Ice fishing winter 2025

 As winter dwindles to it's end, I figured I'd recap my ice fishing adventures starting from January 2025. Before the start of the 2025 ice fishing season, I set my goal to fish at least 2 new spots, as my old spots tend to get predictable, and dare I say, boring at times.

After doing some research both online and by car, I set my target spots as Lac Aylmer in the Chaudiere Appalaches zone, as well as another spot closer to home on the St Lawrence River, with easy access and waterfront parking, which would let me run flag lines while watching from a heated car, in case of bad weather.

Ice fishing season started early enough in December, I started by hitting a few of my known, early ice safe spots. Exploring new spots on thin ice, is a bad idea to say the least, so they would have to wait until January. December ice fishing report can be found at:

 https://www.montreal-fishing.com/2024/12/december-2024-ice-fishing-report.html 

January 5 2025:

My first outing in January ended up being a last minute guided outing. A childhood friend of my brother was in town visiting with his kids, and booked me to take him out near town. The new spot I planned to hit for pike wasn't safe yet, so I picked another area where I knew we wouldn't need to worry about thin ice. Weather was quite cold, but they were able make it through the day. Flag lines didn't provide any action, but they did manage to jig up a small pike.

January 14 2025:

A couple weeks later, the ice at my first new spot on the St Lawrence River was finally safe enough to access, after a deep freeze. I was happy to find 8 to 10 inches of solid ice to fish on. I brought my son Zev along for the outing, hoping to get some studying and homework done with him, while watching our flag lines from the heated car. Weather was cold and extremely windy, and with a decent current, jigging with flashers was sort of tougher than usual.

I got the lines set up, baited with a mix of thawed mackerel, and smelt. Within a couple hours, 2 flags went off at the same time. The closer one was no longer spinning, the fish had dropped the bait about 20 feet away. The next line was still spinning when we got to it. I showed Zev how to set the handline, and fight the pike hand over hand. I finally helped him guide it's head up the ice hole, and he landed his biggest pike to date, 32.5 inches weighing over 7 lbs.

I don't like keeping pike that big, especially not from the St Lawrence River, so we released it in good health. That was all for the day, but at least my new spot paid off with easy access to the ice,  and Zev's new PB.

January 15 2025:

Having achieved one of the 2 goals I had set the previous day, I figured I'd get it done with sooner rather than later. I made the long day trip to Lac Aylmer, hoping to possibly get into some perch, and possibly walleye, or elusive whitefish, which are known to be in that system. I left the flag lines at home, opting instead to jig various depths until I connected with some fish.

Trekking on the lake was slow, as it had some decent snow cover. Over 5.5 hours, I fished 20 holes with various lures, at depths from 10 to 40 feet deep. Unfortunately, not one fish in sight on the flasher, I ended up getting skunked. As I always say when hitting new spots, if I'm not making a new spot, at least I'm eliminating one...

January 28 2025:

Headed back to my new spot on the St Lawrence River with Zev again, plan was the same as before. Fish flag lines for pike, while catching up on his schoolwork in heated car, as the wind chill outside was -25C. This time, the first flag baited with double smelt, went off just as I was done setting my lines. Having practiced a couple weeks before, Zev did a better job at setting, fighting, and landing this pike, though it was smaller than the previous one.

We ended up keeping that one for the table, and 3 of us enjoyed it for dinner. My new spot had paid off with another fish again, and having the convenience of fishing from the car with Zev, is a huge bonus.

January 30 2025:

This was a short last minute outing that I hadn't planned. An online acquaintance I had been corresponding with for a number of years, invited me out to try a new spot with him. With walleye being the target species, I joined him for a few hours in the evening, at another spot on the St Lawrence river. The spot ended up having more current than I imagined, and in order to see my lure on the flasher down at 20 feet of depth or so, I had to drill a separate downstream flasher hole a few feet away. I did manage to get a few nice follows, but no hookups for either of us. Still, having hit a 3rd new spot, I had already beat my previous goal of 2.

