Phil from Maine

Icefishing season has ended for us up here yesterday and with almost 3 feet of ice on the lakes it looks like it is going to be awhile before they are ready to fish on..[&:] I had a fairly good month of icefishing this March as i had missed most of it because of a knee being scoped out.. I caught a few landlocks, a couple of whitefish, and quite a few lakers.. My biggest this year was a 27 1/2 incher and lost a monster of a laker last Saturday[:@]..Because he was barely hooked by the lip and I should have played him out longer..[:@]Here is a pic of my biggest for the season this year probaly between 6 and 7 pounds as I never wieghed it... Sorry for the quality polariod instant pic..

Champlain Islander

Good looking laker Phil. I fish for perch, blue gills and crappie almost every day but still caught acouple lakers, numerous pike, bass and one 4 poundlake whitefishall in error. We still have plenty of ice but this warm spell has started to cause it to pull away from the shore. I fished perch for the morning upnear the Canadian border and had a decent day even though the wind blew and it rained. Luckily I had my wheeler and was able to go about 3 miles to a reef where the big perch were. I caught about 50 pounds. They are rumored to stop buying perch hereafter Wednesday so I might switch over to gills and crappie.

JFergus7

Great fish. Why did the season end? Our sport fish season ended at the beginning of March but you can still fish for panfish until you run out of guts to be on the ice. For me that was 2 weeks ago when I could no longer jump the gap between the shore and the ice.

Phil from Maine

Thanks C.I., a 4 pound whitefish would be hugh up here on the lake I was fishing. The biggest whitefish I ever caught was 1 that was just shy of 4 lbs. Did you catch the whitefish on those perch lures you showed earlier? Up here they dropped the lake about 4 feet so the shorelines were not an issue this year. I traveled 6 miles up lake fishing on the wheeler and was crossing a reef and with the warm weather coming back once I had the back of the wheeler drop about a foot. So after that I traveled and crossed close to shore where the reef came in. It was a little out of the way but I felt more comfortable that way..

Perhaps you are right about sportfishing I am not to sure about that. I know in the fall once ice forms non sportfishing is allowed, so perhaps I can? I will have to check the law book on that one.. Because white perch are prettytastey and I didn't fish for themat all this icefishing season..

Phil from Maine

I had just checked it out and all icefishing ends March 31st here.. I think it is because some people wouldn't reconize how bad the ice can get this time of year. The other day we saw a pickup truck driving up lake. They had to cross a reef to get there, and the reef was getting pretty soft crossing in places. I guess it takes all kinds to do something like that when the ice is starting to soften up, let alone the reef..

JFergus7

That stinks that your season is indeed over. That much ice on the lakes would give you another few weeks at least. I heard a few people were out on the lakes around me this last weekend when the weather was in the 60's and the ice was 5-8 feet from shore. Know of one guy that took a row boat to the ice island. Well now it is time for the countdown till winter to begin again!

troutslayer

Awesome lookin laker you got there Phil. Ive never tried for lakers threw the ice, got a few lakes near by but they apparently arent that good fishing throught the ice so i dont even try. Ive still got probably another month of ice fishing on the mountainous lakes.

Champlain Islander

Yup I got all the fish I mentioned on perch bibbits and caught them by accident. I was targeting perch but a bite is a bite and you know the difference when you set the hook. Switched out to sunnies and crappie today at noon and caught 3 smallish crappie and about 30 pounds of gills and sunnies with 5 chain pickeral and one nice 4 pound largie. Going back tomorrow at O dark 30 to start a full day going for those flat fish. I rubbed my eyes on the way to the fish buyer tonight and forgot I wastipping withmaggots when fishing for flats. My eyes all swelled up. I have been spoiled fishing mostly for perch this winter because we fish the bibbits bare and don't use bait. Some eye drops and a couple of beers did the trick.

Phil from Maine

Thanks everyone!, I was wondering because it has been hard getting any whitefish to bite the last 2 years up here and I plan on trying a few different things next year when fishing for them. Most here has been lucky to get even 1 whitefish in a season and the darn lake is full of them..I am also glad to hereyou have been having some good luck C.I. The wind has been darn right crazy here the past few days and it is not going to let up yet. The temps have started climbing though..

Yeah troutslayer they are slow fishing here as well, we use a leadfish with some cut bait on it. We fish them around the underwater ridges, normally from 25 feet to 45 feet proves to be the best. Jigging a lead fish off the bottom can get you a few hits in about 15 to 20 minutes if they are going to bite. Then perhaps not another hit for most of the day.. Sometimes no hits at all and other times they just hammer it. They can prove to be a chalenge to fish for though at times..

Champlain Islander

Today was my last day. It all started well with plenty of ice but it went south as the day progressed and the sun got hotter. I had a decent day with about60 pounds of sunnies and gills with 12 crappie. We went off the ice at 4:00 pm and couldn't get to shore without getting wet. I found a dock that was floating and climbed on it and tried to pull my sled around the end and hop to shore. The sled was weighted heavier to one side due to the 2 seven gal buckets 3/4 filled with fish. All my stuff took a bath including my power auger. I got it all out and am drying it out now. I saved the fish since the buckets were covered. Another season has come and gone. It was fun and now to get ready for crappie runnig up the creeks andcanals followed by turkey season. No rest for the active sportsman.