North Platte WU
Newsletter Editors
7 p.m. Dec. 1
at Game and Fish Building
For those who missed last month's meeting, Rick Walter gave a great presentation on fall walleye fishing techniques. Maps were passed out of all his secret fishing spots, samples of all this "lucky" lures were given away, and offers of free guided fishing trips. Those who missed the meeting missed more than just a meeting. Amazing bargains were had in the raffle held at the end of the meeting also.
At this month's meeting, we will be putting together a committee to oversee the annual banquet coming up in just three months. We really could use a few more folks to help with the planning and execution of all the little details that putting on the banquet requires.
Hope to have the newest fish biologists of the Casper Division of the Wyoming Game and Fish Department come to our January 2006 meeting to give us a rundown of the health of Wyoming fisheries. They had some unexpected findings in their netting activities at Glendo this year which should be interesting.
Fishing Reports-Tips-& tricks
Fishing reports have been sketchy this last month. Glendo has been doing well with vertical jigging working well with spoons. Lure colors seem to change from day to day with chrome working one day and gold the next. Various color combo's of each will need to be experimented with green, red and silver glitter tape all working at one time or another. Depth seems to be 15 to 45', Boysen is starting to produce well. Jig and minnow or vertical spoons in 20' of water seems the best approach. The bite should stay good until ice up.
All about ice fishing
It is that time of year again. I am ahead of schedule, for once, and have all my tip-ups lubricated and have replaced all my old leaders and hooks. Yes!!! People, who know me well, know that I am a "fanatic" about walleye fishing especially when it comes to ice fishing.
I enjoy the solitude, winters beauty and the excitement of having tip-up flags pop into the air. I compare the excitement to being a kid again and watching a bobber disappear from the waters surface for the first time. Many folks just can't understand how fishing on a big block of ice could produce anything but misery. This doesn't have to be the case. First, dress in layers. You can always take layers off if you get hot. Second, make an event of it. I like taking a cloth folding chair to relax in and a small barbeque grill for cooking chili, franks, brauts, burgers or an occasional rib eye steak. I also like taking a radio to listen to the Denver Broncos thump on other teams or if that's not in the cards, I like to listen to good oldies music (50s/60s). Oooops, I'm showing my age.
Obviously, to start with, you have to cut a hole or many holes in the ice. An axe, a chopping bar or a hand auger work well when cutting holes in thin ice up to a foot thick. However, if you are at Boysen in February and the ice is 3 feet thick, you will quickly tire of making holes manually, and the possession of a power auger will soon become extremely desirable. If looking for a good auger, you will have a choice 6", 8", 9" or 10" augers. The 6 and 8 inch holes are easier and faster to drill, but probably won't let that new state record fish pass through that small hole. You might say something like "&^#@%$." Personally, I use a 10" inch auger. The down side to a 10" hole is that you will occasionally have a fish maneuver the tip-up to the side and pull it down the hole. This also results in someone saying something like "&#@%$". I believe an auger that cuts a nine (9) inch hole presents the best compromise. A 9 inch ice hole is big enough to handle most big fish and you probably won't loose any tip-ups.
There are many methods that can be used when ice fishing. You can use rods, hand lines or many versions of tip-ups. To me, it all depends on the lake being fished. You are only allowed 2 lines on many lakes "but" you can use up to 6 lines on some of our major reservoirs. When fishing six lines, I like to jig with a short jigging rod and put out 5 tip-ups nearby. I have tried using many kinds of jigs but if I had to narrow my selection down to just a few, they would be jigging minnows/spoons such as the Rapala Jigging Minnow, Northland's Buckshot Spoon, Swedish Pimple and the Crippled Herring. Jigging appears be more productive at first light and toward dark. I fish live minnows on my 5 out laying tip-ups about 6 inches off the bottom. Hint," bigger is not better" even if you are targeting big fish.
