ldsaylor
12-28-2010, 02:22 PM
Well I have to thank Mother Nature for making it an already cold winter in the midwest and allowing the lakes to freeze. I always travel home to Northern Indiana for Christmas and this trip I was fortunate to have 6" of ice on the lakes! My brother who lives there let me know of the good news a few day before I flew back.
So we got out on the ice 2 of the days I was back home and the bite was steady the entire time. My brother and I are primarily Tip Up ice fisherman. For those of you here in So Cal that have never done it I will explain briefly and I have pics below to help as well. We like to use a Tip Up equipped with slip sinker, braided line, steel leaders, and a #2 treble hook and live Pike Shiners for our gear. We target Northern Pike and manage the occasional Largemouth Bass since it is Northern Indiana where we fish. We also panfish a little sometimes while waiting for the flags to go up on our Tip Ups.
The bite for Pike Fishing in Winter was really good for 2 days. We didn't land the 40" plus Pike we were looking for (although we did lose a Monster right at the hole that we think may have been close.. ugh!). But over the 2 days we did manage to pull through 14 Pike (4 over 28"), about 6 largemouth bass, and a number of blugill, big red ear sunfish, and a few crappie.
It was a blast to get back there and do something I have done since I was a kid! Fun way to spend some time over the holidays before I had to fly back out here to So Cal. Here are the pics of the carnage!! Enjoy!!
Oh yeah. All pike and bass were released. Kept some of the gills and crappie for a nice fish fry :)
Here is a Tip Up set and ready for action..
http://i783.photobucket.com/albums/yy114/ldsaylor/IceFishingIndiana12-2010006.jpg
And this means we are ready for action!!
http://i783.photobucket.com/albums/yy114/ldsaylor/IceFishingIndiana12-2010017.jpg
And the result is a nice 28" Northern Pike..
http://i783.photobucket.com/albums/yy114/ldsaylor/IceFishingIndiana12-2010018.jpg
Here is my brother with the lunker of the trip. A hard fighting 32" Pike.
http://i783.photobucket.com/albums/yy114/ldsaylor/IceFishingIndiana12-2010014.jpg
So we got out on the ice 2 of the days I was back home and the bite was steady the entire time. My brother and I are primarily Tip Up ice fisherman. For those of you here in So Cal that have never done it I will explain briefly and I have pics below to help as well. We like to use a Tip Up equipped with slip sinker, braided line, steel leaders, and a #2 treble hook and live Pike Shiners for our gear. We target Northern Pike and manage the occasional Largemouth Bass since it is Northern Indiana where we fish. We also panfish a little sometimes while waiting for the flags to go up on our Tip Ups.
The bite for Pike Fishing in Winter was really good for 2 days. We didn't land the 40" plus Pike we were looking for (although we did lose a Monster right at the hole that we think may have been close.. ugh!). But over the 2 days we did manage to pull through 14 Pike (4 over 28"), about 6 largemouth bass, and a number of blugill, big red ear sunfish, and a few crappie.
It was a blast to get back there and do something I have done since I was a kid! Fun way to spend some time over the holidays before I had to fly back out here to So Cal. Here are the pics of the carnage!! Enjoy!!
Oh yeah. All pike and bass were released. Kept some of the gills and crappie for a nice fish fry :)
Here is a Tip Up set and ready for action..
http://i783.photobucket.com/albums/yy114/ldsaylor/IceFishingIndiana12-2010006.jpg
And this means we are ready for action!!
http://i783.photobucket.com/albums/yy114/ldsaylor/IceFishingIndiana12-2010017.jpg
And the result is a nice 28" Northern Pike..
http://i783.photobucket.com/albums/yy114/ldsaylor/IceFishingIndiana12-2010018.jpg
Here is my brother with the lunker of the trip. A hard fighting 32" Pike.
http://i783.photobucket.com/albums/yy114/ldsaylor/IceFishingIndiana12-2010014.jpg