On The Ice...In The Field
By Dick Ellis
If a picture is worth 1000 words, I don’t have to bore you with 17,000 words now that we posted a ton of photos from our ice assault Sunday on Moose Lake in Waukesha County. And what does that story tell?
Well, flags flew, and so did the snow, venison steaks sizzled on the grill, fish were caught, and the proverbial bull was shot. Every one of us, according to our own memories, was among the best high school athletes ever to grace the hallways of our respective high schools. I know I was for all six years at New Berlin West.
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My partners, who packed in all the equipment and know-how to target Pike and eat like pigs, included Scott Heitman and his sons Rich Heitman and Ty Kinzinger, and Mike Ingram and Jay Humbert. We were on the front end of a storm that would dump some heavy snow on southeast Wisconsin. Despite our hopes for the real big northerns that Moose Lake can give up, mostly hammer handles greeted us Sunday after running to about a dozen or so calls of “Flag up” over three hours. Fish to 25 inches or so were caught and released, and Ty caught a 19-inch bigmouth. Just knowing this group has taken and released the 40 inch pig pike on Moose makes the wait and the run to each flag more fun.
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“We set out tip-ups with large golden shiners from right under the ice to the bottom so probably from 5 to 15 feet,” Scott Heitman said. “We used leaders because we were targeting pike although I still had 8-pound test on my walleye rigs. Everybody was yelling at me for the break-offs. Coming out on these lakes is mainly for the camaraderie, but It’s fun to run to the flags. And we ate good.”
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It’s the same hardwater party that is held on most of Wisconsin’s 15,000 lakes every winter weekend. Consistent action is always great, especially with young kids fishing, but it’s the big fish that kick-in the adrenalin rush. If you want to target bigger pike, take some advice that I heard while listening to the guides that I have the privilege of following around with a camera and notebook each year on the open water and ice including Jim Tostrud. Tostrud targets trophy northern through the ice each year with great success. His biggest pike caught a released is a 48-1/2 inch Lake Geneva “gator” taken in 2004.
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You can’t catch big pike, Tostrud said, without first knowing where there at. Ice anglers looking for big fish should start, like he does, looking at the fishing regulations for lakes that have high size limits, lower bag limits and slot regulations.
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“Lakes with a 32 inch minimum and one fish limit have the potential for producing big pike,” Tostrud said. “Look at the regs for size, bags and slots. I always do whenever I want to fish for big pike.”
“Wisconsin has great pike fishing from Superior country to the south but on a lot of the lakes you’ll just catch hammer handles or Jacks; smaller fish. When Wisconsin lakes have slot limits or larger minimums you know they are trying hard to manage for big pike. It’s why Delavan is coming on in the south as a big pike lake with a 32 inch minimum, the same as Geneva. It’s why we’re seeing more and more big pike.”
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Tostrud’ s definition for “big pike”, he said, means fish 36 inches to 48 inches that require use of a 10-inch augured hole to land the fish. “We have thousands of lakes with pike,” he said. “But we’re talking gators.”
Tostrud stressed that big pike waters are not restricted to lakes. His favorite water includes the Mississippi River in particular from the Lacrosse area south to Genoa and the Black River north to Alma. He mentioned Goose Island river backwaters for a real chance to catch a 20 pound fish in three feet of water, French Island backwater bordered by the Mississippi River to the west and the Black to the east, Lake Onalaska and the bay at Dresbach Dam on the Minnesota side of the Mississippi River.
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“That’s boundary water” he said. “You can fish it with a Wisconsin fishing license.” Tostrud also guides and targets the shipping channels on Lake Michigan at Sturgeon Bay, Madeline and a number of “sleeper lakes” near Woodruff, Big Green, Beulah and the Madison Chain. But, just knowing the names and locations of the lakes isn’t good enough. You also have to know the lakes, period.
“You have to know where those big fish winter,” he said. “If you really want to target big fish, you have to spend time getting to know the fishery.”Connect with Jim Tostrud’s guide service at www.wildlifevisions.net.
Speaking of ice fishing, connect with “Inland Fishing” and “Ice Fishing” to read reports, find some tactic advice and see photos from our regular guides who are out there on the hardwater. Also, make sure this week to tap into “Outdoor News” for a bunch of outdoor information that comes in to OWO each week, and connect to “Deer Hunting”. The DNR is reporting 366,747 deer harvested in Wisconsin for the 2012 seasons. Read their entire report and don’t forget to read the informational release on CWD in Juneau County and record numbers of tags filled for archers last year. Just browse our pages and read what you’re interested in, hopefully including Concealed Carry columnist Robb Manning under “Firearms” and John Luthens under “Inland Fishing.
We’ll end this week connecting to “Dick’s Trips” and a past trip to the Big Eau Pleine to target roving crappies with top notch guide and OWO columnist Phil Schweik. You’ll find all the contact information for Schweik with the column. You may want to use it when you see the size of the crappies.