Tip-up fishing with minnows:
I put 40 pound HT Polar Ice braided fishing line on my tip-up. The reason I use the 40 lb. Dacron line is because it is thick and won't cut into my hands. Remember, when using tip-ups, your arm is your fishing rod and your fingers act as your drag. I also use 10 - 12 lb. fluorocarbon fishing line as leader because it is invisible in the water and has almost no memory. Also, I like using Eagle Claw Laser Sharp octopus hooks in size 6 or size 4 for larger minnows. I also crimp a split shot weight onto the leader about 10 inches above the hook to keep the minnow down close to the bottom. If you place the split shot too high on the leader, the minnow will swim around and tie knots in your line.
First clear all the slush "out of" and "away from" your hole(s) so the tip-up will be sitting on the ice, not on the slush. I like to take the slush and make about a 6 inch high berm partially around and about a foot away from the hole. In this way, my tip-up is hidden from view at a distance. All I can see is ice and snow until a flag pops up. To get the right depth, put a heavy snap weight on the hook and let out line until the line goes limp. Then, pull on the line until it is tight. Grab the line at water level and pull up approximately 15 more inches of line. Attach a line marker bobber at that spot. Reel the marker up to the spool. When you put the tip-up in the hole the spool will be hanging down approximately 8.5 inches from the top of the ice.
There are two basic designs of tip-ups. Those that are open and allow you to look down your ice hole, and those that cover the hole completely thus insulating the hole from freezing over. The problem with using the design that completely covers your ice hole, is that you can't see what your line is doing. I prefer using HT Polar tip-ups that are open. Many times the flag pops up and the pin quits spinning. If you can see the line, you can usually determine what the fish is doing. If the line has been pulled off to the side and isn't limp or moving back to center, then assume the fish still has the minnow in its mouth and is just hovering there motionless. When I see this, I grab the tip-up by the pin and shaft, and jerk up to set the hook. On the other hand, if the line is off to the side but appears limp or is drifting back to center, it usually means the fish has let go of the bait. If it is extremely cold, I slip HT Polar Insulators under the tip-up. They are made of black foam and insulate the hole very well. If you get a flag and the pin is not turning, simply grab the pin shaft of your tip-up, raise tip-up about ½ inch and slide the insulator out from underneath the tip-up. Now, you can see what your line is doing. Also, remember that serious Ice Fishers clean their ice holes, often!!!
Since I fish a lot at night, when preparing my tip-ups for use, I cut a ½ inch hole in the center of the flag. I then cover the hole, both sides, with 1 inch by 1 inch pieces of reflective tape. The reflective tape adheres to each other and the flag. I occasional scan the area with a flashlight to see if I have any flags up.
It can be very dark under the ice at night or when there is a lot of snow covering the ice. A friend of mine, Tom Durst, has experimented with glow-in-the-dark spoons, jigs and beads with considerable success. One day when fishing snow-covered Boysen reservoir, I decided to experiment. I added a glow-in-the-dark bead to my leader so it would slide down the line and rest on top of the hook, on 3 of my tip-ups. The other 3 tip-ups were not beaded. It was a very slow day producing only 5 flags. Of those five flags, four were on the tip-ups equipped with the glow-in-the-dark beads. I have been using the glow beads every since and I believe I am getting more flags. Also, it is important to note that that a subtle, faint glow appears to work better than a bright glow.
First ice:
In years past, "first ice" has always been the most productive at Boysen (Thanksgiving thru Jan 15). Generally speaking, walleye and sauger can be found relatively shallow during this period (5 to 30 feet), however sauger, ling and large perch can be found in deeper water as well. Suspended trout can be caught anywhere from 20 feet to just a few inches underneath the ice.
Later on, after January 15, fishing usually starts to slow down at the south end of the lake but starts picking up at the north end of the lake. Normally, you will find walleyes in (10 to 20 feet) during this period and you may fish as deep as 40 -50 feet for sauger and large perch. You may also notice a daily migration where you will find fish shallower early in the morning, deep at mid-day, then shallow again in the evening.
