Thanks for the responses.

Back today from the trip.
Stopped at Prince’s on the way up.
They had everything and the guys were great.

Bit the bullet and bought shiners($16), 5 inch suckers and fatheads.

Camera and graph.
Only activity was a small group of 5 inch perch the entire time.

Not a single fish Wednesday-Friday. No marks.

Tried everything. Rattle lures, glow, dead stick, suckers, shiners and flutter baits and glow demons tipped with minnow head etc. etc.

Nothing, Nothing, Nothing. Guy at the desk acknowledged no one catching any except a lone walleye here and there, last week someone landed 2 nice northerns. Talked to 6 others fishing on their road…1 house had a single eye.

I don’t have an auger so we were limited to the house holes.

At least I wasn’t the only one skunked on that ice road.

But for what it is worth, Appeldoorn’s house was nice and the staff was good.

Thanks for the responses.
Wed-Fri trip.
Who knows with the pressure dropping, warm temps and snow moving in.

So…
No live bait.

I was now informed the tackle “box” can be no larger than 6″x 4″x 1″.

So the tandem spinner uses a great deal of the space.

I smashed in:
-Tandem spinner…smaller pike/muskie
-a smaller size storm 360 search bait and 2 extra plastics.
-(5) 3 inch twister tails (3 white, 2 chartreuse)
-5 snaps
-(3) 1/4 oz jig heads; (2) 1/2 oz
-mimic minnow spin in 2 colors
-1 mepps tipped with twister
-“weedless’ spoon
-gold and black spinner
-small 8 lb mono leader
-rattle rap and a shad rap swimmer
– forceps for removing hooks

I know the trip is not primarily for fishing, but my boy loves to fish. It would kill him to be on that lake and not spend some time fishing. The guides will have some gear. Thanks for the tips!

Just a note about Mac’s Twin Bay..
We (my teenage son and I) fished the 11th and 12th.

They had just plowed the road out 6 miles, and moved most of the shacks farther out to the gravel. We got 15 all inside the house.
And we are not experienced fishermen.
Two guys who rented the same day as us got 18, Friday alone.

Two bait shops (same town on Mille Lacs).
The more popular shop counted out the suckers (12).
The other scooped out about 24 for a “dozen”
Resort owner confirmed this is the way each of them operate.
Support the local shops, but the small shop is a way better deal.
Guess who I will using in the future?

Shakespeare Wild series 27 inch medium action rod $14 total, delivered.

Joes Sporting Goods had a GCA800 regularly $38 for $19…
5 sealed precision stainless steel rust-resistant ball bearings
Forged aluminum alloy spool
One-way clutch instant anti-reverse roller bearing
Balanced rotor
Soft-touch Inter-changeable handle knob

I have spring bobber tips for pan-fish bite detection with the medium rods.

Smooth reel and good drag. Rod worked great for walleye 15-26 inches.

Plus if the reel fails in the first year Joe’s will replace it free.

Thanks for the tip…
After seeing a GIGANTIC northern on the camera, my boy wanted to switch to the largest suckers we had, with a treble. The 26 inch walleye took that sucker. I was unaware of the risk with a treble.

Wouldn’t the same risk occur for using treble targeting Northerns? Everone I know uses a treble when fishing for Northern under a tip-up or bobber.

The bait shop owner told us that no shiners are available in Minnesota. He complained that you can no longer import them to MN because of DNR regs.

I have read that some bait shop owners in Wisconsin years ago were charged with importing shiners. They can carry disease.

Lite suckers worked well. Pike minnows worked, but not as well on our trip. Rainbows were available at one local bait shop, but not the other, we didn’t try them.

Two thoughts come to mind… You may have been using too small of hooks and the hook was getting buried in the minnows back versus the fishes mouth or you were dealing with relatively smaller fish that would grab the minnow but not have it fully in it’s mouth resulting in a poor hooking percentage.

The best advice for hook setting on set lines with larger minnows is to let the fish run until it stops and then wait until it starts moving again. If the fish just grabs the bait and continues to run without stopping this is frequently a larger fish and will have the bait in its mouth as soon as they grab it. If they don’t stop within about 30 seconds I will just set the hook.

Personally I prefer to error on the side of setting quickly and missing a fish rather than letting the fish run too long and gut hooking them.

Will

———————————————————————————————-

Thanks,
After a many misses I switched out to a #4 Demon, that one did hook better along with setting up another rattle reel with treble. We were probably setting the hook too early on most of the early misses as well. I actually remembered the run-stop-run pattern on the last 3 sets, a little late…All 3 were brought in successfully (21, 24 and 26 inch). The 24 inch “ran” slowly for 4-5 minutes then stopped and ran again…hooked on the lip! I have never gut hooked a walleye in my life, so it didn’t even occur to me. Unfortunately the last fish (26 inch) was gut hooked after we waited for the run-stop-run about 1 and a half minutes. Usually in the summer we just feed slack and count 15-20 seconds.

