So Wednesday the 10th I headed up to our place for a planned 2 day fishing trip on Nipissing. Ice formation has definitely been an issue this season but reports from Callander Bay were consistently showing 6 to 8 inches of black ice. Callander is not my usual go to on Nip as i typically get on at Fish Bay and hit the west side of South Bay and the south shore west of there. Well as little as 3 days ago Fish Bay still had pockets of open water so my typical go to was a non-starter.

Thursday morning i headed out around 7 am. This was the temp about 5 minutes out from Centennial Park in Callander:



Grabbed the auger and set out on foot to do my own due diligence on ice conditions. Popped a number of holes and thickness ranged from 6.75 to 8 inches of clear solid black ice. Based on that decided to sled it. Pic of a hole in the pop-up showing ice colour:



Sled unloaded and all set up:



Fishing was never hot or cold per say even at first and last light. It was just steady all day with a fish every 30 or 45 minutes. Ended the day with 12 walleye and 2 perch. Managed my 2 fish in the slot for the walleye and both perch came home as well - they were right around 10 inches:



Ten of the walleye were between 13 to 15 inches with this being typical:



Most of the walleye were actually caught on the Jaw Jacker which was tipped with a 1/4 oz jig head and shiner. The two keepers though were landed on a Buckshot Rattle spoon tipped with a shiner:

17 inch keeper:



16 inch keeper:



The original plan had been to head out again Friday but the alarm went off and i decided to grab another hour of sleep (turning 59 this year and honestly it's a lot work hitting the ice self guided solo and felt like taking it easy), ate a monster hot breakfast (bacon, eggs and waffles with maple syrup) and then did chores around the cottage until about 230 pm leaving me just enough time to make it back home before a forecast storm rolled in. Was a great 2 days - caught a whack of fish and got a whack of firewood moved.

Well done

Not what I was expecting from the title but very cool none the less.

Wow. Nice job.

-20° Global warming. I think your fishing is as expensive as our deer hunting, maybe more?
Glad you gat some pan fries

lakes here were pretty much open all Dec.
Dec.7th we had freeze were we went out on 3' ice.
Lots of fish on first lake (perch) all too small ta keep.
Tried a different lake, several small walleyes.

Next day, open water. Back in day, much younger.
We used 2×6 ta get from shore ta the thiker ice.

We finally got some cooler weather. Several days -° Temps
Last night wind chill figured in roughly -32° & 7 day forecast
shows below zero Temps. High -1°.

This the first winter the cold affecting me. Knees are shot.
Can't stand for more than 3-4 hours. The cold hots & they lock up.
Itching ta go test the lakes. Always missed the ice fishing the years in
foundry worked @ we had 2 weeks shut down July & Christmas.
So we headed North ta MN.

Stay safe & warm.

I will always stop down to read Hirogen’s posts.. Thanks for sharing!

I had never heard of or seen black ice before. Fascinating. The few times I ice-fished on high mountain lakes in the Oregon Cascades, I chopped the hole with an ax and spud and used a kitchen strainer to keep it clear. Caught some nice brook trout, but I prefer to eat perch, crappie and walleye. Nice going!

Thanks man. Just a red neck cousin from the north doing my thing. We are an endangered species up here not like you bunch in Texas.

"Black" ice is the strongest ice there is. 1 inch in the right conditions will support a man but is sketchy, 2 inches will support the same man and is no longer sketchy on foot. A decent size patch of 2 inch can be crossed at speed on a snowmobile. 5 inches is plenty for a snowmobile/ATV at any speed or parked. 8 inches will support a light truck.

I've been fishing there before. Brings back memories.

Well no lease costs but the snowmobile is worth $15K (and enclosed trailer is another $7k) and the insulated pop-up is another $800, rods and tackle is probs another $500, heavy duty toboggan with the hitch is another $400. Auger and heater is another $1k. Lots of guys also have a few $k in electronics as well but i am old school and follow my gut based on experience, weather, barometric pressure, etc.. - never failed me so far - there are guys who outfish me with all their fancy gadgets and the odd old school peer - but not many - mostly just weekend warrior manling citiots who just gape at my results. Funny, thinking back to this time last year on my first trip out on Nip that season i rescued two groups of said manlings who were stranded out on the lake. Whole groups of them that need rescued by an old solo red neck.

👍👍

Looks cold

Enjoy your posts. While I don't feel old (just turned 59 myself) your outdoors work (fun) put me to shame. Keep them coming.

N ice

EYE'S

Manling Citiots 😂

I’m gonna use that one.