February 2025:

My plan for targeting largemouth bass on another new lake during the first week of February was put on hold, as I found cheap tickets to Miami to visit my daughter and her family. As much as I enjoy ice fishing, getting the chance to spend a week with my grandchildren and fishing open water for exotic species in February, was a no brainer. Fishing wise, I did better than ever on the canal I fished for 6 days, landing some nice jacks, a big snook, as well as peacock bass and largemouth bass. Blog post with trip pictures is at: https://www.montreal-fishing.com/2025/02/miami-canal-shore-fishing.html

I got back from Miami just in time for back to back blizzards, which dumped record snow onto all the regions I fish. All that accumulated snow kept me off the ice until the second week in March, when rain and warmer weather melted most of the cover, eventually refreezing it solid with the next cold front.

March 10 2025:

Not having been on ice in over 5 weeks, I was itching to get out again. I chose to hit another new lake, this time it was Lac Boivin, right in the center of Granby. I've seen pictures of some big largemouth bass being caught there in the summer, so I was hoping for a shot at landing one on ice. Before hitting the lake, I checked the Navionics nautical chart, to get an idea of where to start on this very shallow lake. The chart showed most of the lake having a depth of 6 to 8 feet, with one small hole going down to a maximum of 12 feet. 

When I got on the lake, I was consistently drilling into 3 to 5 feet, with the top 16 inches being solid ice. Seems like the lake was drawn down, as I believe the water level there is controlled by the Yamaska River. I ended up fishing 40 ice holes, and it took quite a while to find the hole which max out at 9 feet. So my assessment of the water level being 3 feet low, was accurate.

Not much to show for except for a perch that I caught very shallow, with a bit over 1 foot of water under the ice.

After ice fishing 6 hours on Lac Boivin with 1 perch to show for, I decided to leave early, and hit another new lake nearby. I made my way to Roxton Lake in time for the evening bite. Noticed a few other people fishing there without much success, but I managed to land a few perch and pumpkinseed sunfish in about 2 hours of ice fishing there.

Definitely won't be ice fishing on Lac Boivin again, though I may be tempted to try float tubing there at some point. Likely won't be hitting Roxton Lake either. Again, knocking another 2 lakes off my list, put me at 5 new spots this ice fishing season. which suits me just fine.

March 12 2025:

Another last minute, half day outing, had me taking my son Eli as well as Zev back to my new pike spot. After setting our lines, it took a few hours for the first flag to go off. Eli was a bit rusty at handlining pike on ice, and fumbled by losing a small pike right at the hole. Oh well...

March 18 2025:

By this point, I wasn't to sure of the ice quality around Montreal, due to some very warm weather and rain. I decided to head North, to one of 2 lakes. I've fished one late in March in the past, with some very good results. The second one was less likely to produce, but the tradeoff would be amazing if I were able to locate and hook some of the trophy size smallmouth bass that I've caught there in the summer. Following along with my exploratory theme for the ice season, I chose the second option.

I got up to the lake early enough to put in 8+ hours of solid fishing. Unfortunately, the very thick ice had a layer of water in most of the spots I tried, making drilling tougher than normal. 

I filmed a comparison video, see: https://youtu.be/log4i-LNaNo 

I was not able to locate any smallmouth bass, despite fishing close to 35 holes in what I figured may be two of the prime areas. I did get lucky, and connected with a tasty brook trout, likely held over from yearly stocking in January.

Got a few pics on the way out.

Setting evening sun:

And some local wildlife on the outskirts of the closest town:

At least I got this lake out of my system as far as ice fishing for bass is concerned, though I will very likely head back there once bass season re-opens in June.

March 27 2025:

Finally, my last outing before the season closes on April 1st. Having done more than enough exploratory ice fishing since the start of 2025, I decided to head back to one of my goto spots for bass. In the past, I've had some very slow, as well as very productive ice fishing outings on this lake, late in the ice season at the start of spring.

