About the closest thing to ice fishing without having to drill holes with an auger. Ice all over the lake, water temp 35 degrees, air temp never got over 25, fishing vertical jigging in 58 feet of water…with ice jigs. But…I was in my float tube. Silly me.
Launched from the port ramp about 8 am. Slush ice on the water surface next to the ramp but no problem getting out to open water. Didn’t see a mark on sonar for a loooooooong time. Then only onesies and twosies…very far apart. Worked north past the docks and toward the yacht club. Motored in and out of shallow to deep…30 feet to over 60 feet. Like a desert on the bottom and only an occasional stray suspender. Not encouraging.
Motored back and forth in an S pattern as I crossed the arm between the ramp and Browning Point. Still nothing on the screen. Worked in and out off the point. More nothing.
**Came back to an area just north of the docks where I had seen some bait schools. Figured there might be something bigger on the fringes. I love it when I get it right. There were a few perchies that were ready to play with my ice trinkets. I found the little balls of forage fish again and by bouncing jigs on the bottom around them I began getting hits. Really had to set the hook to take the stretch out of the line in that deep water…58 to 60 feet. **
I experimented around with several different lures and caught fish on most of my new stuff. Worms and PPP (processed perch pieces) both produced. The perch meat caught the bigger fish…but nothing over about 8 inches. But…all of the perch I brought up were barfing up baby crappies. They have been feeding…probably on what I saw on my sonar screen.
I kept about a half dozen of these dink perch to turn into more PPP. The rest I either fizzed and sent back down…or tossed to the circling sea gulls. They seemed to be appreciative.
After about an hour of fairly consistant action it shut off. The fish disappeared from sonar and I couldn’t find them again. By this time I was “chillin’ out”…literally. The cold water and constant light snow weren’t exactly warming the cockles of my heart…or any other part of my anatomy. So I headed back toward the docks. I did see some suspended crappies right off the docks but they were typical suspended crappies…middle fin upraised. No bitee.
Short day. Cold day. Maybe my last tubing trip of this year. Maybe. At least the power squadron was not out today. Wimps. They can’t handle a bit of cold and ice. They’ll be back in the spring though. And I won’t.
Attaching some pics of ice conditions. Looks like the arms are freezing. Frozen from the narrows across to cemetery point but open to the north. The narrows appear to be closed by ice but it is open from there to the dam.
With 35 degree surface temps it will take only a couple of cold windless nights to get the lake capped over. Then some more single digit nights will make it ready for drillin’ and chillin’.
We’ll try out best to target the bigger ones. Perchies seem to be getting bigger in there. Trick is, we need get 'em before the crowds hammer 'em. So maybe within 3 weeks.
Thanks for the report. I wonder if PV will be a good place to take some kiddies and I can count on them catching some numbers on the ice. Those sound much bigger than last year. [:p]
And about the power squadron. You must have missed my brother in law. He lives on the shore there and loves it when everyone else goes away and he can get out behind his wave runner and ski around in his dry suit in 35 degree water.
Just in case there are those that think that people that fish from a float tube this time of year are odd…
I’m sure that once PIneview caps enough for ice fishing that the locations and patterns will be discovered. But the lake is 15 to 20 feet higher right now than in most “good” years. That means that the fish are likely going to be holding in different places than they did last year. Probably nearby but in water shallower than last year’s spots under this year’s water.
If the fish I caught yesterday are any indicator, the average size HAS improved since last year. I did not get anything over about 8", but that seemed to be the “cookie cutter” size. And when I cut them up for future bait packages the fillets were big enough to consider for the fry pan. Only a few smaller than than. Unfortunately, none bigger either. But I know there are some 12 to 13 inchers in there. Saw a recent pic of some caught in the narrows.
Yikes!!! tenacious feller aint ya… One of these days the lakes going to freeze your tube in place and you will have to walk back. Glad you found a few fish sounds like a tough day. Looking forward to catching a few perch this year even though I swore off pineview last year because of the size. With the balmy weather in this weeks forecast you might find open water at U.L next week. [;)]
Tenacious? Is that worse than NINE-acious? Sorry. I think thataway. I have been working on my “inflationary dictionary” for many years. Ain’t that wonderful? or TWO-derful? Is that too much? or THREE much?
