Boxing day camping

In the spirit of CM I thought i'd share my latest adventure.

Started out in the morning of the 26th had a couple stops to make to grab last minute things so I got to the lake a little later than normal (about 10AM).

Got the sleds loaded up and on the ice. I met a buddy on the ice, as I was setting up my tent he suggested that I get a dead bait down a hole, as it was a nice morning and I was taking my sweet time setting up.

I dropped my line down the hole with his flasher to reference the bait depth. I haven't used a flasher in years, but it was easy enough to understand where the bait was, but it lit up all red, so I said dude, I think there's a fish here. he of course didn't believe me, I set the Finicky Fooler and it immediately tripped. I tried the line, but my bait was gone.

I immediately reset it, walked away and the flag went. Back to the rod, he was taking line, pulled a bunch off, closed the bail, checked the drag and set the hook. Rod loaded up, drag went off and blamo the hook came out. Heartbroken.

I reset the whole thing and finished up set up. About 30 minutes later the same flag went off. I got set and buried the hook. The fight lasted well over 2 mins with my long runs and the wildest head-shakes i've ever experienced.

Finally broke my PB and the hallowed 40" mark with this 40.5" beauty. Between the 2 of us we brought over 200" of pike as well as 17 OOS walleye and a 14.5" Crappie. Not a bad first weekend campout.

Nice to get the rig too!

If we had a WOW factor button on here then I’d be standing on it. What a freakin trip. Congrats on that PB.
Cheers

Awesome, that’s a nice pike man! Would love to see your camp set up as I’m always looking for ideas….we use a wood stove, cots, and foam for the floor. Works great. We have some exploring to do this year so might be sticking to more day trips but we’ll see….

really nice fish. sounds like a great day

Well we are still in 2024 and that is a huge, beautiful personal best monster pike for you. Wow, my PB 39 inch was no where near as thick as that monster. Multiple walleye and a monster crappie as well, you guys did better than anyone I have heard from. Outstanding adventure, thanks for posting.

Wow, just repeat that performance come Jan. 1 and you've got entries for the hardest two categories of the derby.

Thank you sir, it was an epic couple days.

I didn't take any photos of it - pretty basic in my tent. Cot, 2 tables small ones from Costco. One for electronics one for cooking and everything else. I used my new Diesel heater, I had the buddy heater in the truck in case.

Diesel heater is the way to go, just have to work out the exhaust situation a little better.

I'll take some photos next time I am out.

There is a couple great Facebook groups to join:

Diesel Heaters and Ice Shacks
Ice Camping
Trick your Hub
Trick you trap

Thanks! It was.

Means alot CM!

You've always been so free with the advice! I wanted to make a post in that spirit.

Fishing was great, maybe they were gearing up for the storm! Who knows.

Last day was incredibly slow with only one 36 hitting the ice. (not complaining)

I'll post next time out!

Thanks - it will eventually slow down, but who knows!

A very nice personal best TSDG.

Arnie

I didn't take any photos of it - pretty basic in my tent. Cot, 2 tables small ones from Costco. One for electronics one for cooking and everything else. I used my new Diesel heater, I had the buddy heater in the truck in case.

Diesel heater is the way to go, just have to work out the exhaust situation a little better.

I'll take some photos next time I am out.

There is a couple great Facebook groups to join:

Diesel Heaters and Ice Shacks
Ice Camping
Trick your Hub
Trick you trap

Oh ok cool thanks for the heads up I’ll have to check those out! It’s definitely a great way to go. I spent more hours on the ice by far than any other year last year with the new set up. My only issue is that we go out on foot so transportation is a bit of work. I found it was worth it to be nice and comfy for a couple of days though.

I don’t know what type of exhaust you’ll need or if it gets hot.. one tip I can give is that the high heat fire proof stove Jack fabrics will still start to smoke, ESPECIALLY that wrap they sell to go around a stove pipe. So what we did was use the felt type material with Velcro sewed on to replace a window as a stove Jack, but then made a metal sleeve that fits a quarter inch around the section that goes through the window with some bolts to screw in to maintain the 1/4” distance off the main pipe. It gets a little warm to touch but it totally takes away any burn risk.

Anyhow just an idea if this is even remotely close to what you’re in need of.

Thanks Arnie,

TSDG?