Safety: Ice conditions very greatly by reservoir and weather conditions. There is always some danger involved. Use common sense, wear crampons, carry escape picks, keep a rope nearby and don't fish alone.
Two final tips:
1) My minnow bucket used to freeze up on a regular basis so I painted it black to help absorb the heat from the sun.
2) Boysen - Last winter we caught seven sauger and a couple of crappy that would have qualified for the In-Fisherman's Master Angler Award, and lost a couple of huge (10lbs +) walleyes at the hole. Since then, the water level has come up and the forage fish population has exploded. The fish might not be as hungry as they were but expect to catch even bigger fish this winter.
Hope to see "YOU" out on the ice! -- Bruce Parker
A couple of recipes
Baked Walleye Fillets
Ingredients:
o 2 lb. walleye fillets
o 1/3 c. chopped green onion
o 1/4 lb. mushrooms, sliced (1 cup)
o 1 tsp. salt
o 1/4 tsp. fresh ground white pepper
o 1 tsp. leaf marjoram, crumbled
o 2 Tbsp. dry white wine
o 2 tsp. lemon juice
o 1/4 c. shredded Monterey Jack cheese or mild Cheddar
o 1/4 c. fresh bread crumbs
o 1/2 c. (1 stick) butter or margarine, melted
o 2 Tbsp. chopped fresh parsley
Butter a baking dish, large enough so fish just slightly overlaps. Preheat oven to 400¡F. Spread green onions and mushrooms over the bottom of the dish and place fish over top. Season with salt, pepper and marjoram. Sprinkle with wine, lemon juice, cheese and bread crumbs. Drizzle melted butter over the crumbs. Bake for 4 minutes, then loosely place foil over fillets; do not seal the edges. Bake an additional 7 minutes or until fish is done.
Touche's Walleye Chowder
1 lb diced walleye
4 medium potatoes diced to bite size
1 medium onion coarsely chopped
1 large carrot thinly sliced
Salt, Pepper, and Garlic to taste
Water to cover veggies, cook til just tender, add 4 slices of diced bacon and cook for 10 minutes. Add on 13 oz can cream or milk, and 1 can cream corn. Simmer mixture. Add fish and cook 10 more minutes stirring often at medium to low heat. Recommend double batch of corn bread.
For those who like it hot and spicy, you may add Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning to the chowder. The amount is to your won taste. Add 1-2 tablespoons to the mixture when initially cooking the veggies. -- Courtesy of the Lower Columbia Walleye Club
On the brighter side......
Wish I could catch them this cheap
Two walleye fishermen go on a fishing trip. They rent all the equipment - the reels, the rods, the wading suits, the rowboat, the car, and even a cabin in the woods. I mean they spend a fortune! The first day they go fishing, but they don't catch anything. The same thing happens on the second day, and on the third day. It goes on like this until finally, on the last day of their vacation, one of the men catches a fish. As they're driving home they're really depressed. One guy turns to the other and says, "Do you realise that this one lousy fish we caught cost us fifteen hundred bucks?" The other guy says, "Wow! Then it's a good thing we didn't catch any more!"
Need an excuse?
He spent all his money on a sleek new Mercedes roadster and was out on the motorway for an evening cruise. The top was down, the breeze was blowing through his hair and he decided to open her up. As the needle jumped up to 80mph, he suddenly saw a flashing red and blue light behind him. 'There's no way they can catch me,' he thought to himself and opened her up further. The needle hit 130, with the lights still behind him. 'What on earth am I doing?' he thought and pulled over. The cop came up to him, took his licence and examined it. 'Listen mate,' said the cop. 'I've had a tough shift and this is my last pull over. I don't feel like more paperwork so if you can give me an excuse for your driving that I haven't heard before you can go! 'Last week my wife ran off with a cop,' the man said, 'and I was afraid you were trying to give her back!' 'Have a nice night', said the officer.
wyowalleyenewsletter@hotmail.com
Tight Lines -- Woody and Bruce