Conditions were just about perfect, bright sunny skies, about 16 inches of solid ice with a couple inches or hard packed snow on the surface. Weather just under freezing in the morning, warming above freezing by noon, and not much wind.

My plan was to crisscross the lake and fish various depths until I determined some sort of pattern. Fishing mainly depths of 15 to 30 feet, it wasn't until the 18th hole that I drilled that I connected with my first bass of the day on the rattlenvibe lipless crankbait.

I then fished another 30 holes without much to show for until my next fish. Hole #46 produced my first smallmouth of the season, caught on a kastmaster spoon over 32 feet of water.

4 holes later, another small largemouth, followed by 2 more largemouth on hole #65. Both the rattlenvibe and kastmaster sppon produced again, while not much happening with the jigging rap. The bass were suspended a good 5-7 feet off bottom, in depths ranging from 19 to 23 feet. By this point, I was attempting to maintain that depth until the end of the day, while working my way back to where I had parked.

I planned to fish about 80 holes before making it off the lake by sunset, which meant fishing no later than 7 pm. Sure enough, on my first drop down the last hole, with about 10 minutes left to my ice season, I hooked up to a bigger bass. During the battle, it ran back towards bottom several time, peeling my drag nicely for the first time of the day. As such, I knew it was a better fish. I was lucky to land it, just as it spit my hook at the hole. 

Measuring 18 inches, my biggest bass of the day by far. Managed another bass and the first 2 perch of the day out of the same hole before leaving a few minutes later.

Fairy tale endings do happen every now and then, perfect way to end another productive ice fishing season!

Miami canal shore fishing

 After finding a last minute great deal on an airline ticket to Miami, I decided to forego my plans of chasing big bass on ice.  Choosing between visiting my grandkids, daughter and son in law, were already a no brainer at that point. Being that she lives in North Miami beach, warm sunny weather, and potentially great shore fishing, were added bonuses. Without going into all the airlines issues and mishaps, I'll skip directly to the relevant fishing part of the trip I managed to pull off. 

Day 1: 

After missing out on a day of fishing due to delayed baggage, I was happy to get out and fish the c9 canal / snake creek trail / Royal Glades canal again. Having fished various segments of that canal over the past few years, I knew what I was facing. My daughter lives within less than 15 minutes walk to the c9 canal, which runs runs many miles inland from the the dam near Biscayne blvd.

Fishing Miami canals on foot, requires a lot of perseverance. High heat even during the winter, necessitates bringing along a few liters of drinking water, which are carried in a backpack throughout the day. T-shirts keep getting dunked in the water in order to stay cool, in addition to the cap I wear. Most of all, cardio and isometric training, along with a lot of stretching and some Ibuprofen at my age, go a long way to keep me walking and fishing many miles per day, for days on end. 

After losing a nice snook that cut my line on the last trip, I picked up a couple Rapala Husky jerks, which was the lure that got cut off. Rapala Husky Jerks in models Tennessee shad Hj10 and Gold Hj12 were the newest weapons in my arsenal, courtesy of BassPro Shops. My new Penn Pursuit 4 reel, was spooled with hundreds of feet of braid, I tied on the new HJ10 to get started.

Immediately, I started getting tons of follows from largemouth and peacock bass. Literally a good 50 or so chasers in the first segment of canal I fished in the first 1/2 hour or so. Unfortunately no hookups. I crossed over Miami Gardens Rd, going into Sky Lake. Within a few casts, I got my first hit and hookup of the trip. To my great surprise, it was a small jack crevalle, my first ever saltwater fish in a freshwater canal. Nothing big, but a very welcome catch.

That turned out to be the smallest of any jacks landed during my trip to Miami. A few casts later, I hooked into a bigger jack, this time it was a rarer yellow jack.  Note the different color pattern.

After working my way down a long stretch of the c9 canal along the Snake creek trail, I hooked my first freshwater fish of the trip, a small largemouth bass that hit the hj10 husky jerk.

