Gotta know

[ccavacini]

I have to know what you guys are doing when there's no ice on the lakes...I'm going through pheasant hunting withdrawl, so I can just imagine you guys' pain.

[treehugger]

All one needs to do is browse this forum...from many of the posts you can see we are going whacko!!! I know I am!!! :coco: :dizzy: :bonk:

[QuailDancer]

Working off the "honey-do" lists that built up over the hunting season and sending out resumes. Getting thoughts of practicing my putting and chip shots, get ready for the next "season".

[Slowretrieve]

Put new tires on the boat trailer. Drive out to the lake and look around. Walk the shore in search of lost lures. Re-arrange each tacklebox. Buy new tackleboxes and arrange those. Clean and oil reels. Wait for the Boat, Sport and Travel Show in the middle of February. Drive to Cincinnati to the Bass Pro Shop. Wait, wait, wait.

[goggleye57]

Gettin ready to go to Mississippi over Spring Break, cleaning out the basement , chasing my wife around the house :yikes: :)

[psychobubba]

going nutzzzz

[psychobubba]

:bonk: i am already there ?:banghead3

[Dean Weimer]

10-4 on the going bonkers fellas!!!

[crookedlake92]

I put the boat back in on Saturday, couldn't take it anymore! Need help! Somebody talk to mother nature!

[Lulu Patches]

Basically it's been "ditto" along the lines of other responses. I will admit I'm wearing an Internet path OFTEN to the Weather Channel to see if they're changing their predicted lows. (Right now I'd jump up&down if I saw one low in the teens someplace.) I am going to "Alternate Plan B," however. Actually I lucked into it by giving my wife a trip to her brother's winter home in Florida for Christmas & we're headed off next week. No joke,I really thought I'd be missing out on my favorite fishing - On hard water. Oh well, he lives near Sebring & last year we took a peek at a famous lake 15 mi. away - Lake Istokpoga (28,000 acres). This year I put it on our fishing list. In addition to good pops of redear, gills&crappie, it's reknown as a bass lake. Get this slot limit - Only 3 bass allowed, none between 15-24", but only one over 24". Are you kidding! - I haven't caught one over 24" in my life! Oh well, think of me suffering. With my luck they'll probably have the lowest temps of the year when we're there.

[pigeonflier]

I found the cure

:hide:
PARTYPOKER.COM

[Dean Weimer]

Hey Patches, I'd bet you'll catch a lifetime's supply of panfish too. What are the limits on 'gills, crappy, etc.


Remember to practice "Catch and Release".

1) Catch Fish
2) Clean Fish
3) Flour and Release in 355 degree Crisco
4) Fall asleep on lazy boy

[goggleye57]

Basically it's been "ditto" along the lines of other responses. I will admit I'm wearing an Internet path OFTEN to the Weather Channel to see if they're changing their predicted lows. (Right now I'd jump up&down if I saw one low in the teens someplace.) I am going to "Alternate Plan B," however. Actually I lucked into it by giving my wife a trip to her brother's winter home in Florida for Christmas & we're headed off next week. No joke,I really thought I'd be missing out on my favorite fishing - On hard water. Oh well, he lives near Sebring & last year we took a peek at a famous lake 15 mi. away - Lake Istokpoga (28,000 acres). This year I put it on our fishing list. In addition to good pops of redear, gills&crappie, it's reknown as a bass lake. Get this slot limit - Only 3 bass allowed, none between 15-24", but only one over 24". Are you kidding! - I haven't caught one over 24" in my life! Oh well, think of me suffering. With my luck they'll probably have the lowest temps of the year when we're there.
Sounds like a great time! take me too!:help:

[tilesetter]

Looking for arrowheads with my kids.Found a couple broken ones!

[JL]

Went to Clear lake on Sunday jigging for walleyes out of the Deep Vee. Sucked badly. No hits. Drank a lot of beer though. If we don't get some ice, I may turn into an alcoholic. The Marcum's looking at me sadly....poor little guy.

[crookedlake92]

Patches, you're right on with the Lake Istopoga statement! My friends grandmother lived on Lake Josephine, just outside of Sebring.....used to catch tons of gills and good bass fishing too. Climate is a little nicer down there! Good times.

[Lulu Patches]

Hey Patches, I'd bet you'll catch a lifetime's supply of panfish too. What are the limits on 'gills, crappy, etc.


Remember to practice "Catch and Release".

1) Catch Fish
2) Clean Fish
3) Flour and Release in 355 degree Crisco
4) Fall asleep on lazy boy

Ah, Dean, you missed a step between 3&4 on "Catch & Release" - Recatch with fork, release into mouth, & wash with "selective" beverage! - THEN the lazy boy!

A couple more notes on Lake Istokpoga:
1) Their limits are similar to around here - 50 gills and 25 crappie
2) I'm surprised that although it's so large, the greatest depth is only 10 ft.
3) The lake is so popular there are six fishing camps on it.
4) Get this, one state fishing report kept talking of using small bits of hot dog for the bream (gills)! Combine that with Michigan forum guys chatting about using red licorice on perch - What is this world coming to?!!

[goggleye57]

Gettin ready to go to Mississippi over Spring Break, cleaning out the basement , chasing my wife around the house :yikes: :)
Just found out today we are going to Pascagoula, Mississippi over Spring Break, I am going with a group to work on hurricane damage, I am going to find room for a surf rod, like to put in a least a few hours at the beach! :bouncy:

[Bigbass101]

Organizing the Spring bass tackle, and reorganizing it again, again, again....................:16suspect :banghead3

[JL]

My wife thinks I'm crazy for doing that! "Why do you keep looking at your lures?" They just don't get it. Oh well, I don't get why we have 25 Longaberger baskets in just the living room.

