days. There were four guys out there when I drove by yesterday.

Hit the ice with my daughter, yesterday. Caught about 20, and kept 13. Heading back to the ice now. I too use "an old fashion" box/sled. It has a lantern in the end with plexiglass to shine light on te hole. Had it for years. Will post pics.

We also used my hunting blind yesterday as a wibd block. A small heater and it was quite nice. Good luck and be safe fellas!

Got my ice fishing equipment ready today and plan on fishing as soon as my back gets better. Bending over is really hard on my back and when you ice fish you are bending over a lot. When I go to Arby's for 2 for 1 fish sandwiches I dont have to bend over.......ain't that right Luke! h.h.

Cleaned two nice crappie and seven nice gills yesterday. Slow bite but nice little mess to eat. Had about 6" of hard ice under some snow and sluch.

Cleaned about 25+ gills yesterday. Got both boys out for a bit as well as dad and gpd005! Nothing huge 6-7" gills but they will eat just fine. Farm pond with about 5" ice.

Kids look they were having fun. Congrats

I fished a while ago but not for long. I mainly wanted to check out my auger blades. About 5" of ice on my pond. Im heading up north Wed or Thursday. h.h.

This is what I caught, 2 for 1 at Arby's!

Getting ready. Crappie and bluegills beware.

Thinking about hitting wawasee this weekend! Do you have to have a life preserver for each person on a state lake? Any one ever fish there? We have relation just off lake.

Hitting Summit in the morning.

Kick Steve right in the ice hole for me!!!!

No problem!

Im going tomorrow after noon and fish till dark. Got red, white spikes and mousies. h.h.

No you do not need a life preserver on the ice. I have not fished there in quite awhile, but I do know guys are fishing the slip. If you ask around someone will tell you where that is. Main lake ice didn't lock up until recently, so I would be a little cautious on the main lake.

Family lives near Oakwood resort. I was thinking that channel up through there to the Frog would be where we head. I will have to find out where the slip is at!

Had some success at Summit today with Quickfire and his son. Here's 33 of the 52 that were caught. I cleaned 19 and didn't think to take pics. :rolleyes:



Quickfire with a small crappie...



The brutal elements we had to endure... :p Note the fish being pulled up thru the hole on the right.

Weed, ice thickness? Looks about 5 inches from the pictures.

Had a blast weedy and can wait until you make another trip over. Maybe next time you will have some dam heath bars for me LOL

It was around 8" of ice.

I ran out of Heath bars.. I'll stock up for next time..soon!! Had a blast!

Dave, like Steve said,,a good healthy 8 inches of ice. I was actually surprised!

Thanks guys. I hoping to make it over there on Sunday, assuming the ice doesn't soften too much by then.

I fished a large gravel pit owned by Lafayette parks this evening. Drilled 8 holes and found 32' of water. Wasn't even close to the middle of lake. Vexilar never picked up a single fish!

I fished Pretty lake today with no success. I was the only one there. There was a good 16" of ice where I was. Going tomorrow again but not there. h.h.

Got blanked last evening on a lake in Fulton county. Marked a bunch and had a couple bites, but skunked in 2-3 hours of fishing.

Didn't I see a finder now where you do not have to drill a hole to operate the FF? I was thinking the transducer worked on top of the ice……if you put some water down and then laid the ducer in the water???

I bought a new Vexilar FL8 SE yesterday because I was tired of not knowing what was under my hole while ice fishing. Good thing about it was I needed a new flasher for my boat to attach to the new trolling motor i got. I just need a different transducer and the FL-8 is ready to go. Use in the summer for boating and winter for ice fishing. I actually killed two birds with one stone which is unusual for me. h.h.

Had a picture texted to me this morning of a friend on the ice in Switzerland County, 4 inches of ice supposedly, with a nice mess of fish laying on the ice. He said the bite was very good today.

Delaney, the ice should be fine Sunday no matter the temps are Saturday. It was slow out there today, only got 10 gills but they were nice one.

Thanks Quik. I came close to heading to Summit today but fell a little short on time. Got everything ready to go for Sunday.