I kept working my way West along the canal, until I reached the point of turning back. After dunking my t-shirt in the water for the n'th time too keep cool, I upsized my lure to the HJ12 Rapala Husky Jerk. Within a few minutes, I was into to my next jack crevalle, as sizes kept increasing.

I kept heading East along the snake creek trail, and within minutes, I noticed 2 big jack crevalles swimming right in front of me at high speed, along the clear waters of the shoreline. I cast well ahead of them, and with a seemingly perfectly timed retrieve, I manage to get hit by one of the big jacks.

Jacks are built for speed, and on the initial blistering run, this big jack took a good 200 feet of line off my reel, before I tightened down my drag enough to put the brakes on it. During the entire fight, the second jack of just about identical size, kept following the hooked fish. After eventually subduing the jack, it was now a matter of finding the best spot to land it. Fishing on foot with minimal gear and without a landing net, I had to find a spot along the steep bank, overgrown with shrubbery, and hiding potential water snakes. I found a spot were I was able to hop onto a big boulder protruding from the water, and land the big jack crevalle.

The jack ended up measuring 26 inches in length, probably a good 7-8 lbs, but didn't have my scale with me due to delayed baggage. Still, the power of a big and speedy saltwater species like jack crevalle, will make for a better fight than most freshwater species, especially on gear designed for bass. Definitely a fight and catch that I won't soon forget.

Working my way back to where I started, I landed my first peacock bass of the trip, completing my trifecta on the first day.

As I kept moving along, I hooked into another jack crevalle. Another decent fight right in front of the yeshiva. 

After having landed 5 jacks, as well as both peacock and largemouth bass, I couldn't be happier with my first day of fishing the c9 / Royal Glades canal. My first day of landing multiple catches of saltwater species in freshwater, as well as both species of resident bass, had far exceeded my expectations. The size, power, and speed of the bigger jacks had made for some great drag ripping action, and I was stoked to see how well my plan for ripping jerk baits had proved to be successful.

Day 2:

After the previous day's success, I figured I'd stick with the same plan. Started off casting the bigger Hj12 husky jerk, and managed to hook another smaller jack, that popped off right near the shore, when I tried to hoist it out of the water.    

As I crossed over the road to the next segment of canal, I came upon a few air and land predators.

First, a pair of protected / endangered burrowing owls:

Then, a big fox across the canal:

Along with a big flock of turkey vultures:

Eventually, back to fish species, another small largemouth bass landed, after I had switched back to the smaller hj10 husky jerk:

Followed by anther small jack crevalle.

Crossing under the 1-95  towards Sky lake, i connected with another peacock bass.

Moving East towards Miami Gardens road, another nice 18+ inch jack crevalle, right in front of Yeshivas Toras Chaim:

At this point, being that most of the jacks i caught were right near the yeshiva, I decided to rename the jacks. Jewish name for Jack is "Yaacov, or in Yiddish "Yankel". As such, all subsequent jacks caught on the trip would be "Yankels"...

Day 3:

The day started off much slower, again casting the hj10. Nowhere near the 50 of so follows I got from big peacock bass, mixed in with occasional largemouth bass. Jacks chased and swirled around my lure every now and then, but no actual hits. It seemed like the jerkbait magic had disappeared. Hitting my turnaround spot after a good 5 kilometers of trekking, I tied on the bigger hj12 husky jerk, but results weren't any better. 

After 5 hours of so of fishing in the intense heat without a hit, I decided to trek over to a liquor store to stock up for Shabbat. Fished the other end of Sky lake for the first time on the way, with a couple more follows from peacock bass, but no hits. After stocking up on liquor, I headed towards home, figuring I had been skunked for the first time this trip.

