The slush has frozen up enough to stay on top in most areas. It’s great for walking in most areas and will only get better this week.

My $.02. Marcus’s basic flashers (up to M5) are phenomenal. Their LX series, on the other hand, has almost bankrupt the company. The other downside of Marcum is that they throw the absolute worst interference for other machines of people you may be fishing with (Vex, Humminbird, etc). If you want a flat screen with a ton of features and GPS, Helix is undeniably great. At the end of the day though, an FL-18 or FLX-20 are really hard to argue with. After all of the experimenting I’ve done, I have ended up with an FLx-20 in front of me with no regrets. I get my GPS from CMAPS on my phone and have more than everything I need to be successful.

Echoing what others have said. Was out tonight in the NW metro. 4-5 inches of slush. There was 6-7 inches of solid ice below. By dark, it had crusted enough that the smitty stayed on top of the ice, but walking still sucked. Tomorrow will likely be the same or moderately improved, but by Sunday it should be hard enough to stay on top in most places. It was a good bite, at least!

Anyone looked at any lakes near the metro today? I’m afraid this snow is going to ruin us with so little ice. Was honestly hoping it just kept sleeting/raining until it got cold.

Love hearing all these comments about how LOTW has no night bite. Just keep fishing where you’re at, don’t bother moving when the moon makes an appearance

I’ve had the older style all black Eskimo suit for going on 4 years. It’s perfect for me and has shown almost zero sign of wear through some hard use. The new Eskimo suits look fantastic too

I use Waitley brand batteries (off of Amazon) for my Dewalt toolset (not for an auger) and had no issues. I make sure to keep them charged, etc. but haven’t had one die on me yet. I’m sure that they wouldn’t last as long as a regular Dewalt when running an auger, but the cost savings might be worth it to just have a few extra.

Lowrance has an app called CMAPS that is actually pretty good for contours. It’s a paid subscription, but the contours are FAR better than navionics or other apps I’ve tried. Has some cool custom shading features, waypoint folders, etc. Worth a look, I’ve been happy with it.

B-man wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>munchy wrote:</div>
^^^^^ I think we found the land owner. ^^^^^

That’s too good to be true!

Minnesota North Outdoors are you the owner?

No, MN Outdoors just trolls people in every single one of his posts. I would say a ban is well past-due, but I guess that’s up to the moderators.

Ice Cap wrote:

Blackduck lake up near Bemidji has some resorts that offer ice fishing. White Birch Lodge I think is one. Been meaning to get on Blackduck myself.

Dunrovin and Teepee Tonka are 2 others on Blackduck that offer cabins/ice fishing. There are plenty of others in the area as well, depending on what you are targeting

iTinker wrote:

It just seems like a lot of work for less performance. These use Li-ion and not lifepo4. I would think they need to be replaced in half the time of an amped or dakota style for the same replacement cost. You could diy a 4s lifepo4 battery that more closely matches the voltage rating you’re looking for with less parasitic loss.

At least for me (and I’m assuming others who want to go this route), the reason for changing isn’t due to performance, but rather because people have a ton of Dewalt or Milwaukee batteries around for other tools. Especially if you run an auger off your drill, you can just bring a couple batteries for the day/weekend and you are good to go.

This is cool stuff, guys. Be sure to keep posting your findings and results once you actually get them out on the ice. I had been mulling over doing something pretty similar to what David has rigged up with the bait box/converter setup over the summer for Milwaukee Fuel batteries.

Red Eye wrote:

Timberline in blackduck

Timberline in Blackduck is a great spot. I believe the owner, Carl, will be on the IDO show tomorrow. They have the best staff and usually the best bait in the area. I grew up in Blackduck and live in the metro now but still go back to Timberline for all my major fishing/hunting purchases.

Yeah, I was out checking a few smaller lakes in the metro this morning before work and was pretty encouraged what I saw. If we get a couple of cold nights like the forecast shows I think we should be sitting on 4-6″ by early – middle of next week. The Bemidji area on the other hand…………

This is mostly a Striker community, but the Eskimo Lockout Suit has been great to me for 2+ years as well. I would compare it to a Predator suit. Good warmth, but also enough versatility to wear comfortably in the boat up to about 40 degrees. Mine has no signs of wear after using 2-4 times per week in the winter, and a dozen or so times in the boat each spring/fall.

It’s worth looking into for something at a slightly lower price point

Best boot I have tried by far. They do stretch a SMALL amount around the ankle after some use, but not a lot. Had mine for 2 seasons and still fit great.

In the garage, a stock tank heater is probably the only real option. I have a similar garage situation and just keep them in an Engel with an aerator on them by the patio door. A handful of snow every couple of days and I can keep them for weeks. Good luck!