[Bigbass101]

James,

What I've learned is to let your wife get into their hobbies, and they will give you a little more time for fishing.:bowdown: My wife loves to garden, and I never ask her "Why?" , or any other ridiculous questions. I just go with it, and she just goes with my hobby of fishing.


If your interested in some Clear lake reports. Click on my profile. I posted a few a while back on my board. Some decent walleye and bass were caught early in the year, and then the fishing tailed off.

You mentioned the "V" on Clear Lake. I did best for walleyes around the island in the middle. Just along the weed edges. The smallmouth seem to be here and there. Always moving on that lake. To me, Clear lake has one of the best deep water bites in Indiana. There's almost no such thing as too deep!

[treehugger]

Deep water fishing?...heck over here in western Indiana we thought Bass drowned in anything deeper than 2 feet of water. We beat the banks to a froth fishin' for 'em!!! Every year my wife gets on me for buying more rubber purple worms...I don't have the heart to tell her I haven't bought any for 4 years I had so many stockpiled!!!!! :biggrin:

[Bigbass101]

Hey TreeHugger,

The majority of the N.E. Indiana lakes are like that too. There are some that hold a consistent deep water fish. Clear lake is one of them. Certain days you can drop a quarter in 20 feet of water and tell if it's heads or tails on the bottom.:eek: With such clear water, comes the deep weed growth. You will have weeds growing in 30 feet of water. Where there are weeds, there's forage, which means there's preditor's. This is what makes Clear lake challenging. If you can't get a shallow bite, you can always go deep.

Last Spring, I was motoring along while looking at the electronics. When I noticed a huge school of baitfish suspended in 25 foot of water. The depth was 35 feet there. I circled the boat around, and caught casted a weighted plastic over the area letting it fall right through the bait fish. This bass was below that school.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v287/Bigbass101/Photos11/CL.jpg
That same day I also caught bass as shallow as 1 foot hugging the bank.

[treehugger]

Nice Bigbass101 !!! I wondered about the deep fishin'. If I'm forced to fish like that I'm almost lost...not always, but most of the time. That picture sure makes me wish spring would get here soon. Boats on the water, short sleeve shirt, and BASS!

[Bigbass101]

I agree.......Wish the weather would go one way or the other. I have boat winterized, which leaves me limited what I can do this time of year. Bring me ice, or open water. Can't wait for that bass Spring bite.

[JL]

The rainbows do the same thing out there. You'll be fishing the break in 20 ft., and the trout'll be busting top out in 40 or 50. Caught more than one out there last spring throwing out the deep side of the boat, and they're usually nice ones out there. Caught a few with a fly rod too, and they are crazy kamikazi fish when they get hooked. No mistaking the fish within the first 2 seconds.

[410]

Will I thought this would be a good time to make up ice fishing hooks and to tied up some flys for the spring. Get in the gun safe and clean and oil all the guns since most of hunting season is over.

[scrapewatcher]

:dizzy: no ice,,,,no turkey season yet,,,,,mushroom season not in:banghead3 ,,,,,what's the suicide rate climbing too? i think shed hunting is in order!! if i don't find any i can always say they haven't droped yet. lol

[Fergie2u]

Well last sun. I went to a pheasant hunt in ohio at rocky's had a great time. Nine guy's and myself we shot 43 birds. Everybody brought home 4 birds. I had 3 cocks and two hens . Been cutting a lot of wood and getting some overtime at work.

[Piggyn]

If the Angola weather forecast (http://wwwa.accuweather.com/forecast-15day.asp?partner=accuweather&myadc=0&traveler=0&zipcode=46703&metric=0) holds, then help is on the way in about a week!

[Dean Weimer]

How could I have been so crazy...um, LuLu...for not mentioning the "beverage" wash. Fish on...Get R Dun.

[ccavacini]

Ok, Bass Pro has a 40% off sale...there's a Diawa Advantage baitcaster that's on sale....been told it's a good price for a good reel...58 bucks.

Now, do I really need it? More of a spinning reel type...already have two bait casters.

And I have a Cabela's Visa....decisions, decisions.

Man can't have too many rods and reels?

[Dean Weimer]

10-4 on that Cary. Go ahead and get the reel. Heck, you'll get points on your card, so the next one will be even less.


Quote of the week (from a friend of mine) In your life you either spend money or give it away. Harry "Hud" Freeze

Actually, can you get Cabela's points by purchasing from Bass Pro? I'm thinking that is probably a NO!!!!!?????

[lilkrou]

Well, now that the majority of the seasons are complete here, I find myself here at the forums more often....

Oh, did I mention that I am LMAO at the "discussions" here on the forums! Some of them are quite humorous! [As one beats a dead horse (not really, just figuratively speaking since there is a wanna-be-PETA spy amongst us)];)

[operatortom]

doing fair 10 to15 nice gills a day when not to windy or raining
chain of lakes
operator tom

[Hoosier_Steelheader]

doing fair 10 to15 nice gills a day when not to windy or raining
chain of lakes
operator tom

Welcome to teh Site Operatortom! Keep catching those gills!

HS

[anon782010]

doing fair 10 to15 nice gills a day when not to windy or raining
chain of lakes
operator tom


Whitley county, welcome Tom, I'm a neighbor to the north in Noble.

Enjoy the forum.

[crookedlake92]

doing fair 10 to15 nice gills a day when not to windy or raining
chain of lakes
operator tom
Bet you were fishing with Gary Williamson, weren't ya! I'm pretty sure I'm your next door neighbor........ Jeff

[goggleye57]

Welcome! We can use all the bluegill guys we can get! :)