Panfish from under the ice

[BilletHead]

              Well my buddy Brad went ice fishing the last two days.  

an unnamed pond on a Conservation area near Herman. Here he is in disguise,  

  

    He has an hand crank ice drill. I called him yesterday and as he was drilling asked how think? Eight inches of clear ice! Later he sent me some pictures of bluegill and crappie. Caught bass too but released the bass. So today he went again and I called and got a play by play as he was catching fish. Pictures too. He did pretty good. More bass, crappie and bluegill.   

  

        Needless to say it was neat to hear him tell the story. He also got checked by a couple of agents. It is quite away from the road and Brad said he could not be seen from the road.  He seen the agents walk to the edge of the bank and lake ice. They hollered is the ice safe? Brad said yes eight inches. The agents skated his way slowly. He had his license ready. It was checked and they asked what he had in his two buckets. He said  fish in one and gloves in the other. They checked his fish. The male agent said do you know how many bluegill you can have? Brad said yes twenty. The agent said I am impressed you knew that. Brad said all you have to do is read the area brochure. Agent said no one does. Brad said I do. Then male agent said you have a couple nice crappie. No one catches crappie like that in here. Brad said as Brad does in his serious voice. Don't tell anyone will you . Agent laughed. Can I check the other bucket lady agent says. Again as Brad says in serious voice. Knock yourself out . she says those are some pretty big mittens you have . It is cold out here says Brad! I think he should of showed her his hands. Brad is like Andre the giant. He has drilled fifteen holes in two days in that eight ice,

  BilletHead

[Greasy B]

Great fishing report, if cold spells like this were normal I’d love to make ice fishing part of my winters. I had a similar experience getting checked by MDC a while back. When asked to identify our catches my partner said 8 Bluegill in the light green cooler and I said 10 Bluegill in the dark green cooler, the limit for the area was 10. The agent said thanks your good to go. 

[BilletHead]

3 minutes ago, Greasy B said:

Great fishing report, if cold spells like this were normal I’d love to make ice fishing part of my winters. I had a similar experience getting checked by MDC a while back. When asked to identify our catches my partner said 8 Bluegill in the light green cooler and I said 10 Bluegill in the dark green cooler, the limit for the area was 10. The agent said thanks your good to go. 

         I am with you man,

   Could this weather pattern be going this way in future years? If I could look into the future and see this being the norm I would invest in an auger and have at it every winter. Brad has had this ice fishing stuff for many years. He will be having a fresh fish fry today. I doubt there are many here on OAF doing that,

   BilletHead

[Johnsfolly]

Seems like a situation on getting what you give. I have only been checked a few times locally. Mostly during the catch and keep at our urban trout lake and some when the crappie bite is on at one of our lakes. Even though there are regulations about having separate stringers or names on stringers, I have never had a problem when mixing fish on a stringer when we have made the effort to identify our fish. Usually that will be one of us clipping the tail or one of the fins and the other leaving their fish intact. Being courteous and respectful and showing the agent that you know the regs are trying to comply goes a long way.

About the ice fishing, I have a crazy idea to possibly try for musky. I just started looking at hand drills. Not sure a 6" auger bit is large enough. Also I don't want to injure the fish, so have to really research the best way to rig the baits. May just ne a fantasy.

[BilletHead]

        Never had an issue either even with fish in one livewell. I have used a hole punch for marking fins. Pain in the rear and elcheapo punches rust up. A stringer works but fish tend to expire quickly in live well where they cannot swim around. Remove clips from stringer does the job too making swimming better. What I have settled on is adjustable removable cable ties. Second person puts them on fish. They provide a nice handle too when filleting plus they work good when you use an ice chest with two or even three people's fish. They come in different colors. Regular zip ties even cheaper work good too but require clippers to remove easy.  

  BilletHead

[MOPanfisher]

If you are both using the same stringer, bucket, or live well and one of you is clipping a fin or tail then you are legal.  The fish are identifiable.  I have had as high as 3 people using sam livewell, one was putting fish on a stringer in the livewell, one was clipping off a pectoral fin and one swimming around like normal.  A pair of Leatherman pliers will quickly rip.off a pectoral fin but something like game shears make it easier.

[BilletHead]

7 minutes ago, MOPanfisher said:

If you are both using the same stringer, bucket, or live well and one of you is clipping a fin or tail then you are legal.  The fish are identifiable.  I have had as high as 3 people using sam livewell, one was putting fish on a stringer in the livewell, one was clipping off a pectoral fin and one swimming around like normal.  A pair of Leatherman pliers will quickly rip.off a pectoral fin but something like game shears make it easier.

         Yep this works,

  I have done this but really quit this practice. I keep fish alive and well without damage until killing and eating. There are days when one or even three of us are fishing. We  all catch one or two and decide not to keep. Bass fishermen do this in tourneys and are allowed to because they are special .  So with a tiny zip tie hole it is like a hook puncture they will heal if released. If I have a fish die I have been known to fillet it and put it into my small cooler that is cold with snacks and drinks. I know while on the water this is illegal but I will not waste a fish. Bigger cooler fish goes on ice as soon as it's dies to be cleaned later. I have a pet peeve about game being wasted on purpose. Accidents happen and I get that. My long time fishing buddy would do this. I know he is now frowning on me from above saying this. I have seen him catch crappie and pitch them into a bucket of water to die. A poor not catching trip he would dump bucket of fish one to a few back into the water belly up dead to float off. I let him know how I felt and it seemed to fall on deaf ears.  I call the line at six crappie for keeping. Six cleaned fillet pairs is how I vac seal fish. Makes a fine meal for two and sometimes some left for a fish sammich!

BilletHead