Avoided the PI skunk.. PI-Ice SAT 1/9/10

Presque Isle Sat 1-9-2010

Beautiful day on the ice. No wind. No snow. 17-20 degrees and sunny.

The PI Bay is officially solid for fishing. 10:00AM Lots of huts & buckets (30+) on the head of the bay out from parking lots vista 1/2/3. Headed out about 150yds - very wet and slushy about 4-5 solid inches of ice. Jigged minnies & bibbets+spikes for about 30 minutes - nothing. Weather was so nice didn't even set up the hut. Very slushy though with about 8 inches of snow and 3 inches of wet slush underneath. We fished for about 15 more minutes, made some rounds to see how everyone else was doing and packed the sled and left. Few dinky perch but nothing substantial so we headed to Misery.

Misery about 11:00AM Lots of huts & buckets (45+) and lots of icemen. Set up on the end of the pack bout 5-6" of solid ice. Got into some nice sized bluegill right away but then it tapered off and the fish got stubborn. Set up a tip-up with a big shiner and jigged minnies, bibbits and spikes & rubber. Slow goin and really had to work for a fish, but they were down there. Went out on a couple scouting trips just to see if I could find the crappie school, but to no avail. Drilled into a hive of REALLY small bluegills and threw one of the baby ones (2.5") on another tip-up as pike-bait. Things were pretty slow but it was a real nice day on the ice none the less. Finished the day with a nice largemouth on a lead white bibbit with a pink eye and 2 spikes.

Surely not a fishing bonanza like last week was, but all in all it was a very enjoyable day on the ice and thankfully we did not have the misfortune of running into the skunk.

stay warm!

FuNK

Agreed it was enjoyable day on the ice, got into a small group of bull gill on misery, but wasn't the greatest of days like in the past. It was beatiful day on the bay fished from about 11 am - 2:30 pm. Glad you posted about the bay lots 1/2/3 wanted to know what the ice was like out there, doesn't look like I will be going out there for awhile, sticking with the 5 - 6 inches for now, and will try our luck again tomorrow.

Yeah when we went out we would of said at least 150 it was crazy

nice pics.  thanks for sharing

Just seeing those pictures of "heaven on earth", is telling me to call off sick for at least 2 days and head NW!!!!   You guys have no idea how fortunate you are. 

Was out there too yesterday, but I think you just missed me in one of the pics.  Anyway too much home stuff to do today or I'd be out trying again.  My report is about the same.  Good gill bite early on, tapered off in late morning.  Caught about 3-4 too small for every keeper gill, although I'm a bit picky.  Ran into a few perch that would not touch a minnow, but hammered jig/maggot.  Run and gun was key to continuously catch fish all morning.  Didn't land enough keepers of any variety to make a meal though so need to get back out soon.

2 people can tear it down and have it packed on the back in like 3-4 minutes...

when putting it away we follow this routine:
- we get on opposite walls and push them in together towards each other
- then do the other pair of walls, same routine as above
- then push the roof down in on itself from the outside
- it should collapse and fold up on itself, if not wiggle it a bit and grab the bottom and it will
- you can shake it at this point to get some of the snow/ice off
- then just grab the whole entire thing, muscle it up and roll it up against your legs/abdomen into a roll
- one person holds the roll while the other person grabs the bag and guides it over the roll

i use screw-in ice-stakes when it's windy and it keeps it down pretty tight.

on non-wind days you dont even need em, you can just build snowbanks on the outer ground-flaps and shes pretty sturdy and warm.

The only drawback is NO FLOOR. But We just use some cardboard to make a nice dry floor so we're not sitting directly on the ice. Works out real well actually.

FuNK

I see me! I see me! lol

Thanks for the sunset pic funk...forgot my cam.

We had a pretty good afternoon. Didn't get there til 1:30 or 2:00, but still managed to take home enough nice gills for a meal. Caught one nice LM too.


A good day all in all....we should make some kind of a secret 'board whistle' or something to find other members. woo-loo, woo-loo.

...or we could just meet at the town drunk...can't miss him.

Hootie Who -  Hootie Who...Ha Ha...if i make it out thats what im goona start bellerin

an air horn and moorse code would work the same..

lol