Went ice fishing up by Waubay in South Dakota on the annual trip with guys from church. We fished the refuge up there. Motorized vehicles are not allowed on the refuge (not that we could've driven on it anyway because of the snow) so we had to pull shacks out to the fishing spot. We trudged through snow that was pretty deep. It was the kind of snow that when you step, you think you will just walk on top of it, but then you'd break through. We walked and pulled our gear about a half mile this way! It was brutal and I could really feel the burn on the thighs. Made me realize how out of shape I really am. We did this two days in a row.
Anyway, you can see the work was worth it. About 10:30 on the first morning Jason, the other guy in the picture above caught a 7 pound 1 oz walleye on a tip-up. That was the biggest walleye but we caught a 17" and 19" as well. Fishing was slow at times but we managed to get 15 or so perch like the ones above over the two days. We added many smaller ones as well to make quite a few good meals. Mark N. went too and, really, we were the only two shacks that caught any fish to speak of.
Of course, the equipment we used made the difference if you ask me. The following is on my Christmas list for next year: Vexilar FL-20 (it's like cheating to see exactly how far off the bottom to fish), a Voyager ice shack (room for 5 holes and two large guys to move around in), and an underwater camera (most of the perch caught didn't even pull on the line, the only way you could catch them was by watching them bite and then setting the hook).
Awesome time with a good group of guys, even though Mark drank all the beer on the ice and never offered me one.
