Does anyone do any Musky fishing at Alum or any of the other DNR supported fisheries? I'm going to give it a serious try this year.

I know the basics on when and where to look and what to use, I just need to know if anyone else ever fished for these things on purpose... patterning being the component that I'm missing dues to a lack of personal experience.

Any help is greatly appreciated, and I will do my best to provide you with any insight you might be seeking on another topic.

So my county is under a level 3 snow emergency which means no fishing for at least today. I busted my tail to get work done through the week so I'd be able to go and now that I can't I decided to do something better with my time. I have a lot of elderly neighbors and there is a single mom down the block who I knew could use some help today.

The fish will be there tomorrow...

Good Fishin'

Help a neighbor if you can!

RatherBe

I finally got out for about 2 hours this afternoon. I got between 15 and 20 fish total, bluegills and a few bass. All but two of the gills were 8"+. I have pictures, but being taken from a pond I don't want to enter them in the online tourney.
The big excitement of the day was the one that almost didn't get away. I've been bass fishing all my life, and this thing was 4 lbs. if it was 1. I fought her for about 2 minutes with the drag being punished the entire time. I finally got her up through the hole but the hook wasn't wide enough to get around her jaw. As I tried to get into position to scoop her out of the hole the hook dislodged and and I had to pin her with my free hand against the hole and then against the bottom side of the ice. I held on like that for about 5 seconds before she freed herself.

How about that!

Good Fishin'


RatherBe

A great sign today.. Clear Black Ice is forming out at the in-laws' place. The water is deep and this bodes well for shallower bodies like Indian for example.

I wish I'd taken my camera out. I was standing on close to 4" of first class clear lake ice looking down through about 7' FOW. It was really something, I can't remember ice that good or water that clear any time in my life.

Like I said, this ice is world class, and it should be forming in areas that are protected from the wind on public waters. I think we'll see more of the same in the areas that iced out more completely (farther South) becaus there wasn't much on the surface to hold the snow when it fell. This means that areas south of Marysville should have great ice if the mid week flurries aren't too bad.

At no point on the 10 day does the avg temp break 30 degrees. FISH ON!

RatherBe

Until last night I hadn't been skunked on the ice since the 2003 ice season.

We (John and I) went to the mouth of Moundwood in the deep hole. We fished with John's dad for the first couple of hours and had some laughs just hanging out and playing with the Vexilar. Marked a few fish but no takers, so when John's dad left we decided to see what was popping back at Dunn's. Some reports of nice Perch and some Eyes from people walking by our position so we figured, why not?

So we got back to Dunn's at around 4:45 and stayed until we were the only ones left. We got nothing! John had his bait stolen and I marked maybe a half dozen fish between 5 and 8:15.

I saw one Eye caught about 16" the whole time we were back there... should have stayed over the hole on the channel!

Good fishin'

RatherBe

The lake is starting to make a comeback...

Long Island-
     Slightly better than yesterday, but the bank is pretty slushy. You can get on at the second pulloff on the right hand side of 273 in a couple of different spots. Stay away from the aerator and hug the island on the way out. Some guys had a plank out there to get on but I decided to spud on the opposite side, stay clear of the stumps and you're going to be alright.
     One report by a spotter said that they were catching some fish out there.

Moundwood-
     Yesterday both the channel and lake were open from Moundwood. Today the channel is frozen over in 3 different spots from side to side, but there is still a lot of open water with no trace of ice. I'd say less than 50% of the channel even has skim. However, from the channel mouth out the lake is freezing. Yesterday this side of the lake was pretty much completely open, today I couldn't see any open water beyond Moundwood channel itself.

     I will be going out on Thursday morning if the wind doesn't kick up too much. We're forecasted to have a couple of pretty windy days mid-week, but with the low temps the backwaters should be alright.

     As always you'll be fishing at your own risk. Safe ice really doesn't exist, especially in these conditions, be careful and good luck.

Good Fishin'

RatherBe

Got this from my father-in-law's place in January '09, I think I was using a Wayne's Jig (Frog)

I'm just trying out the picture posting feature hopefully this works.

Good Fishin'

RatherBe

I was recently at Outdoor World for their ice event and I purchased a great hub style shelter, it's lightweight and easy to put up. I got it for $150 without the floor, with floor it was $300.. The problem with the floors they put in these shelters is that the hole placement isn't always ideal...

Here is the Solution....

You can purchase workspace flooring that fits together like a big jigsaw puzzle, I found some at Stites Variety on C.R. 130 outside of Bellefontaine... The package includes six 2'X2' tiles that are around 3/4" thick. You can place tiles anywhere you want and choose your ideal flooring pattern. This not only puts an extra barrier between you and ice, but it also serves to protect your investments i.e. Transducers, rod and reel, etc.

If you're not from the Logan County area you can probably locate this type of flooring at home improvement stores, and I know it is available online.


Good Fishin'

RatherBe