Lady Nip serves up a perfect closer, With a side of oh $##&!

Got on the ice on Sunday (14th) around noon. It was windy as %^&# with gusts to 60 km/hour. My son and I managed to get the pop up set with 6 ice anchors and tied down to the snowmobile:



First hour was totally dead and than the action started. Over a dozen like this:





One pike:



And at about 4:00 pm this:



That one came home with us and measured 18 5/8 inches. First keeper of the season for me.

Around 5 pm the wind died down some and the ice started making creepy cracking, grinding and moaning sounds. We fished until about 645 pm and than headed out for the 8 km ride back to the truck.

Headed out on Monday (15th - the closer) at noon and had lines in the water about 1 pm. It was a beautiful sunny day with no wind. We went to a different spot about 12 km from the truck this time. Ice was really loud with lots of noise and the odd small movement. Creepy but we were not concerned as we were on 14 inches with 11 of those being clear and solid.



Action started right away with 20+ like this in 5 hours:



Also picked up a few Jumbos:



The real magic happened at 245 pm:



Just over 28 inches and a personal best for me. He came off part way up the hole and i threw my rod away and stuck my arm down the hole and grabbed him by the gills - close call. At about 3 pm just when my heart rate was returning to normal we got hit by the craziest ice quake i have ever experienced. Sounded like multiple close gun shots. Water shot out of the holes. Hut was shaking and ice was going back and forth and up and down. Was so violent it knocked over the Buddy Heater.

My son and I were unable to discern any change in the ice in our immediate area and agreed that whatever damage may have occurred was now done and we might as well carry on fishing but agreed we should leave an hour early to ensure good light for the 12 km trip out.

On the ride out 3 km from the truck we came up on a hard to see open pressure crack. I was doing about 40 km/hour and did not have enough time to stop so i pinned it and thanked God that i studded the track this fall. We were doing about 80 when we hit the water. My sled weighs just over 800 lbs with the amount of fuel i had. Add 2x 200 lb riders. Add 7 foot by 3 foot toboggan loaded with 200 ish pounds of gear in tow. Crack was somewhere between 12 and 15 feet wide and we skipped across - not recommended. Everything in the the toboggan was soaked. Should have taken a picture of the crack but i was so wigged out i just kept going until i was on land.

Nice walleye and nice way to finish off the hard water season. Looks like you have the Eskimo fatfish,same as me, nice.That also looks like a polaris voyageur sled, I'm looking for a good deal on one.

Looks like u made the right call. Congrats on the fish and staying on the right side of the ice

Correct on the shelter. Sled is actually a Scandic with the 24 inch super wide track.

Now that’s a closer ... thanks for sharing.
Congrats on that beautiful walleye and glad you made it to shore.
Cheers

Awesome report and awesome fish. Congrats on your pb..nice the report ended the way it did..
Thank you for sharing..

A 28" Walleye! What a way to end the season! 12Kms long ride on Nip, Glad you made it back safely.

Nice fish! Probably a good call making the run back before dark...

The lake my folks live on had been booming steady since the cold front last week. Day and night. Sounded like a lake making December ice, even when it was mild and wasn't (wind?).
Couple cracks at night sounded like shotgun blasts from it freezing/expanding.

Weird year. Gonna be an early break-up.

Great report... that was an exciting read and good pictures. Glad it worked out with getting back safely.

^^ I am second to that, truly enjoyed the report

That's a Grandpa story for the future.

Nice bunch of fish! Thanks for the story.

Congrat's on the new PB, beauty fish. Good to hear you made it off the ice safe, sounds like an experience you wouldn't want to have to go through again.