hitting the ice on monday
 

First chance I have had, my buddy says he wants to go but I'll be out alone if he doesn't. Going for some eye's on the red river. Got my salted minnows and salted them up myself. Minnows have been hard to come by this yr of any quality.... or so I have heard. Wish me luck

RE: hitting the ice on monday
 

Be careful if you go alone. I won't go unless I've got a buddy with me. That way I can get a hug as we both fall in and freeze to death!:)

RE: hitting the ice on monday
 

Call me stupid, whats the purpose of "salting" your minnows, and why are the hard to come by?

Good luck!!

Post us your results!

RE: hitting the ice on monday
 

Yeah I was kind of wondering about that too. I don't fish for 'eyes so I just let it go.

RE: hitting the ice on monday
 

Round here it matters how fresh your bait is and I don't like to use live b/c fish tend to swallow. Salties round here don't have much salt..... more borax........ and when you hit the honey hole you have to wait for your bait to thaw. Not me! A few seconds in the water and they plump up....... I take all minnows out of tub and organize according to size, then layer them with pickling salt. It seems to work.....my friends call them RedCat XXX salty minnows. Ialways let my buddies use my minnows...... and our group seems to hammer fish....... ascompared with those around us. If they catch 10 we catch 30, if they don't catch we catch 2-3. Live minnows aren't popular round here especially with me as they don't last. 3-4 tubs will last me the season if I don't have to supply others. Plus we don't have to wait for the minnows to thaw in -40 weather.
I went to the bait shop...... Cabela's ..... known as SIR round here and they had a tonne of tubs of minnows. Most were brown in the belly already and the bluish/silver stripe in the belly was gone.Fish 'round here won't even give thema second glance. It is the difference b/w catching a cpl of fish or catching many..... or catching a few while others aren't

RE: hitting the ice on monday
 

Those are some pretty picky fish. I guess that is because the conditions though. We use live bait and do well here. Good luck, post your results!

RE: hitting the ice on monday
 

Slow day for all. I got one eater size walleye 16" and a 26" Pike. Pics to be posted later