Ice fishing the st. louis

I finally ventured out on the st. louis river last night. A couple buddies and I put in by the airport by park point. Had to step over a couple pressure ridges with a couple inches of open water but after that there was 6-5 inches of ice. I was setting a rob with a bobber up and felt a bite. Something big grabbed it and all i could do was hold on. Couple minutes in my drag froze up and whatever it was snapped off. I bought some anti-freeze lube so that won’t happen again. Ended up catching a couple nice eyes at the end of the night though. Just curious if anyone else has ventured out yet this year.

Have you ever tried for eelpout further up the river. I did this before winter break there in college and had a blast! Biggest was 12lb

Never intentionally fished for them but have run into a few of them fishing before. Don’t know if I could get myself to eat those ugly things but they sure are fun to fight.