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Old 03-31-2018, 03:19 PM
SNAPFisher SNAPFisher is offline
 
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Well, my previous plans bailed on me so I decided to try and fill that 2nd class A tag a Pigeon.

So, went there. None too early. -27 on the way there....WTF!!!

Tried in 9 FOW for a while but not too long. Nothing...no wallies... Thought about trying more but instead headed to my new white fish spot I found. The hyper coil on the strike master hypered its ass into broken. Piece of crap. I'll have to get it replaced. Anyways, eventually got it started again by holding down the handle and messing around with the "hyper useless" coil. Get setup and as soon as I turn the flasher on I'm marking fish at 10 FOW. And lots.

Drop down the jaw jacker and there are fish all over it. At least 3. Nothing hit it while I got my other rod and dropped it down. As soon as I did, the marks headed up towards the dropping hooks. It was hard to see below but I could make out several shapes go by the hooks about 10 feet down. And they were big!

Brought the hooks up, dropped down, and watched as a leviathan came in. I was only 4 feet below the ice. It turned took a shot....went away out of view and then came back and inhaled the bottom hook. I set it and you could feel that huge weight right away. Line starts peeling off on the floor that I bunched up and it gets onto the rod. That sucker almost spooled me!! I’m guessing it ran for about 100 yards. A good, good, fight later and I landed a total fat, fat, fatty. 7.4 lb white.

Didn’t matter after this. I could have left happy then. Still, had some more whites come around and come close. About 60 minutes later though I marked a fish. Looked down...waited.. It came by about a foot under the ice. Brought the hooks up and re-dropped them a couple of feet. It came in and did another pass and I hooked up less than 2 feet under the ice. So visual! A really amazing even better fight and I landed my 2nd which was a 5.6 lb white.

That was enough for me. Packed up and headed home. The 7.4 lber is in the brine already and the other is going to be fried. Some huge slabs o meat on these fish. Now that is a season ender!!!















Definitely a season to remember. Great fishing and lots of lakes explored. About 12 or so lakes explored. And some old reliables were....reliable
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  #2  
Old 03-31-2018, 03:36 PM
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great fish , Hugh size . can hardly wait to live at the lake.
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  #3  
Old 03-31-2018, 04:03 PM
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Yeahhhhh. !00 yards of line out your say.......makes it exciting for sure. 4# test line? I've had a couple rainbows break my 4# test this winter but getting spooled would be an even better fish story. I only have 50 yards loaded on....

Very nice!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Old 03-31-2018, 04:49 PM
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Nice whitefish. We catch them a bit smaller then that on Flathead lake in Montana. Use 6# line and haven’t had anything break off. Sure makes things fun when you catch a few of those every hour.
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Old 03-31-2018, 05:28 PM
pikeman06 pikeman06 is offline
 
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Here we go again... Hats off my friend...tough to give up on pigeon when you got a shot at that. Good job bud. That's a slob white right there. I love those hawgs. I wonder how old they are sometimes. Any idea? Thanks for sharing.
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  #6  
Old 03-31-2018, 05:54 PM
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swampy45 swampy45 is offline
 
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well you definitely did better than I did today! Awesome fish SNAP! Lac la Nonne was slow for me today, marked a ton of fish, but only a few wanted to commit. I never did fish Pigeon once this winter and regret it now...

Oh well, onto the next season. The trout lakes and unnamed lakes have a few weeks of ice fishing left, and I'll be on them!
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Old 03-31-2018, 06:16 PM
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Lucky guy! Nice fish and a good way to end the season! Congrats!
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Old 03-31-2018, 07:22 PM
Dweb Dweb is offline
 
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Awesome pics thanks for sharing ! Weather was cold !!!!
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Old 03-31-2018, 07:34 PM
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Those are fat fat fat pigs. Nice!

Dodger
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Old 03-31-2018, 09:03 PM
kinwahkly kinwahkly is offline
 
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What a hog. Nice white.
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  #11  
Old 03-31-2018, 09:54 PM
SNAPFisher SNAPFisher is offline
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CNP View Post
4# test line?
Thanks all. 8 lb line. Glad I did, it was tested again and again.
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Old 03-31-2018, 09:58 PM
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You seem to have those whites figured out. Not sure how you went a season without filling walleye tags though lol.
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Old 03-31-2018, 10:35 PM
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A nice end to the season. If you would have stayed and caught your limit of ten whitefish. At 6 to 7 pounds each that's about 40 to 50 lbs. dressed cleaned fish total. Enough whitefish for the freezer to last until next ice this coming winter.

