My son had to give up his sport for a couple years due to the mandate and when cleared to go back he asked if he could just make ice fishing his sport instead. I loved coaching and spectating hockey, but we all know which way I was leaning…
Ice fishing is now his sport, we try to get out as many weekends as we can; never for day trips but always an ice camp for 1-3 nights and I’m pumped that we have both found our passion out there on the ice - memories that we’ll both get to cherish.
Also extremely grateful to have landed with SSIC years ago, this was my 3rd trip up there this year (should have been 4th) and our stay with Garnet and Cara Lee always exceeds expectations - so big thanks and a shout out to them and their team for everything they do
Bite was slow on Friday, the fish seem to always be considerate and let us set-up, get organized and settle in. The odd fish here and there but mainly perch. Saturday morning was equally slow, definitely not due to location because we were marking a ton of fish, just slow - back end of a cold front. We were setup in 32 fow, so we went on an adventure with some gear and set-up outside in 28 fow for the afternoon bite. Forgot our drill and Brian (SSIC) came out to poke some holes for us. My son couldn’t keep the fish from ejecting out of his hole, including a keeper walleye that lit his face up before the weather turned ugly and sent us packing back to the bungalow, although the adventure was cut short - he had some extra bounce to his steps back to the hut.
We got back, thawed out and caught the balance of the afternoon bite which produced decent numbers of walters and perch. The boy was the multi species master, bringing his 4th into the hut when he pulled up a whopper SM Bass, another highlight for him… Bite died out and my son cleaned up all the perch and two keeper walleye (we stayed hydrated and supervised) which made for a great fish fry and then some to take home - successful feeling trip at this moment.
Next morning, Uncle Russ and I are trying to manage the wine headache (not sure why we abandoned the whiskey) while my sons biggest struggle was managing the double header he was dealing with from his bunk. The bite was on Sunday morning, the pressure dropped 1 inch of mercury overnight and conditions seemed to be in our favour. I put the thumping head aside and got my lines down right around the time the boy hooked into a pike (his 5th species of the trip) which Lake Erie has never afforded him so he was ecstatic. He used the momentum to then hook into his PB walleye at 56cm (22”)… the fish that put this trip over the top for him. I ended up getting another 16” keeper Sunday morning, so he cleaned up the Pike, Eye and a couple 10” Perch to take home as well. A fantastic finish to a great trip, especially rewarding for a Dad who spent the last few years observing the hardship weathered by these kids throughout Covid, so I’m really glad we are on this side of it.
- 19 Perch (18 keepers)
- 21 Eyes (3 keepers)
- 4 Cisco
- 1 Pike
- 1 SM Bass
The boy put a show on, kicked our butts in the derby (43 Landen to 29 Fishberg to 14 Uncle Russ) and you love to see it, good job Landen
It was another jighead weekend, white in particular. Small tungsten, full minnow through mouth up through the head. Light jigging and again the rise after the gap closed usually produced the strikes. Another picky bite for a weekend, definitely different from our many years of heading up in January but very odd year weather-wise too… sure beats working or wishin’ we were fishin’.
Hope everyone is well, tight lines to you all.
Cheers 🍻
Feb 24th to 26th Nip Trip, with SSIC