No worries about getting iced in. I have had some epic ice-breaking adventures in the past…but mostly while trying to get out fishing…not while trying to get back in. My mama drowned all the dumb ones (except my sister). I don’t launch when temps and conditions are such that the ice is forming that fast.
And just in case I do get iced in, I gots “contingencies”. Two of my rod tubes have been modified to serve as mini rocket thrusters. Haven’t ever had the need to use them for escaping ice but you should have seen the look on the faces of a couple of PWC guys last year when I fired 'em up as a warning blast. They never did come back.
It is not unusual to have a first freeze and then a mild period afterwards that messes up the ice for a while. Happened last year. Hard ice on Willard by the first week of December but I was tubing it again the day before Christmas.
The first big freeze this year was a bit later than the last couple of years, and the first ice fishing has not been as great as last year. But better ice and better ice fishing are still a possibility.
Trick is, we need get 'em before the crowds hammer 'em. So maybe within 3 weeks.
Or on Saturday! Get those ice poles out and put them waders up to dry. Grag yer bucket and sled and drive up north. We’ll get ya some more pics. How about one of HGS and HGF ice fishing together!
TD - you’re a daring fellow with your late year float trips. Must be thick skinned - - - or something. Sorry to hear the perch aren’t of size. Bet the big ones either got washed out in spring, or are all hiding behind the bouy line - laughing!
Do you ever target Musky up there? Or only if they grab your panfish?
There is still plenty of winter(and ice fishing) ahead. And I do intend on displaying a bunch of the trinkets I got from you in the underwarter super market this year. I am sure there will be plenty of willing customers biting on the displays. Still amazes me that you are out in the tube in 25 degree air and 35 degree water. But I do think you better rummage through the garage and start getting the ice fishing stuff ready.
"Sorry to hear the perch aren’t of size. Bet the big ones either got washed out in spring, or are all hiding behind the bouy line - laughing!
Do you ever target Musky up there? Or only if they grab your panfish? "
There are goodly numbers of bigger perch in Pineview. They are the remnants from all of the smaller fish that have been being harvested for the last 3 or 4 years. Not as many left but still a few. But they have different habits and usually do not hang with the runts.
There were some fish losses when the lake was dumped during high water. But a high percentage were small fish that were schooling on the bottom in the dam channel. Pineview will probably benefit from some of that “cleansing”. There were far too many dinks. A lot of the larger fish were scattered around the lake. It has many different channels and feeding areas and the flush did not affect those much at all.
While I have caught several TM at Pineview, none were caught intentionally. I do not actively pursue them but they got no class. They hit lures intended for other species. My most amazing muskie was a 34 incher taken from on the bottom…in 55 feet of water…on a small chartreuse crappie jig. What’s more is that the jig was well inside the “tooth line” and I was only using 6# mono…and the fish jumped a couple of times after reaching the surface.
nice haul td sounds like the perch are doing atleast a little better up there. hopefully the big ones show up when its safe to ice fish. also i havent seen any big slab crappies out of ther for a while.{but i know theyre there}
Oh yeah. There are some 16 and 17 inch crappies in Pineview. But they develop living and feeding habits that make them difficult to find and catch by the “average” angler. Some guys catch the bigger fish by accident…along with the hand-sized and footlongs that everybody catches. But only a very few specialists have the bigguns dialed in.
Two things that are making it tough this year. One is the abundance of food (again). A big spawn by both the perch and crappies have added lots of young morsels to the forage base. The big fish are well fed. Second is the crazy water year. First the big flush this spring and now the lake is only a few feet from the high water mark. Nothing for the fish or anglers to relate to from past years.
But, once the cap is on the fish will set up some kind of pattern and hopefully we can key in on it.
defentaly TD. i think there are alot of lakes in the same situation for high water and things like that. but like u said the crappies and perch with size are there just a matter of findin em are plain luck. itlll be better once the ice sets in and you can really target them. good report TD
About the closest thing to ice fishing without having to drill holes with an auger. Ice all over the lake, water temp 35 degrees, air temp never got over 25, fishing vertical jigging in 58 feet of water…with ice jigs. But…I was in my float tube. Silly me.