On my way home, there was a tiny stretch of fishable canal  that I was able to cast to. After having trekked a couple kilometers in the heat with a backpack filled with fishing gear, water, tequila, and a few liters of beer, I figured I might as well slow down and take a few casts. Sure enough, I noticed a small school of jacks swimming towards me. I ran ahead to head them off, and on my second cast, I got my first hit of the day. I hooked into the fish, and to my extreme surprise, I had hooked a big snook.

The snook was barely hooked to my lure's last treble hook, but as it came closer to shore and to the surface, I was able to embed more hooks into it as it tried to turn. At some point during the intense battle, my line ended up in it's gills. Fearing a repeat cutoff, I tried my best to carefully dislodge the line from it's gills, and luckily, I managed to do so.

The big snook kept digging down, using torque instead of speed, to avoid being landed. I took my time, enjoyed the battle, until the snook tired, and came into shore. Again, I had to find a landing spot along the steep bank of the canal in order to land it. When I did, I was amazed, and sort of frozen at that moment in time.

Some kid was passing by on his scooter on the bike trail along the canal, I handed him my phone to capture the moment.

The big snook ended up measuring 31 inches and weighing around 9 lbs. Note my 5 inch lure dangling from it's mouth. While I don't normally keep fish from the C9 canal, due to me fishing on foot without a cooler, nor being willing to haul around fish, spoiling in the heat all day while I keep fishing, this one was different.

For starters, I heard that snook were a real good eating fish. Luckily, I had researched the rules before heading out. The 31 inch snook was perfectly in the allowable slot size range of 28-32 inches, and with my luck, snook season had just opened to harvest a couple days before my trip. Lastly, I was within a 5 minute walk to my son in law's parent's house, to where I proceeded to head with my first harvested snook.

Luckily, they obliged, and I took a last pic with the big snook before dispatching and filleting it, as it was still alive when I got there.

I proceeded to fillet it outside, and had them fridge half of it for a dinner date a couple days later, and freeze the other half for later use.

Either way, I was very happy to land a new PB, as the other snooks I had previously hooked and caught in saltwater, were significantly smaller than this one.

Funny enough, I've always laughed at over dramatic fishing shows, where the hosts always seem to catch the biggest fish on the last day of the trip, or at the last minute of the show. Jeremy Wade from River Monsters and Cyril Chauquet of Catching Monsters come to mind. 

In reality, it is quite rare for things to turn out the way these staged fishing shows present falsified content to their audiences, in order to keep them captivated. However, this time around, the snook catch was even better than pre-scripted, as I had already resigned to the idea of having been skunked that day, and was beyond belief at what had transpired.

Day 4:

After spending another long and memorable weekend with my daughter, son in law, grandchildren, and their in laws, I had planned to take my grandkids out to fish one of the piers for good numbers of pilchards and croakers, using a Sabiki rig. Unfortunately, my grandson got sick, and ended up bedridden, while my granddaughter ended up making a playdate with a friend that was moving out of town the following day.

Ending up with a few hours to kill, I headed out to do some more jerk bait casting on the c9 canal, at Snake creek trail. Landed one of two peacock bass, and lost a decent largemouth bass in the 15-16 inch range, that spit my lure just at the shore.

Peacock bass weren't the only type of peacocks encountered...

Ended the short outing speaking to another angler that advised me to head East towards saltwater to try to hook into more and bigger jacks the following day.

That evening, I headed over to my daughter's in law's place, to cook some of the snook. I ended up with a nice fillet around 18 inches long and maybe 2 inches thick. Enough to feed the 3 of us. 

After cutting the fillet into portions, I hit half of them with egg wash and seasoned breadcrumbs, and the other half with a mix of Himalayan salt, fresh ground black pepper, garlic powder, and paprika. Pan fried them all in a hefty serving of butter, sprinkled with fresh squeezed lemon juice.

The snook was delicious, similar to striped bass, maybe a hint of snapper in the texture. Very moist and tender, with a mildly fishy taste. Definitely a meal I won't soon forget.