Really hit us both hard since we had to release it that way. I tried my best to remove the hook minimizing the damage to the fish (my hand did not fair as well as the fish).

After we came home I googled how to remove a hook from a walleye gut. The In-fisherman link was broken. If you have a technique it would be great if you could post it. I have heard leaving it in can also create big problems.

Slot limits are so frustrating! We always keep and eat injured fish on other lakes. I explained to my son that even if it dies, other fish will probably be fed by it.

We will be setting a 30 second limit going forward.

Thought I would update…
Fri 1 p.m. to Sun 8 a.m. 1/11-1/13.

My son and I, fishing in four holes, all fishing inside a rented house from Macs.
Gravel 26 feet of water. Macs is plowed out 6 miles, road is good.

Using an underwater camera for the first time to keep the teenager happy.

1-2 p.m. nothing on camera, no bites Various flutter, tingler spoons with fathead minnow head and 2 rattle reels (plain hooks) one with 3 1/2 inch pike and 1 with a 5 inch sucker (no shiners available anywhere).

2 p.m. switched to UL Rippinrap (perch color) to call them in with noise.
Lots of Walleye lookers come by, scared off my anything more than a jiggle when they are close. When they are off the screen I give the Rippin Rap a few more rips and they come in again, slow the presentation but no bites , they will look at the flutter spoon and Rippin Rap jiggling or still.

4 PM. First one hits (18 incher) on a firetiger Rippen Rap. Ambushes it from below and inhales it after keeping it still with an occasional jiggle. 4 more landed in the next hour and a half (16,19,7,19,inch) by a slow presentation VMC Tumbler spoon in glow goldfish tipped with fathead head. Switched the Rippin Rap out for several tumbler/flash spoons, but they only want the glow goldfish. At sunset only one more hits a jig (19.5) and we tried several colors sizes etc. We pick up 2 more (17 and 20 inch) on the rattle reels…bare hook or red/glow demon. Failed to land about 7 others on the rattle reels (Suckers and pike minnows) from 10:00 p.m. to 2 A.M…get them half way to the hole and they get off. We are pretty inexperienced with setting the hooks in walleye under the ice…besides jigging.

Saturday morning lookers but no takers using nearly all my tackle listed above. Caught 2 on the pink tiger rippin rap (17,15) and one on the glow goldfish tumbler (16). Long lunch…

Lookers but only one landed around 4 p.m. (21 and 1/4 inch keeper!) on the glow goldfish tumbler. Same M.O….Rippin Rap calls them in, but will scare them off if anymore than a jiggle is applied.

10 p.m. rattle reels go off again, we miss several then we give them 1-5 minutes at this point before setting the hook…5 inch sucker minnows. My boy lands a fat 24 1/2 incher and a 26 incher.

Final tally…
-UL Rippin rap (pink tiger 2 fish, firetiger color 1) inhaled it, and called fish in; but slow it to a jiggle when marking.

-Glow Goldfish tumbler 7 fish. Slow presentation. killer at dusk.

Rattle reel 5 inch suckers #4 glow Demon worked best (5 fish). All caught by letting them run a long time. Better fisherman would have caught twice or 3 times as many with a better timed hook set and/or special minnow rigging. The biggest fish were caught this way.

15 fish…18,16,10,7,19,20,19.5,17,20,17.16,15,21,24.5,26.

Minnows after dusk, slow jig/spoon 4-6 p.m., Rippin rap to call in but just jiggle when marking. VMC Glow Goldfish tumbler to seal the deal. Resort worker said gold was getting the best result in all the houses.

Thanks for everyone helping me with advice. My teenager had a blast!

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Hahaha…

27 not 37!

Typo

Berkley amp rod
Reviews look very good.
Thanks.
Medium action 28 inch?
I am hesitant to go medium light because of catching 37 inchers previously on Mille Lacs (and the possibility of a large Northern).

The app is being discontinued according to the play store.
Charts and data will transfer to new app.

If I offended anyone I would like to apologize.

It was not my intention to be sarcastic in any of my posts. Please re-read my posts with an open mind on this thread and the ice fishing thread. I tryed to respond to all suggestions, and why it might not work for me out of respect for those gracious enough to respond. I expressed my gratitude several times so those reading would not see my post as argumentative or sarcastic.

I did acknowledge my misunderstanding about the outlets on the other thread, and thanked those who helped me sort it out.

I sincerely thanked the member who offered his generator. I considered it such a beautiful, generous offer… I turned it down because I would hate to return it to him not working as well as when he loaned it to me.

The suggestion that I was not really looking for a rental for my son and I is just plain false. I have gone on 4 guided fishing trips with my son in the last 2 years, based on recommendations from members of this forum. I am a working joe on a single income with 5 kids. My kids mean everything to me and I am having a hard time connecting with my teenage son. Fishing is one thing what we can share, so I am spending far more money than my budget allows. That is why I may seem like a cheapskate. I found the less expensive rental because of someone’s suggestion.

