I Think I Have A Nibble...

Although my ice fishing season started out by me not really doing a whole lot of fishing, lately I have been taking advantage of a pretty good pattern out on Tonka, and my rewards have been great.  Last night was yet another night for my digital camera to get a work out.  I also boated my largest walleye of this ice season.  A very nice eye that I would put somewhere in the 8 pound category.  A true beauty any where that is still swimming for us to catch another day.  It came in during one of our card games and while I usually just use the rattle reels to catch em, this time I had a jig line down.  I just happened to look at my vexilar and see the massive signal covering my bait.  I picked up the rod, jigged it twice and the battle was on.  Unlike Lil Dingy's eye from a couple of nights earlier, this guy didn't exactly come flying up the 8 inch hole, and when they get that size, it is usually a tough time fitting them perfectly in the hole.  Nonetheless, I got a picture of the fatty, and high fives were shared by us all.

The approach that has really been putting all of the fish on the ice for us this season is very simple.  Move the house, fish, move the house, fish, move the house, fish, and then move again.  I feel like all I have been doing is moving the fish house from spot to spot, but it is making all the difference in the world.  Like I said before, there are literally thousands of spots on Tonka to try, and the best way to stay on fish is to stay in a spot no more than one night.  For whatever reason, there seems to be only a few fish on each spot.  Once you catch those fish, it's time to find new ones, because they don't seem to come back onto a spot that has been hit.  If I show up at a spot that already has holes on it, I simply move to another one.  I guess if I have seen holes there I feel that somebody already put hooks into the guys calling that spot home.  I don't know why Tonka's rock piles don't replenish themselves with new fish, but it seems like you only get one or two nights on a spot for the year.  Either way, there are so many spots out there that if you can be mobile, you will catch your fish and many of them are very large. 

You can see from this pic that we have really been spoiling ourselves out on the ice with Dusty's new shack.  Last night we had a gourmet meal of Lasagna courtesy of Hennen.  Thanks Matt, Bails and Dusty Bottoms for yet another night on the water to remember, and to our sponsors "Sunny D" and "Michelob Golden Draft Light" for making this night possible (hahaha...Just Kidding).  That's what I call "Livin The Dream!"