Day 5:

During my previous trip to Miami in November 2024, I trekked eastward along the c9 canal, towards the spot where the canal ends at a dam past Biscayne blvd. The canal gets cutoff by an uncrossable train track, so I didn't make it to the dam last time around. This time, I mapped the crossing to 163rd street, a few blocks from the canal. My plan was to fish my way up to the dam, and spend as much time as needed, once reaching the dam.

Fishing my way East was uneventful, with a few bigger peacock and largemouth bass swirling around my lures without hits. I eventually reached the dam, a relatively small area, with big schools of jacks of all sizes turning in circles. 

Unfortunately, despite my casting heavily into the big numbers of fish in a tiny area filled with all sizes and numbers of jacks, I wasn't even able to get a follow, let alone a hit.

After a while and some frustration, I decided to head back, and fish the canal all the way past i-95, a good 5-6 miles of trekking. I eventually connected with another jack after a couple hours, only fish of the day. Pic seems to have disappeared from my phone. Ended the day throwing topwaters on Pickwick lake, first time of the trip I switched from jerkbaits. No success on topwaters either. 

By far the most trekking of my trip, fishing a good 20 kilometers or so on foot.

Day 6:

My last day of fishing during this trip to Miami, I headed back to where I had most of my success over the past week of fishing.

I hit another jackpot within the first half hour or so, this time, in Pickwick lake right across Sky Lake. On my first cast to a given spot, I got followed by a big peacock bass, right up to shore. While this had already happened a good 50+ times during the last few days, I short cast my jerkbait again, twitched it a couple times, and got hit within less than 10 feet in front of me. 

Within seconds, I landed my biggest ever peacock bass, and also the biggest fish I've managed to pull out of the tiny Pickwick lake, since first fishing it on foot a few years ago.

With that sort of success, may day was already made. It was my second PB of the trip, and I was hoping to get one more shot at a giant largemouth bass I had seen bedding the previous day, without being able to manage any hits, no matter what I threw at it.

Unfortunately, the big bass was no longer on the spot I marked near shore. I did manage to land another decent "Yankel" nearby. 

I worked my way back home using the bigger hj12 husky jerk, that had provided most of the bigger catches of my trip. Started off landing my smallest largemouth bass of the trip:

Finally, on my way back, right in front of the yeshiva where I had landed landed my first catch of the trip a few days before, I connected with another very nice "Yankel", this time a 20 incher than put up another crazy fight.

Perfect end to a perfect trip, I packed it in early, in order to clean, break down, and pack up my gear, before heading home later that evening.

All in all, this was hands down my best DIY fishing trip to Miami, and possibly one of the better shore fishing trips I have ever achieved.

Catching a saltwater fish in a freshwater canal is an achievement in itself, but landing over double as many saltwater catches versus freshwater species, is crazy. To be exact, 11 jacks, 4 peacock bass, 3 largemouth bass and a big snook, as well as a few lost fish, from hundreds of follows in clear water. Let alone the bigger power and sizes, the high speed of jacks, and torque of the big snook, and a couple PB's to show for when it was all said and done.

Again, I thank my daughter and her husband for hosting and putting up with me, my wife, for allowing me to just hop on a plane and take off on a last minute whim, and most of all, God, for creating all the wonderful species I fish for, and for granting me the opportunity, health, time, and finances to afford to keep doing it, year after year.

Hope to be back on ice as soon a weather conditions permit.   

December 2024 ice fishing report

A decent cold front early in December finally allowed me to venture out looking for safe ice. By now, after 20+ seasons of ice fishing, I have an idea of where and when to look, but as always, safety is first. No fish is worth risking your life for, and going for a swim in a snowsuit is never part of my plans. As such, I brought along my trusty spud/wrecker bar to ensure my chances of staying topside on the ice.

For my first outing, I had a limited window of opportunity. A couple days before the outing, some rain and a warm front moved in, so I was was skeptical on whether or not I'd be able to access my spot of choice. I had a backup spot nearby, just in case. Not having fished in about 3 weeks since returning from Florida, I was itching to wet a line.