Still using mine and am very happy with it. I wore it about 3-4 times a week for the entire season last year and it hasn’t shown any signs of wear. It’s a solid option

Relatively archaic and unintelligent law, IMHO. The lakes are our public resources to use, having a house out there should not be an issue. If the DNR feels it needs a deadline, it should be variable to adjust for the variable ice conditions from year to year. Another in a long line of laws that stemmed from decent ideas, but were executed exceptionally poorly.

That being said, if you are someone who left a wheel house on the lake w/o means to get it off….. Have fun

On LOTW a few years back, I hooked into a seagull that tried to scoop up my spinner bait as I was reeling it in. It flew around the boat about 30-40 times, and when I got it reeled in, he was mad as hell. My dad and I were able to unhook it safely but it was definitely something I’ll never forget.

It’s a tough time of year. Yes, sometimes you can have good days, and yes sometimes you can figure out a jogging cadence or presentation that they like. For the most part though, the fish are just not biting that consistently (except pike, pike always bite haha). Give it 2-3 weeks and they will start to turn to their late ice patterns and all will be well. Sounds like you did just about everything you could do.

Good call, the majority of the time mine stays hooked to the ATV and goes on the trailer. But it can get awkward lifting into the back of the truck solo.

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Yeah, I fish solo a lot and I love my 2 man Eskimo Sierra because it’s still light enough to lift into the back of the truck by myself. It can get tricky, but it’s manageable. That is the main reason I have steered clear of the otters. Too heavy for that type of thing.

Both are fine, but I would recommend a flip over if you move around much at all. Hubs are nice for space but as Jason notes they are tough once they get frozen up. Only con to a sled is they can be difficult to load up by yourself without taking everything out of the sled.

Depends on the lake for me. Many times, I will continue to move around until I am on the “edge” of a group of perch and as Tom noted, work the water column. Those little perch will not be bold enough to come up 5-10 feet if you are in an area with predators (walleye/northern etc). On lakes that you know there is a good population of predator fish, finding a big group of perch or other forage fish can be a good first step in identifying where the larger fish will be likely to feed.

IF you are seeing these groups of fish in shallower water, it might be worth moving out to a deeper area where the predators will likely be moving from in order to feed.

There are a lot of threads out here on this issue, but one thing you can do to narrow things down is look at the shoreline structure. Higher banks = quicker dropoff to deeper hole (not always, but a good place to start). Slow transitioning weedy shoreline = mud flats with less pronounced transitions (as a general rule at least). Also, try calling your county to see if you can get survey data. In northern MN at least, a lot of these little lakes were roughly mapped out during County land surveys back in the 70’s and 80’s. Other than that, the only thing to do is honeycomb the areas you think you want to fish and get a mental map of the structure.

I have the 19qt Engel and it works well, but any 5 gallon bucket with a $20 aerator will work just fine. Keep it dark , and as cold as possible without freezing. I add ice and slush to my engel every time I leave the lake, and at home it stays cool and dark with a couple of frozen water bottles. I’ve kept fatheads and suckers alive for weeks at a time doing this.

They really are an awesome hub house. Both of my brothers started with the 3i, and they still get used pretty regularly. Better zipper life than any other hub house, and the thermal fabric is outstanding, as far as I am concerned. As others have noted, get the adapter to use with the ice anchors for times of high winds / minimal snow for banking and you will be happy with it for sure.

This thread is awesome, keep the information on lakers coming. As a guy who has only accidentally caught one laker in the summer on the Canadian side of LOTW, I have really wanted to make a trip targeting them but I don’t have much for knowledge. Congrats on the beauty of a fish!

It doesn’t necessarily have an effect on how MUCH I fish, but it does change HOW I fish. I’m much less likely to go out on lakes that I can’t just drive the truck out on. If I do go out by foot or wheeler, you can bet that I have my spots I want to try marked and ready to go before I get to the lake, and I’ll be much more willing to just hang out in a spot than drilling a couple hundred holes like I do on early/late ice. Metro area had been lucky to miss most snow up until this week, but when I go up to northern MN to fish with my brothers you can be sure I’m only trekking on lakes that we can drive out on. I’ll take a little snow over the -20 degree weather though!

I use a Snitch with the Freefall reel for my main panfish rod, and it’s awesome for in a house, but has the tendency to freeze up pretty quickly if you’re outside. I’ve got a couple of the MicroTech combos set up for ‘eyes and northerns that I mainly lend out to people fishing with me who need a rod now, but I used them a lot for 2 seasons and they held up really well. They truly are a pretty awesome combo for the price. Both of my brothers use the UL ticklesticks with Black Betty reels and absolutely love them for panfish.