A friend of mine is fishing on Shacamack and he said bite was slow yesterday and today. I fished my pond today and bite was slow. Im fishing again tomorrow somewhere but not sure where yet. h.h.

My son and I hit them this evening. Cleaned 15 with 5 over 8"! State lake but my lips are sealed! We had to work a little to find them. 13' water and caught most right on bottom. Hoping to hit it again tomorrow.

Good haul!!! We are hitting our crappie hole Saturday. Can't wait. You guys are killing me w/ the pics.

I've borrowed an 8-se and love it! Has for sure put some tough fish in our bucket! I plan to order one very soon! Man I can't wait to get back out, tonight was perfect weather!

Nice mess of gills, I got a fl-8 se and don't think I would fish without one. Makes it so much easier to get on the fish than fishing blind.

I need one of those Vexilars...

18 more tonight but I split with a buddy before I took pic. Slow tonight and had to move a little to find 8-10 of them.

so, is the ice gonna still hold until Sunday?

I think it will be sloppy on top tomorrow but we have been on 8 good inches

You should be ok. Still going to make ice at night.

i fished a small lake and pond today and bite is slow. fish are on the bottom. ice anywhere between 4-10". I caught some nice sized gills right before dark but not many. h.h.

We kept 26 today. All had to be over 8" or had to be thrown back. Only 1 crappie which was disappointing but what a good first day for us.

Did Luke catch any or did he just go along and watch?

I fished late day with a friend and his 7 year old daughter and we caught about a dozen with most being small. Fishing has been tough the past few days. Most guys are catching 4-10 fish on a trip. h.h.

Nice Bean. Ice fishing in shirt sleeves. Doesn't get much better.

Luke caught a bunch and the only crappie. We caught well over 60 today. I did lose one pole. Turned our backs and sucked it right down. 2 fish broke our lines.

Weather was awesome. I just don't understand why people choose not to enjoy God's creation. Great day on the ice with my son.

I have one place where we want to try for some crappie soon.

We fished this morning. I drilled more holes than we got fish! Very slow only landing 4. Ordered a fl-8se this afternoon after borrowing one all week. Looking forward to getting back out when we get cold again.

Still waiting for those coordinates...

Congrats guys! That's a great mess of fish!

Hey I caught more than you and dad :p

Oh and guess what I had for lunch when we were catching fish?

I think he's got ya there, Mike...

I'm winning

When ice fishing its mandatory to eat bologna sammies but you probably ate an old cold cheeseburger from McDonald's ....... h.h.

It aint over until the fat lady sings and she is just getting warmed up. Didnt your dad ever tell you the story of the hare and the tortoise? :p :p h.h.

For now maybe but it aint over yet........h.h.

Cleaned 30 gills that I caught yesterday(8-10 inches). 3 others guys had another 50-60 between them, only 1 speck. Just outside of Morgantown. Ice was 5-6 inches. Most action from 10 to 11AM. Fish for Colts game!

Nah I went to Arby's

Nice job!!!!!!

Thanks, Luke!

Was your ice turning soft Juggler? Nice mess!

I had not quite 4 no way now afraid its over here imo

Our ice was 8-10 inches. But we were on a private pond.

Delaney, my trip was on Friday and even then, things were starting to melt. I'm sure it was a mess by yesterday afternoon. Kind of fun watching them swim off on top of the ice the first couple of times. lol There was no snow on the ice and after the melting you had to be very careful walking around so you didn't step in a hole that wasn't being used.

Divers recover two juveniles after fall through ice (Owen County)
http://nixle.us/8KP76

update... http://local.nixle.com/alert/5338099/

Just makes me sick! Have to be safe and it has been too warm the last couple days. Very sad!

http://www.wthr.com/story/27880758/...the-ice-while-ice-fishing-in-owen-county

This sucks. Prayers for the families and friends. Be safe out there folks.

On a lighter note, I cleaned thirty nice bluegill pulled thru the ice yesterday.

Put in a serious effort, but didn't catch many Saturday. Am I the only one that never does very well on nice sunny days? Always prefer dark or overcast for ice fishing.

Ice in north central IN is getting very wet, but was still 6"-10" of good solid ice everywhere I went (4 lakes). Looks like temps in mid 30's during day and just below freezing at night all this week. Conditions won't be improving any this week, will need to use caution.

