Ice Fishing

Headed out to Lake Simcoe to meet up with my friend Kevin from Chasin’ Tail Outfitters for some jumbo perch action. It was snowing pretty heavy on top of the already snow covered roads. I pulled onto the ice a little after 8, a little late in true Angler Gang form. Kev had the sled fired up and ready to rock. After a short ride we were at one of his hand picked spots. We drilled a couple holes and set up the hut. While I was settling in Kev was already dropping a line and hooked into a fish within the first minute. He pulled out a decent perch that set the pace for how the rest of the day would go.

I dropped my line right away and after that and we were on them! One after another we pulled out perch after perch with plenty of jumbos mixed in. The action was constant with double headers all day long. It was just a non-stop perch slam fest! I spotted a couple larger fish swimming by our holes and we looked down to see a giant school of herring. We reeled up to their level and landed one each before the school moved on. I switched to a rod set up with a jig and drop shot. Got a few double headers on it myself pulling out two jumbo perch at once which was pretty crazy. Later Kevin had a monster perch eye balling his bait he was watching the sonar closely and didn’t get her to commit. He was bummed for a while. He is still thinking about it right now I bet.

We hit up the ice this morning in hopes to catch some pike. We set some tip-ups in our outside holes right away. Then set up camp in the hut and started fishing. It was windy and snowing heavy early in the day. The snow kept covering our holes and tip-ups so we were outside uncovering them quite often. I’ve caught a fair amount of pike on this lake but this would be my first time catching one through the ice so I was focused on making it happen. I was fishing a jig and drop shot combo. I was enjoying being out fishing on this snowy Saturday morning when there was a sharp pull on my rod tip and there was no mistaking it was game time! I reeled in a bit until I felt the fish and set the hook on him. Our hut was in roughly six or seven feet of water so I saw him right away after the hook up and the fight was brief but action packed. It wasn’t a bad fish for my first pike through the ice. Not long after Tim caught a small bass. We didn’t manage much else and those tip-ups didn’t pop all morning but there is always next time. Looking forward to more pike through the ice!