Well, everyday except since March 5 (except for Sunday) I hit Newton to end the ice season. All in all, it was a great week.
On Saturday, March 5, I went out to get some perch and ended up catching as many as I wanted. I hooked into a few tiger muskie here and there, but didn’t have any luck landing them. However, a group about 70 yards from me landed a beauty (see first pic). I didn’t catch the measurements, but managed to grab the picture. It was the first one I have seen up close and personal. Pretty cool for me. Right before that one was landed, my buddy’s brother landed a nice 36-incher at the other end of the reservoir (see second pic). As you can see, it was a pretty nice day.
I ventured back out on Monday (March 7) with my buddy, his other brother, and his dad. Edges were starting to get a little more sketchy, but our 10-foot plank handled the job just fine. We started about midway up the lake. Between the 4 of us, we hooked into 6 muskie where we started. But we are all rookies when it comes to landing them through the ice, so we didn’t get any of them landed. Some wouldn’t take the bait all the way, and others broke off because we weren’t patient enough at the hole. We moved to the south end of the lake and my buddy’s brother ended up landing a 31-incher. Again, a pretty fish (see 3rd pic).
I headed out there solo on Tuesday the 8th. Beautiful day (see pic #4). I got into a ton of perch again. Came up empty on the muskie again. Hooked into 4, and struck out and then some. I enjoyed the fights though. A lot of fun.
Wednesday, went back out with my buddy. We got back into the perch again, and it was a chilly day. Cloudy and a little breezy. Between the two of us, we hooked 4 muskie. I lost the two I hooked into. Like an idiot, I forgot to pull the transducer out of the hole right next to mine. It got tangled up and broke. The other one got a little too feisty at the hole when I tried to get her out. Oh well, there is always tomorrow I thought.
Thursday, the 10th, was another beautiful day (see pic #5). A friend of mine happened to be out there when I got there. Shortly thereafter, he landed his first muskie through the ice, a nice 36-incher (see pic #6). I hooked onto 3 muskie, and lost them all. The first two broke off before I could really attempt to get them through the ice. The third one had me laughing. I got it head-up in the hole and it started to swim right out. I tried to grab it, but couldn’t. It was about 1/3 of the way out when I tried to grab it, and I just watched it flop its way out of my grip right back down the hole. After laughing, I began to think that it just wasn’t meant for me to land any.
Now to Friday. Got out there around 7. Not too bad of a day. Started out catching some really nice perch. I got 10 or so that were around 10 inches. Sorry, I didn’t get any pics of them. Then I hooked into a muskie. PATIENCE was my game today. Fought with it for about 12 minutes or so. Finally got it head up in the hole and FINALLY landed my first muskie! Pretty 35-incher (see pic #7). Would have taken another one, but too excited and forgot I had my real camera in my box. Kept catching perch out of one hole and hooked another muskie with my other rod. Game on again. During the fight, I looked down to see another muskie trying to attack the jig sticking out of the side of this one’s mouth. This time, a smaller but nice looking 32-incher came out! #2 on the day (see pic #8). Re-rigged my rod and not 30 seconds later another one nailed it. Fight on! I could tell this one was much larger. Shorter fight, and this one really helped me getting it on the ice. A whopping 39 1/2 inches!! Awesome!! What a day. Shortly after that, we left on the 20 ft extension ladder we needed to get out on the ice. Needless to say, this was my best day fishing, EVER!!!
Today was a pretty slow day. 4 muskie hits, but they were just out playing. None took the bait. Just ran with it and decided they didn’t want it anymore. Used a canoe to get on the ice. It had shifted over closer to the west side. Getting off, Ken fell through, but was 10 feet out from the shore. Nothing lost and all ok! Beautiful day though (see last pic).
All of my muskie were caught on a 1/8 oz jig head tipped with perch meat. I used a cheap little Shakespear Glacier Ice combo, 28", medium weight rod with Bass Pro Excel Mono 6 lb test.
Sorry about the long post, but it covered all week and it was a blast! Great end to another fun season on the ice.
Thanks for sharing with us. Glad to see your last week there on the ice was a good one with lots of action. Hope to get out there next winter and try to catch one through the ice to.