Some Memorable If-Fishing Trips

"It's gone over," my buddy Dennis Buchner, of Grawn, Michigan's largest live-bait dealer, said. "Many lakes went over last night."

Lakes going over mean just one thing. They froze from shore to shore. Mind you, at the time it was just a skim of frozen water. The most dangerous time of all for ice fishermen

Ice fishing, like steelhead fly fishing or deer hunting with a bow, offers many memorable trips. Some bring back fond memories for various reasons as we wait for safe ice. Make no mistake about it: Some ice has melted on area lakes over the past few days, but it's supposed to turn colder this weekend. Give local lakes tight to tighten up again.

A walleye trips we'll never forget.

Some 20 years ago, my late twin brother George, Carl Salling of Mesick, father and son John and Steve VanAssche of Harrison Township, me and two others went fishing on Lake St. Clair during the Detroit Boat & Fishing Show in February. The late Al Lesh of Warren led the way to what he said would be a morning walleye hotspot.

We were fishing  in 10 feet of water off Ontario's Thames River, and the action was nonstop for big walleyes. I augered the first two holes, lowered a jigging Rapala baited with three emerald shiners near bottom, and jigged the lure twice before something tried to steal my lure plus the rod and reel with a savage strike.

The hook was set, and the fish was on. I took two or three pumps on the rod to bring in some line, jigged the other lure once, and had two walleyes on at once. I fetched the first broad-shouldered walleye to the surface and skidded him out of the hole and onto the ice. I then worked the other fish up and out. Both were fat 5-pounders, and my two fish soon paled in comparison to some of the fish caught by the other anglers.

George iced an 8-pounder, Steve nailed a 9-pounder, Al weighed in with two 6-pounders, and everyone else was catching fish. A friend of Salling's hooked a nice 7-pounder, and the action kept up until all of us had a limit catch. It was the fastest winter walleye action I've ever seen, and all of them were big fish.

Hitting good fish on Manistee Lake.

Another time brother George and I and two other guys had two tip-ups each evenly spaced off the mouth of the Manistee River where it dumps into Manistee Lake. My two tip-ups gave us a spread of eight tip-ups across a 100-yard area.

The first two flags were "wind bites," caused by the wind blowing the tip-up flag into the air. Those lines were set again, and within minutes we had a flag and a slowly turning tip-up spool. There was no need to hurry; we watched the line slowly peel out and then it stopped. A minute later the line started moving, and George knew the pike had swallowed the bait, and he let the tipup line come tight and set the hook.

The pike took out 25 yards of line, stopped, and George began the slow hand-over-hand retrieve of tip-up line until the fish neared the ice hole, and then it sped off on another run. Long minutes passed before George positioned the 15-pound northern under the hole, and I jerked one tine of a three-hook gaff into the fish's bottom jaw and lifted him through the hole.

We iced seven northern pike to 15 pounds that day, and four of them weighed over 10 pounds each. George seemed to have had the hot hole that day, and he also caught an 11-pound walleye. It was an incomparable outing, and the mix of pike and walleye made it one to long remember.

Finding big Lake Michigan yellow perch.

About 10 years ago the ice of Lake Michigan near Glen Arbor froze over, and Mark Rinckey of Honor and I went perch fishing. It took two hours of drilling holes in water of different depths before we found the fish.

Our quarry was 13-15-inch yellow perch, and we found them holding in 47 feet of water near bottom. We were using light-action spinning reels with four-pound line with a one-ounce weight at the bottom and two lines baited with emerald shiners spaced eight inches and 15 inches above the sinker.

We lowered the rig to bottom, took up slack line, and we didn't have to wait long. The fish seemed plentiful that day, and were willing to bite. I hooked a fish, led the sinker bounce against bottom again, and felt another tug and fought a doubleheader catch of 14-inch perch to the ice hole.

Rinckey, only 40 yards away, was hammering on the fish, too. His line would go down, I'd seen a soft upward jerk, and up would come one or two more huge perch. We didn't limit out that day although it would have been easy, but neither of us had a need for too many fish. We kept 16 fish, eight each, and called it a day.

The next day was more of the same, and we found the fish in over 50 feet of water. Each perch we caught suffered the bends, and their air bladder popped out of their mouth on the way up from the depths. We kept 10 big perch, and then the wind switched to offshore, and I heard an ominous shudder as the ice heaved. Zig-zag lines darted across the ice like forked lightning across a summer sky, and it was time to move fast.

We grabbed our gear and ran the 300 yards to shore. We had to leap a six-foot lead of open water between the ice and shore but we made it off the drifting ice pack. Within 15 minutes, the ice was drifting west toward Wisconsin, and we've never seen this type of perch fishing since. Stay turned to this daily blog for more new on Mark Rinckey in the very near future.

Use common sense when ice fishing. Be safe!

Ice fishing is a great way to spend a winter day. Common sense should rule all fishing trips, but when the conditions are right and the fish gods smile, it can be a wonderful way to spend a day outdoors. But don't go out until you've thoroughly checked the ice.

Any warm-up of weather conditions can seriously change ice conditions. I fished yesterday, and it warmed enough to make the ice soft and a little spongy. I thought about fishing again today and decided against it. I didn't have anyone to fish with, and dislike ice fishing along. The old-fashioned "buddy" system is always wise when venturing out onto the ice.

My thought is to give area ice a chance to firm up some more before trying your luck. The last few days of warm weather will have weakened the ice both yesterday and today. A dip in ice-cold water isn't worth all the fish in a local lake.

Posted via email from Dave Richey Outdoors