December 10th 2024:

Got to my spot about 1 hour after sunrise. Though the ice looked sort of safe where I planned to fish, the shorelines seemed sketchy. Sure enough, my spud bar went right through the ice close to shore just about everywhere, with the first 6-10 feet being dense slush. Without access to get on the ice, I switched plans and headed to my backup spot.

Being significantly shallower, this spot had a good 2.5 to 3 inches of solid ice, with another 2-3 inches of grey ice on top. Safe enough for 3-4 jabs with my bar, I ventured out, staying close to shore. Historically, I haven't done very well at the spot on ice, but I was just happy to get out and not having wasted my day.

I eventually figured out that all the fish were interested in were spoons, after jigging a lipless crankbait and Rapala jigging Rap for a while. Both a Swedish Pimple, and Kastmaster spoon, yielded some decent numbers of bass, bluegill, sunfish, perch and crappie, though nothing big. As you can see, the fish in this shallow muddy spot don't have much color in winter.

Decent multispecies catch, though sort of felt almost like micro fishing...

December 15th 2024:

A few days later, I venture back to the original spot I had planned to hit the previous week, after a deep freeze cold front moved in to solidify the ice. This time, I was able to access the spot, with 5 inches of solid ice all around. 

Seems like I picked the right time and right spot. I landed a crappie on my first drop, jigging a Kastmaster spoon.

On the next hole, my first drop landed small largemouth bass.

The next few holes were the most productive, landing a huge mess of mix species, mainly bluegills. Again, the majority came jigging the Kastmaster spoon.

While I don't normally harvest sunfish, my younger daughter loves them. Being that I was catching some really nice ones in the 8-10 inch range, I decided to keep a few, as well as a couple small bass.

Eventually ended up catching some perch, but none big enough worthwhile to keep.

My surprise came close to the end of the day, when a small pike inhaled my lipless Yozuri rattlenvibe crankbait. I wasn't using a leader, but somehow, my 6 lbs flourocarbon line held up against hundreds of razor sharp teeth despite getting pretty frayed.

Was hoping for a possible evening walleye, but unfortunately, that never happened. Still, I managed to land 59 fish, with 40 of them being Bluegills. I'd say I got my fair share of panfishing done for December.

December 24th 2024:

After a major deep freeze in another region I planned to fish, as well as some decent snow cover, I had big plans for a small lake I've iced fished in the past. This early in the season, decent ice cover with some snow is a bare minimum for a good bite, otherwise the bass and perch in that lake seemed spooked under thinner ice in very clear water. 

My hopes were good for finding them where I usually do this time of year. Namely, 22 to 28 feet for schools of small largemouth bass, and 28 to 35 feet for schools of jumbo perch with some smallmouth bass. Obviously, there is an overlap, and I've often landed all 3 species out of the same hole, but this is a general guideline.  

Despite finding 8 inches of solid ice, covered in 12-15 cm or so of snow, all I managed for the first 3 hours of my outing was 1 perch, despite having fished over 20 holes at depths from 20 to 40 feet.

At this point, I decided to try shallower on a different section of the lake. On my 23rd hole, I finally caught a nicer "8 bar" perch in 20 feet, about 10 feet shallower than where I normally find them. 

Unfortunately, they weren't schooled up at that depth, so I kept drilling. 3 holes later, I finally landed my first bass of the day, which came out of 12 feet of depth, a good 10-15 feet shallower than where I've had most of my success on that lake.

Decent little fish that I kept for the table, as I always make it a point to try to harvest my bag limits of largemouth bass from this lake. In addition to making more room and reducing competition to the native smallmouth bass in the lake, culling small largemouth bass makes for bigger sizes in the future. Over the few seasons since I first started fishing this lake, my sons and I have landed many hundreds of these smaller bass there, and likely harvested well over 100 bass by now. Subsequently, I've managed to catch some more decent sized ones, as time goes on.

