Go NOW!!!

With how the ice season has been on Bay de Noc I am more then ready for open water.

Just switched to an 11# and I love it! A lot easier when walking out. Also it last multiple trips.

#4-#7 All depends on where you fish

FL-18! I have an FL-12 and I love it but wish I would have went with the FL-18. I know people that have had Marcum and loved them but after a year or two they have ran into problems with them. I have had my Vexilar for 2 years know and my older brother has had is for 6 years with no problems and he not gentle with his equipment.

10lb extra tough mono! landed multiple pike over 30in. Just have to play them out. I use it for walleye but of course pike have to come along too. If your fishing just pike I would go to a 30lb braided. When you notice it fraying just retie. If you want to stay away from the braided use a heavy fluorocarbon.

Can’t go wrong with a medium heavy fenwick

livinthedream wrote:

I was also curious about this as well. Did you try spot lock?

I fished the same spot as James and Paul casting the same lures. I will say I don’t have spot lock but I do have a trolling motor I used to stay in on area thanks to my GPS. I did find that the fish were scattered across a reef as James said. However there were spots that seemed to hold fish more often. You could pull one or two fish of the same spot and then drift over it again a couple hours late and land a couple more fish in the exact same area. However if you tried to stay in that one spot for an extended amount of time your bites were spaced out and we found we were better off drifting different areas of the reef but then coming back to that same area sever drifts later.

Jonesy wrote:

Just watched the episode on youtube. One thing that stuck out to me was that you were casting with the wind and thus the boat moving towards your raps on the drift.
Was this done for a specific purpose? When I drift fish even if I am casting I tend to always toss into the wind and work the bait back. I have always done it this way because it helps me not work the bait too fast, keeps slack out of the line, and I don’t run over my bait or fish. I noticed on the big fish you caught just over halfway though the episode he went under the boat and the boat is moving over the fish. A friend of mine lost a nice sized northern because of this

Maybe I am looking too much into this but was wondering if you chose to cast with the wind/drift for any reasons other than convenience and comfort.

I fished the same spot doing the same thing as James and Paul on Bay de Noc and I have to agree with them. When you are fishing with the dift into the wind the its hard to work the bait effectively. A lot of the times the bait won’t hit the bottom before the boat catches up with the slack. You want that bait to hit the bottom and then pop it up off the bottom. This can only be done in light wind or fishing with the wind to your back.

I have taken a broken fly rod and converted it into an ice rod. I had an old ice rod handle that I keeped for a couple of years for no apparent reason. Until my younger brother broke his fly rod by stepping on it down near the handle. His fly rod was a 2 piece. I drilled out the handle of my old ice rod handle and added some gorilla glue to the hole. I then just pushed the end of the fly rod into the handle. I will admit its not the best rod in the world but it makes for one hell of a nice deadstick. I use it for perch deadsticking a 2in minnow.

Hear in Michigan they have some slots in place already. Like on Little Bay de Noc. Your allowed 5 walleye per. But your only allowed one fish over 23″ per person. This being in place has helped our fishery a lot. With this is place I have had days where I had trouble catching fish within the slot. I have no problem with that.

Rippin Rats and Husky Jerks on deep breaks off of structure and reefs.

Upper Michigan hopefully will have a couple of inches by the Dec. 21

Did the same thing a couple of year ago! but we had bare ground with white rabbits running around

People that fish Lake Superior through the ice say anything with white work great. Lately they say the Rapala rippin rat has been climbing there favorite lure chart. Other then that buck tail jigs work great.

We fished a similar area as James and Paul fished on there latest show

The bass had moved out of the area already. But you can find them in areas of the bay on deep sandy breaks

The bass had moved out of the area already. But you can find them in areas of the bay on deep sand breaks

Panfish: White and pink for sure
Pike: reds and greens
Walleye: Clown colors, Golds, and chartreuse

Moonshine shiver minnow! Anything in the say clown on it. Fish the bottom hook with a minnow head or full minnow.

Click on the link from fishwater and it will bring you right too it.

Hey Devin! I just asked the same question! go to my page and you will find ever answer you are looking for. James Holst said go with the Commander.

Look at Ugly Sticks ice rod series! I have one for fishing ultra light jigging raps and small spoons and I love it!. Also Fenwick makes a good rod with a light tip. The Ulgy Stick though have a light tip with a heavy back bone is perfect for walleye fish!

I’ve heard both bad and good about propane. I have heard that they work great for only a couple of years then they start to not work so good. They also don’t have the power (I’ve heard) that gas augers do.

Power Pro ice for deep water with a fluorocarbon leader.

I fish Bay de Noc area mostly and yes there are 10 pound walleyes swimming around out here.

Thanks for all the suggestions! I have used ugly stick ice rod but they always seem to have to light of tip to jig large lures.

Something I forgot to add was if I put my vexilar on low power mode there was no interference between the two no matter how close together they were. The only disadvantage to this was my low power mode can only be used in less than 20ft of water.

I fish with my Lowrance elite 4x beside my Vexilar FL-12 and there is some interference on the Lowrance from the Vexilar. However there is no iterference that I have seen on the Vexilar. The interference on the Lowrance unit can be minimized if you play around with its setting a little.
Also the interference only showed up when they were fairly close together, within 6 feet of one another. After it was moved away there was no interference.

Got over around 12″ in part of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.