Walked on 10" solid today, awesome to be alive.
Stopped at a very large body water on way back and walked on 3" :) much happy about that because before the adventure ends Sunday , I should be into lakers.
This will be the ice thread for me and pics will filter in once I get back to a computer .
Peace & Tuna

Very nice tuna glad to hear you're enjoying your time!

Well not only did the fishing suck in the last 4 days but returned to a crashed hard drive on a pretty new computer and a patched up boiler on the furnace.
Great adventure to at least get " away" . ZERO crowds , beautiful surroundings and fantastic company on the ice.
Pic's with no hero shots and late starts to fishing will have to wait until life allows me a break.. Those are my problems..

Still hoping around here. Maybe this weekend, but probably next.

finally got another PC, it's a bear to operate to say the least but here are some crappy fotos of the 2015 Ice season starting 1/1/15
A truly outta the way pond in the upper north.. Anyone remember frontier town ? It's close to there.

Had pike way back in the day, no more but lots of bass and perch..
 Next stop was a deep water lake in search of trout, we got skunked, as usual:

3" black Ice , 80 fow , open water just off the point south.. FUN TIMES !!


We made 3 trips back to that lake with only 1 laker to show. The next week they were driving ATV's out there..
Another view from another water body, I just LOVE the solitude ..

After a few uneventful trips our local waters finally became ready, It's what life is all about :

And the bounty showed up:

Hit that place again sat with a bunch of old Fish USA'ers and what a blast it was !!
I won't show the kill shots but will say the food, friendship and laughter was WORLD CLASS !!
 
So over the course of the last 5 weeks the fishing has been sub par, the time out with friends and being outdoors along with the lifetimes of memories are always priceless.
We are heading to the Great Lake of the Adirondacks (Lake George) and I sure hope to continue to share the experiences .. Walking on the Water and not worrying about who, what when or where while fishing is Love of the sport.. Hopefully I will catch one too..lol
 
 

Great job HT have yet to get out here yet. There has been ice for a week or so, but it is still sketchy. Was going to get out today, but farm stuff got in the way. May hit Oneida after my 1/2 day tomorrow, if not I am going on Wednesday up to sandy pond.

Nice job tuna... Summed up the purpose of fishing perfectly too

Sandy pond was a bit better, but the bite was tough, managed 7 keeper perch and 5 keeper gills in four hours.   On the better I was in the market for a new auger, even with new blades drilling with the cheap  eight inch one was killing me. I bucked up and got a Nil's six inch and man what a difference. I could drill four or five hole in the time it would take for one with my crappy cheap one. It slices through the ice.

Just keep the guard on the blades and take em to a pro sharperner once in a while (in the off season.) 

My nils 6" is going on its 6 th season . Never had sharpened and still cuts like a bandit . I have cut countless holes with it and last year the ice was extremely thick. There is a guy , frank deluca ? On ice shanty who is the king of sharpening them. I may just buy a new head ( $64.00) and send the old one to him this spring for a tune up.
As L-13 said , keep the guard ( cheesy) on, they are wicked sharp as we have found out by blood and slicing a hole in a brand new shanty.
A much better guard that fits is a strike master 6" if you want to spend an extra $15.00
One issue you may run into is icing on the blade.
Things that help are to put blade back on as soon as your done drilling holes or thawing it out every now and then.
If its iced up it may seem like the blade is dull and just spin on the ice not cutting. Try and avoid pushing down hard, they are not meant to have hard down pressure , just spin it with light pressure until its de iced or thaw it out, possibly in a hole if you don't have a heater.

I know they are a large investment but if you take care of them then they will treat you well for sure.
Good luck out there as I'm going lake George laker hunting this weekend :)