Recent winter Piking

[jjohnwm]

Would anybody here do this?
https://youtube.com/shorts/B5vLh4VKkkk?si=aqyHpZmXRiNzMBGx

Okay, I missed it...what did he do?

Holy cow that’s a huge fish!! I wonder how they got it through that hole when they caught it?

You do know that you don't try to pull them through the hole sideways...right?

I wish lol… “safe ice” is super short lived in Ohio. Local lake had 4 days of fishable ice 3-6” and i was fishing open water on a river 10min away on those same days .

We typically have at least 4 months of fishable ice here; by "fishable" I mean at least a couple feet thick so that we can drive out onto it. First trip out this winter was in early December, and we're going out again this coming Friday, and hopefully a few more times before the end of the month. Biggest pike this season was a hair over 36 inches; not even long enough to qualify for the provincial Master Angler award (needs to be a minimum of 41 inches). I usually catch one or two MA pike each winter.

Open water? Yeah...yeah, I think I remember that...

I release most large fish. Good genes and good breeders. My cousin didn't like me releasing this one.

Monster Lake Trout Ice Fishing (Personal Best)

I caught a giant lake trout while ice fishing. I was using a big tube bait. #icefishing #fishing #fishingbc #fishingwithbottles #catchandrelease #shorts #per...

youtube.com

Good man. A big female which weighs maybe three times what a small one does...can produce ten times as many eggs as the small one. We're not talking measly spawns of a couple hundred eggs like some cichlids; a big female pike can lay a quarter million eggs.

I will never kill a big specimen of any species, not even Perch. Much rather kill and eat a half dozen medium size individuals than one monster. I probably live-release 90% or more of the fish I catch.

Don't forget also that accumulated toxins in the flesh of predators like Pike can reach dangerous levels in the bodies of large old individuals, making them much less healthy for consumption as well.

 

[esoxlucius]

This ice fishing malarkey fascinates me. The fact you have to literally drill through ice, inches, even feet thick, is mad. In the UK we very rarely have ice on stillwater lakes. And even if we do get surface ice it is usually paper thin.

I love those videos on you tube where they literally put an hole in the ice and set up camp around it, tent, heater everything, lol. Being a fisherman I think I'd really like doing something like that, but sadly I don't reckon the opportunity will ever present itself

 

[Americancichlidsaredabest]

You do know that you don't try to pull them through the hole sideways...right?

Well yeah lol but it’s a big struggling fish with teeth and sharp gill plates so I was just wondering.

 

[esoxlucius]

You do know that you don't try to pull them through the hole sideways...right?

In the event of a foul hooking they may very well come up sideways, and that would be a real challenge, lol.

imagine the fish of a lifetime on your line and you can't get it. I'd be frantically swinging a sledgehammer, lol.

 

[jjohnwm]

In the event of a foul hooking they may very well come up sideways, and that would be a real challenge, lol.

imagine the fish of a lifetime on your line and you can't get it. I'd be frantically swinging a sledgehammer, lol.

That "ice fishing malarkey" has a charm and fascination all its own. The ice fishing village just offshore from my local town has plowed streets with stopsigns, and while the specialized collapsible ice fishing shelters (tents) are the most numerous type of structures, there are plenty of semi-permanent huts that are towed out at first ice and remain in place until the end of March. Some are nice little cottages on runners, complete with small potted cedars, woodpiles, etc. while many others are just truck caps, garden sheds, camping trailers...you name it. Every last one of them contains some sort of heat source, either a woodstove or a propane heater. On a busy weekend, it's a nice little hillbilly community on ice.

That fish in the first video is a nice one; if we were releasing one like that the hand holding its tail would be submerged at the top of the hole...and the fish's head would still not be projecting through the ice into the open water at the bottom. So...yeah, you can swing that sledgehammer till you're blue in the face, but...you ain't gettin' nowhere.

 

[esoxlucius]

So...yeah, you can swing that sledgehammer till you're blue in the face, but...you ain't gettin' nowhere.

Dang it! There must be a way of getting my 4ft foul hooked side swimming pike out of a 6" diameter hole!! Lol.

It'd drive me crazy having to watch the monster grin at me through the clear ice, knowing that I couldn't touch it!

 

[jjohnwm]

A buddy and I spent the day out on the ice yesterday. It was too windy, which made it feel too cold, and a bunch of ice huts had already been taken down for the season. Caught a few eater walleye, nice way to end up the ice season.

As I trudged across the ice field to the porta-potty at mid-day, I decided to take a few snaps of some of the remaining permanent huts before they are towed off the ice. I knew I wanted to post them in this thread, but I had forgotten the title. All I could remember was the use of the wonderful word "malarkey"...so I used the Search function, and here we are!

This one, in bright sunlight, is literally blinding:

Check out the solar panel:



Here's my favourite. This guy brings out those potted spruce trees each year, and even decorates them for Christmas!


These will likely all be removed by the end of this week. It's actually a bit creepy out there right now, as many of these huts don't fish through simple holes augered in the ice; instead, they use a chainsaw to create a gigantic hole 4, 5 or even 6 feet long and perhaps a foot or two wide. But, when they take away the hut...that's a giant death-trap left behind. As the warm weather approaches, we have thaws, freezes, thaws, freezes...the once-clearly-marked roadways start to blur, with many patches of clear ice criss-crossed in between them. You're driving along with a goofy grin on your face and a bucket of walleye in your truck...and suddenly slam to a sliding halt as you find yourself bearing down upon one of those killer holes in the middle of what you thought was supposed to be a roadway.

I'm telling ya, Esox...you'd love it!

 

[esoxlucius]

All I could remember was the use of the wonderful word "malarkey"...so I used the Search function, and here we are!

Glad to be of service! See, although I talk absolute garbage, it's saved you a shed load of time trawling through different threads hasn't it, lol.

I'm telling ya, Esox...you'd love it

I'm absolutely 100% certain I would. Sadly I'll only ever see those wonderful little fish huts in pictures, never up close.

What the hell is going on in that last picture with the trees!! It doesn't look like they're in planters and surely they can't grow in ice!!

 

[jjohnwm]

What the hell is going on in that last picture with the trees!! It doesn't look like they're in planters and surely they can't grow in ice!!

They are in big planter pots, which are then buried in snow, I assume to help protect them from the drying winds. They are out there every year; I'm assuming that they are changed out yearly as they never look any bigger.

They look great lit up at Christmas, it's like a landing pad for UFO's a mile out on the ice.