Some postings have been deleted, which is fine, but it adds to misunderstanding.

Once again I apologize if members felt disrespected by my postings.

Found a decent shack on the lake.
$95 a night, outlets,lights, cookstove, sleeps 3, rattle wheels 5 holes.
Pine interior, ice road.

2nd place $275 with generator for 48 hours off brand ice castle type.

Thanks everone for all the suggestions!

Road trip over to Milaca Unclaimed Freight or a quarter mile up the Road to Northland auto and buy yourself a Ice Castle or Yetti. Get it insured and hump it up to Mille Lacs and spot it on the lake. Drill some holes. Build your rental web site. Purchase equipment for the amount of holes you have. Buy a car for your kid and he can punch all the holes, move the house and clean it between uses. You will for sure rent it out 3 to 4 nights a week! You will be a tycoon in no time.

I didn’t mean to suggest renting a house as an idea for a business but rather starting a VRBO type site for ice rentals by owner. Literally over 2 million rental transactions for houses (not ice houses) and cabins each year on VRBO alone.

Just wondering why the trend has not spread to ice rentals. With the exception of Ice Castle type “shacks” the risk of expensive property damage is far less compared to a house or cabin rental. Not everyone uses their ice house every night. Cabin owners are defraying costs this way.

I was rather surprised that a small sleeper house (with a generator) would be $400+ for 48 hours, I don’t even pay that much for a cabin on a lake in the summer and I would think cabins have higher ongoing expenses like property taxes, cost of the lakeshore property etc.

Just my thoughts, but UBER, VRBO, Airbnb etc. show the model can work.

OK, now the resort owners and guides can flame me now.

Wow eelpoutguy.
That was really generous. Thanks, I will pass on the chance it might have a problem when I am using it.

I am biting the bullet and paying for the generator and a shack ready for plug in, unless something else pops up.

My wife is getting a bit stressed about the cost but I seize every opportunity to bond with my son before he is on his own.

Thanks again.

Thanks for the suggestion, but the logistics suck for a 2 day trip.
Pick up 2-4 PM
Pull it myself, pay for ice road access, drill holes, set up myself.
So fishing maybe by prime time, perhaps not on the first day.
$310 for the 2 days… plus rent a generator, plus fee for ice road, plus fill propane and gas myself.

Not what i am looking for.
I don’t need another link to a retail operation.

A guy on jighub charges $200 a day, all inclusive and is set up on Mille Lacs, but has been too lazy to get back to me.

It is time for an enterprising person to set up a VRBO type site for ice house/Ice castle rentals for private owners. Adapt or die off.

Mille Lacs this year.

Considered Red, but too far.

That linked Ice castle is $150 for 12 hours (for a small one) $250 for the large, way too much.

Cant imagine how much a 48 hour weekend trip would be. Even the ones on Mille Lacs are not that much.

Cancelable reservation.
Outlets in the pictures were pre-installed before wiring, non-functional.

Considering other options.

Apparently Hardware Hank rents a Honda generator for $39 for 24 hours.

Other sheds that are ready for generator plug-in would be cheaper, even with the generator cost.

Thanks everyone for helping me figure this out. It was a puzzle with the TV and outlets in the photos.

Wish us luck. Only a couple of years and he will be off to collage. We really cant afford these trips, but I wont miss out on these years with him.

Already have an inverter (actually 2) for plugging in laptops etc in my vehicle for the kids.
One is high power, the other is low power draw so I don’t blow fuses.
I have hooked the high power inverter directly to a car battery to run larger draw alliances, but using it in the cigarette lighter blows fuses.
Only renting the shack for 2 nights. I rented it because there was no charge for a generator (there is none) and the pictures showed regular looking outlets. Even though it has a TV/VCR, I found out the whole thing is wired 12V only.

The laptop will basically be for playing DVDs. Who rents VCR tapes anymore???

My teenager likes fishing, but some trips become miserable if there are no bites and no other entertainment is available.

The whole point is to spend time with my son but like most teen boys needs more stimulus than a fish or 2 for 2 days. I dont want him to sour on ice fishing.

ignore the second thread on the same subject

I got the Ugly stick tiger.

Buying this whole set-up is really an investment in my son.
Teenage boys today are really hooked on computer games and I want as much time with him as possible before he moves on to college. Hauling in 35-40 inch Sturgeon really got him excited and he really wants to hook a 60 incher now.

I am not an very experienced fisherman…5-15 days fishing a year for the last 40 years and I am brand new to Sturgeon/Cat fishing and river fishing in general.

I appreciate all of your comments. Do people go out for Sturgeon or cats in the spring on the St Croix or is the water too high, or not productive?

Thanks again!

Would the 7 ft Ugly Stick Tiger casting MODEL#USTB1230C701 work well?
Shakespeare rates it as medium-heavy.

I hesitate to go to the Ugly Stick 8 ft Bigwater casting MODEL#USBWB4080C801 because it might not be sensitive enough…Rated Heavy.

Any thoughts?