Moving along, I decided to spend the rest of the day targeting shallower water in the 12 to 20 feet range. I had a few followers show up on my flasher every now and then, but they seemed very finicky, and really needed to be worked. I had been alternating from jigging a lipless crankbait to using the Kastmaster spoon for 5 successive holes each. When I did manage a follow with no bites, I'd switch it up, but that tactic didn't do any better.

Finally, on my 36th hole, I noticed a nice mark come up after the Kastmaster spoon. I was jigging suspended at around 10 over 15 feet, while this fish remained in the 12-13 foot mark. It took a few attempts, but after a couple minutes of "working" the fish, it finally nailed my lure.

I new right away that it was a better quality fish, as it would dart straight back down every time it neared the surface. After a few good runs, I finally had tired it enough to ease it's big head up the ice hole, as I was using a 6 inch diameter auger. I was surprised to see it's size when I lifted it out of the hole.

At 18.5 inches and weighing around 3.5 lbs, this is by far the biggest bass I have landed there,  or ever seen come out of this given lake. At this size, despite being a major threat to the smallmouth bass fishery in the lake, I decided to release it, as I hate killing trophy sized fish, and to be honest, the smaller 12-15 inchers taste a lot better. The big bass looked liked it barely fit through the ice hole, though I've landed even bigger ones from 6 inch holes in the past.

I kept fishing hard, run and gunning holes until sunset, with a few more small chasers on my flasher, but no hookups. Finally, on my last hole, while working my way back towards the car, in 26 feet of water, I landed another small keeper sized bass. I didn't bother with a pic of the fish, but got this nice sunset pic instead.

Beautiful end to an epic outing. It was one of those days where I had resolved to simply enjoying the workout of hand drilling 52 holes, and trekking a good 4-5 kilometers on foot. to and from my spots, while hauling my sled/gear. Definitely beats a day at the gym, anytime.

December 26th 2024:

My last outing of 2024 due to lots of incoming rain, I planned to fish multiple flag lines for the pike for the first time this winter. Being that Quebec winter rules which allow for up to 10 lines and the use of dead baitfish, kicked in last weekend, I figured I'd try a new spot I hoped to hit last season. That never happened, as spot didn't freeze up properly with the warm winter we had. With all the recent cold, I had my hopes up, but when I got there, I only found about 2.5 inches of ice under 6-8 inches of fresh snow near shore. Further out looked even thinner, so I was forced to hit my backup spot, a smaller waterway on my way back home, as I won't fish sketchy ice.

As I've caught pike at that backup spot in the past, I set up 9 flag lines, keeping my last legal line for jigging spoons. Used a mix of headless smelt, and thawed mackerels as bait.

Sure enough, I hit the jackpot on my first jigging hole with the Kastmaster spoon, landing 5 keeper sized perch in a row, when most of the perch I usually catch at this spot are significantly smaller.

I fished a few more holes in the general vicinity, but perch only decreased in size, with 1 more keeper sized perch in the 9 inch range. Then, returning to the first hole I started at, I hooked a small pike on the Kastmaster spoon. Lucky it was hooked in the tip of the snout, which gave it little to no chance of cutting the line. Fish had a large tumor / infection on both sides, and was also bloody at the tail, mouth and gill plate.

Moving to the other side of my flag line spread didn't yield any interesting results, so after a while, I returned to the general area of where I started jigging. Sure enough, the 13th hole yielded another pike, this one smaller than the first.

Just after releasing it, I landed another keeper sized perch from the same hole, as well as a smaller one.

The flag lines didn't produce a single bite all day.

By this point, I started having issues with my auger, I believe the battery may need to be replaced after 4 seasons of heavy usage. Will wait for Ion tech support to confirm. 

As 2024 winds down to it's end, I'll take the opportunity to wish everyone happy holidays, and much success in the upcoming year. 

Thanks again for reading/following my blog, looking to add many more posts and pics in 2025!