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Member No.: 10396
Joined: January 06, 2016
This is only one story, and by no means am I speaking on behalf of anyone else.
We started out of Beaverton this morning with Floyd Hales, after a bit of maneuvering on hwy#12 because of bad weather, we reached the hut at 8am. Great service, kind and well organized, the hut was clean and warm. Floyd's huts have a furnace in addition to a Coleman stove, and they have the big square cuts in the ice which make it easy to see all the way to the bottom if you block out the window light with garbage bags. I measured about 9" of ice, and we were fishing in 24 fow.
I was with two of my buddies, one of which has gone out with Floyds quite a few times, which is why myself and my other friend decided that we should try this guide today instead of our regular hut operator out of Virginia Beach.
10am, two gobies showed up on my underwater camera, the Recon5 worked extremely well! No perch to be found anywhere in the area up to now. I started wondering around to other huts in the area, out of 5 huts, 3 perch in total. There was no lack of minnows, Floyds provides you with a bucket full of bait, on the smallish side, but never the less, plenty of bait for a full day.
2pm, the weather is really getting bad at this point, high winds, snow mixed with rain, and a few good big bangs across the ice, nothing out of the ordinary on a big body of water at this time of year, and now I see 4 crayfish and 2 more gobies on my screen, No perch!
4pm, one friend has been packed up and ready to leave for an hour, the other and myself are trying every trick that we know to try to call in perch. Rattling, big spoons, more rattling with bigger colourful lipless baits, and for the first time over 8 hours, 1, yes, 1 perch shows up on my screen looking up at the jigging rap, 20 seconds later, it swims away
In the end, for the first time in many years, we sat in my truck driving back to our town empty handed! As a matter of fact, i can't remember the last time this happened, which in turn i guess make me a pretty lucky guy, but it still sucks!!
One of the other customers mentioned that the huts that we were in were not as far out as they typically would be, which might have contributed to the lack of fish, but who knows for sure. If this is the case, I feel a little short changed if these grounds are test grounds for Floyds, and not proven perch grounds based on their many years of experience. I might call them to discuss this, or just go back to VB from now on. Undecided at this point.
Like they say, a day on the water is better than any day in the office, which is true. I hope to try again next week, but i haven't decided where I'm going. I will post the results of my next adventure.
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Member No.: 148
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Great post, sorry about the bad luck but nice to read a real fishing story. Not everyday is a banner fish porn day but as you said always great to be out. I commend you on sharing your story and being very fair to the operator. I am Sure they are not out to their usual grounds yet either so that is likely why the area was not very productive. I went out with Floyds yrs ago on an overnight and they do have a top notch operation.
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Member No.: 515
Joined: March 07, 2011
Sorry to here of the fish shortage but that's why it's called fishing and not catching.. Been with Floyd's a few time's way back and now only go out with Tim Hales a least once a year except last year... Never been skunked at either place.. Again sorry to here of the poor fishing but some days that's the way it is... Good luck on the next outing..
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Member No.: 209
Joined: February 14, 2011
I was out today as well. caught a couple small herring and a few perch. tried everything I had and the only thing I could get them in on the flasher with was a flashy larger lure. And they wouldn't commit at all. Stormy day could have had something to do with it. I find early season it is always a slow start in Beaverton, but after a couple weeks the fish start to come in a little heavier and more aggressive. As for the ice roughly 2 or 3 inches of white ice on top and 6 to 8 inches of good black clear ice underneath. went out of the quad no problem. there wasn't much snow today as most of it had blown off the ice. This rain will just take the rest of it off and leave a clean slate to freeze better once the temps drop again Friday.
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Thanks for the report. Been there done that with operators. Not their fault of course. Sucks to be staring down an empty hole for 10hrs but fishn happens. Went out and got myself all the equipment to be more mobile. Still managed to get skunked last weekend. Drilled 25-30 holes from 10-22ft and froze my fingers off in the process. Refused to set up hut until making contact with something, anything! Didn't happen! It was my first trip of the year so i didn't feel so bad.
Lakers and whities coming up so even more skunkings to come. Keep at er and it will turn around.
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Member No.: 26
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Some days it is like that. Trust me all operators want to put you on fish. I go to a spot for perch every year. One day it will be nothing but 1 after another until your back cramps up for bending over to pick up the fish and grab minnows. Next day not a single fish marked. A week later your ice flasher is useless because you cannot see bottom and your bait don't hit bottom and fish is on.
Group: Members
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Member No.: 11136
Joined: February 04, 2016
Yeah Saturday in Beaverton for me was not fun either. Spent almost 6hrs out, 4 of which I was walking trying to find anything. Those ice sounds are crazy though eh? Vb is where I had the most success this weekend also.
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Skunked today!, 8 hours, out of Beaverton, No fish!
