Feb 16-20 Nipissing

Hit the lake on Thursday afternoon. Might have been the best fishing in the last 6 years. Lot's of pickerel just under the slot, only caught 3 in the slot and non over. We had three huts and all did well. The perch were around 8 to 10" and looked like footballs, they have been eating well. Had a camera down the hole and saw as many as 5 pickerel around 2 of the holes. Took us a little time to get them to hit. Finally found the right presentation, the camera helped with this. Put a pickerel rig on one hole with minnows and used a silver spoon tipped with a minnow in the next hole. If you wanted to catch a fish, just jig the spoon and let it bury itself in the mud. Within seconds even during the day either perch or pickerel would show up. This was our 25th year of our little tournament and the 1st and 2nd place fish weren't what we expected. Both were smallies, one 18" and one 17 5/8. Never seen this before.
Gotta say the Garnet, Cara Lee and Rob at South Shore Ice Condos are the best. We have laready booked for next year.

Glad you had a good time. Thanks for the report, and it is nice that the walleye seem to be much better than last year. It might have something to do with the real mild weather that we are getting this year.

How far could you see with the camera? I've heard Nipissing is very tea stained and cameras aren't much use up there so I haven't bought one but if they are effective there I will certainly be gettin one. Great report - sounded like a lot of fun.

The lake water has been clearer this year as we have not had many big thaws that stir up the water with the sudden run-off. Also SSIC have there huts well away from any tributaries in the main lake body.

Thanks sandybay. Do you think it's a worthwhile investment to get a camera. Please give me an excuse to buy a new toy, it'll bug the heck out of my wife. And if it is worthwhile any suggestions on the make?

To Love, Honour and Bug. Isn't that what we said at the altar. Buy now.

Great advice! On my way to the store.

JARAY

I used to take a camer up to Ni, but then the water was quite murky and vis was at best 2-3 feet.

way better this year as you can see bait going down around 5 feet in the hole

I finally got rid of the unit becasue I was getting tired of having good fish wrapping around the cable...other than that..a great toy to see what is going on down there.

They are #2 on ice

Garnet has the units on a real good shoal right now for sure.

Ben up twice this year and this last trip was awesome fishing

Well I'm convinced! Any recommendation on who makes a quality unit?

I used an Acqua View for many years and retired it last year. It was OK during the day but no too good as the sun went down. It seemed to light up the plankton a lot more. This year I bought a MarComm VS-580. The screen is a 7" screen to start. There is no doubt that during the day the picture was much sharper. After the light went down the led's on the MarComm camera did not reflect off the plankeon as much. When I bought the MarComm it came with a pan unit. We put the camera down one hole and by using the pan unit could swing it around (electronically) to look at the other holes in the hut. All of the guys from our party said that this camera was far better than the Aqua Vue. My two cents worth.

Fingers aren't working well today. The new camera is a VS-380

To Love, Honour and Bug. Isn't that what we said at the alter. Buy now.

Hey Sandy,
Your spelling of alter was correct but it's not the one where you said your vows. That's altar. Alter is what she was thinking she would do to you over the years of married bliss once you said "I Do". Now if she hasn't altered you too much, go get that camera! Just tell her the truth and you're all set. "Honey it's so I can retrieve expensive gear that falls through the hole - and it might help me fool a few fish too!"

Thanks Tilden for your two cents. Going out right now to look at a camera. Looking forward to spending money. Going to video tape the wife yelling at me when i get home.

Didn't pull the trigger on the camera yet but managd to spend on a new Ugly Stik for the ice and and a Zebco set up for my daughter. Can't walk out of crappy tire empty handed.