My First Ice Fishin' trip

WTG keep pounding them...cheers

Thanks guys, i was just happy i caught something. i'm definately hooked now.
wasn't sure if i would like it, but catching that bass on a little jiggin stick was awesome.
definately a drag screamer!!

Nice day it was pike, enjoy the sun on cold days, always feel the difference when the sunsets! Hoping your days on the ice are sunny and windless too! ok, did alittle tipup maintainance tonight,  after a few seasons of  accumulated marker knots, it was time to untie them and go back to using the small buttons that snapped off in freezing temps some years ago. I find the small buttons slide easy enough rather than tieing marker loops. I'm using about 3-4 feet of flourocarbon 8 lb test leader material tied directly to 20-30lb ice fishing braid . I connect the two different lines using  5 turn up /5 turn down albright.. make a 4" loop in the mono leader..pass about 6" of the ice braid line through the pinched loop and twist/wrap  braid 5 turns up the loop and again 5 turns back down the loop and passing the tag end through the same way you came into to loop.  For the hook, a #6 baitholder eagle claw is good enough for a range of species using small to medium shiners. And I usually go one small split shot to get the bait down. 

Pike:

I tried Ballston Lake today on the northern end off the public fishing docks.  Walked out about 500 yds and used three tip-ups with large shiners and jigged for about two hours.  Area was snow on top with slush underneath making it hard to navigate with my sled.  Wind picked up and drove me off the ice when it started howling.
Only got one small largemouth jigging and nothing on my tip-ups.  On my way in I noticed someone had left a nice tip-up frozen in the ice.  Must have fallen off his sled.  Saw the name and returned it to the guy in Ballston Spa.  He thanked me and was going to wish me good luck until he saw I was an Eagle's fan.  He was a Giant's fan, but still appreciated me bringing in his tip-up.
Will try the same area on Tuesday with another guy and hope the slush freezes so it will be easier to drag my sled out on the ice.

Eagle Ed

P.S. Forgot to add that a State Trooper walked all the way out on the ice to check my fishing license today!  That's a first for me, as I've been checked by DEC and others before, but first time by a New York State Trooper while on the ice!

ed
i forgot to mention that too. a dec trooper came out and checked everybody out there when i was there too.
he looked at my liscence and asked my date of birth. caught me off guard and had to think for second about it
also checked my minnow receipt.
Probably the same guy.