With all the running to my tip up in 6" of slush my leg muscles took a beating. So Sat I took it easy. Sunday morning was a nice day so I packed up the Fishtrap and away I went. Had another heck of a crappy day no pike this time though. Met Nighttroller there , Nodie, I wasn't introduced to Rico but I figured out it was him and had a good conversation with RJ about the Ice fishing Show in Syracuse.
Monday was put on hold because of the torrential rain, but this rain was a blessing in disguise got rid of all the snow on the ice.
Brings us to Tuesday morning, packed up all my stuff and again to one of my favorites crappy hole. Again parked my fishtrap over the crappy hole and another heck of a crappy day and 1 pike. Had a little heated discussion with the famous Pike Cop, when I first got there I heard him mention to a bunch of guys there that he had just caught and kept his limit of pike but for some reason he put another minnow on his tipup, I said okay he is not supposed to do that because he already has his limit on ice, but I said to myself not much I can do he can say that he is now fishing for walleyes!!! But 5 minutes later he catches another pike and turns around and gives it to one of the fellows that was there. I also let that one pass, but 5 minutes later he does it again, so i go up to him and told him that what he was doing was illegal. It's not like he had an icewell and he was going to release the smaller ones. So I told him that he knew the law and what he was doing was called Poaching. He asked me what he could do that would make it okay with me, mentioning that he could be fishing for walleyes. I said okay but if you catch more pike that he will have to release them immediatly or I would call MNR and showed him the MNR business card I had in my wallet. He said fine I'll remove my line altogether , I said perfect with me. Well he fished for another 30 minutes and decided to pack it in. On his way to shore he stopped by and thanked me for putting him back on the straight line and offered me one of his pikes, he said it was his first time on the ice this year and that he got over excited when he had the pike hot spot that afternoon.
Brings us to this morning I overslept a bit and when I got up it was time to go FISHIN (last day of vacation) Got the spot and with snow on the shiny coat of ice it was a slippery walk to the crappy hole cause I forgot my ice soles for my boots. Managed a lot less crappies today but still it was a heck of a good day. I had kept 4 dead minnows yesterday and picked up half of dozen minnows. The pike kept me busy all afternoon, I caught 10 pikes and right at the end of the afternoon I run to my tipup to pull another pike out and installed my last minnow. Got back to my trap checked the vex and it was lit up had been about 10 minutes without a bite. So I sit down and start fishing , from the corner of my eye I noticed that had a bite on my tipup. I said to myself "Mr.Pike you will have to wait I am busy here" I had total confidence in my circle hooks that I love to use on tipups. So I caught one crappy then another showed up caught that one too, then a third this one was a bit finicky so after 30 seconds he took my jig and I pulled him out. My Vex was now blank so I got up to go release the pike and pack up, it was time to go. Pulled up the line and imagine my surprise a 4lbs 2oz walleye and I am out of minnows. I guess that my idea of letting the fish swim with a circle hook didn't work out cause Mrs. Walleye was bleeding so I called my wife and told her we were having walleye for supper.
Just short of 22"
She had a good belly on her, it was too bad that she was bleeding though cause she was full of eggs.
First I cleaned my driveway then I cleaned my walleye then it was time for Dinner
I don't post my outings too much but because this was a perfect ending to a vacation week I just had to post this story man it's good for the EGO!!!![/img]