Seen guys out on Geist today out by the marina off of fall creek. They are nuts I think

That's my old Ice catfish hole there's a old bridge out there .have caught many,many catfish there

My vexilar fl-8se arrived today, ready for more ice. May need to travel north this weekend and try it out!

Just put 60 fillets in the freezer for meals to come all from fish last week. Love having some gills in the freezer!

You will like that Vexilar. After acquiring one, I wouldn't ice fish without it.

I'm likely to be heading somwhere closer to the Michigan line this weekend to get on some decent ice too.

How far north you thinking to find good ice?

Cutting 6-8 inches in Warsaw, Indiana area up North

Dew, I'd love to fish shock lake up that way! We've caught some huge gills there in the summertime. Ever fish it? Think ice is good up there for Saturday? Any help appreciated!

My buddy fished a lake in Fulton county last evening, said he had 2" of soft white ice on top of 6" of hard clear ice, so still in good shape.

As always, use caution and a spud bar if unfamiliar with a lake.

Heading to slough in the morning. Ice reports on ice shanty say ice is good. Hopefully the bite is too!!!

Good luck! Post some pics! And be safe...

I gotta work...

Only managed two gills. Released them. Very slow!!!

Boiler up!

Looks like a beautiful day though!

Yes! May get in a local pond tonight after seeing 8+" of ice this morning!

Looks like a great time! BD did you find that hat out on the ice that somebody had thrown out?

My boilers won today! Lol

I was gonna say you probably would have caught a lot more if you weren't wearing that hat.

There are some days I feel like the lone boilermaker on here!

I think you might be, haha. One of us will be talking trash after Wednesday night.

I don't say much because IU has been the second rate university for soooooooooo long now compared to Purdue. Sure, we throw them a crumb once in a while with a win here and there but I even look at the educational side of the university and the business side and, well, it should be I WHO instead of IU.

:rolleyes:

I would much rather watch a home basketball game at Purdue. Don't have all those banners hanging in the way to block the view.

Oh yea, to the thread. Nearly all the ice is gone around me.

Old, dusty, and a mere memory, for those who can remember that far back. And I'm done with winter, so to say, so I'm hoping for no more ice!!

NO!!!!! Bring on the ice!! More slabs to be had!

Bring on the ice cause I didn't get to fish yet this winter

Plenty of ice up here! Im heading out Wed for some perch/walleye fishing. Fishing for me this year has been a bust but sooner or later its got to pick up. I think Luke put a hex on me...... h.h.

Need more ice...heading to Syracuse area on Saturday. Going to try some Tri county fwa area lakes.

Had a good morning of fishing Saturday 1/24 on a lake in Marshall county. Had about 8" or more of good solid ice and managed to catch 16 keeper crappie and 2 nice gills.

Looking forward to hitting it again.

Caught 3 walleye Wed and 3 again tonight. Pictures tomorrow just for Luke......... :p h.h.

Very cool. How?

What lake you fishing up there, Steiny? I was raised in Marshall County. PM me if ya don't want to give yer location away.

Oh Luke......do these count now...????? :p :p Yum Yum..walleye fry tomorrow! h.h.

Fishing big shinners on tip ups. h.h.

Went to shock lake south of wawasee and caught three dinks! I mean tiny. Moved up to wawasee and never located a fish on flasher! Pretty slow day! Hoping next week at summit is better!

Great catches horn harvester! Those pics make them official to me!!!

Now THAT made my mouth water!!!!!!!

Nice job :p :rolleyes: No Arby's today!!!!!!

HH NICE JOB@!!! I love catching walleyes!!

What kind of areas did you target? I know where I catch them in the Summer at Summit.

Nice catch HH!

10 ft flats with points and drop offs next to deep water. I was on a point of a trough and deep water. Im working on getting a good spot for jumbo perch when the spawn kicks in the later part of Feb. Planing on heading to Erie next week if things work out. Time to catch some 10-14 lbs eyes..... h.h.

Way to go HH, I want to go to Erie to catch them big eyes BAD.

Nice!