Did you look in the big white fish's stomach? Curious if there were many minnows in the contents. I'll bet that 7 lb. brute has some back fat on it.
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Old 03-31-2018, 10:51 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by pikeman06 View Post
Here we go again... Hats off my friend...tough to give up on pigeon when you got a shot at that. Good job bud. That's a slob white right there. I love those hawgs. I wonder how old they are sometimes. Any idea? Thanks for sharing.
How old? A whitefish lifespan can up to 25 years. There has been 50 year old lake whitefish recorded too. The largest recorded lake whitefish weighed 19 kg.(41 lb.+) caught in one of the great lakes in 1918, so a 7 or 8 lb white could continue growing quite a bit.

I would guess the whitefish SNAPfisher caught at pigeon might be from 10 to 16 years old. Just my opinion, based on the commercial netting was stopped a couple years ago and from what I have read about whitefish growth.

*footnote: In about 1808 David Thompson the explorer was at Lac St. Anne and was feasting on whitefish prepared by the FN women of the area. He recorded that he weighed the largest whitefish the women had on his scales and it weighed 17+ lbs..
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  #15  
Old 03-31-2018, 11:36 PM
SNAPFisher SNAPFisher is offline
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RavYak View Post
You seem to have those whites figured out. Not sure how you went a season without filling walleye tags though lol.
Funny thing is I caught so many walleye in Nov - Jan over 50 cm...sent them all back. The spot I was at early this morning I had a double digit over 50 cm morning. Why didn't a tag one of those.....yep...
Maybe that good karma to catch whites. Otherwise, it really cannot be explained.
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Old 03-31-2018, 11:38 PM
SNAPFisher SNAPFisher is offline
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Red Bullets View Post
A nice end to the season. If you would have stayed and caught your limit of ten whitefish. At 6 to 7 pounds each that's about 40 to 50 lbs. dressed cleaned fish total. Enough whitefish for the freezer to last until next ice this coming winter.

Did you look in the big white fish's stomach? Curious if there were many minnows in the contents. I'll bet that 7 lb. brute has some back fat on it.
I didn't check it. I wonder if it did too. They sure reacted to the spoon I dropped today. About an inch at the hump in fat. I'm going to get an omega-3 injection.
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  #17  
Old 03-31-2018, 11:47 PM
Bushleague Bushleague is offline
 
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Good season ender... some beauty whites you go there. I just got done filleting the results of my season ender. Had about the fastest ice fishing action off of Widewater that I can ever remember. I iced 9 nice walleyes after work in about a hour and a half and lost half that many again. I probably could have landed most of the ones I lost but they were hitting on jigging tipups, and because the water was deep I was trying to bring them up super slow. Babying a walleye up 35' on a hand line and barbless hooks can be a bit tricky.

I spent this year perfecting a home made jigging tipup, its been about 10 years since I really flogged the tipups, and I didn't have a power auger or a 4x4 back then. Going back to making and fishing tipups was huge success, with the new jigging tipups and my increased mobility leapfrogging tipups along drops and around points has become my go-to method.
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Last edited by Bushleague; 04-01-2018 at 12:01 AM.
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  #18  
Old 04-01-2018, 12:00 AM
SNAPFisher SNAPFisher is offline
 
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Something I forgot to mention. I fish with the line between my fingers. To me, you have to feel that hook set and you learn to know if it was a good one or one you have to back the drag off for and hope for the best.

The tent I have has the metal, circle rod holders. When I hooked the 5.6lber, I dropped the line loosely as I knew it was a good set and picked up and reeled up the jaw jacker rod, which caught nothing by the way. As I'm putting the JJ rod away the white gets to the end of the line and the rod doubles over in the holder and line is peeling off. It was like Wicked Tuna Mini in there. I'll never forget that image and sound. This fish was on steroids. Had it up to the bottom of the ice 5-6 times and it would run all they way down again and I could see that on the flasher. I've caught some memorable fish this season but this last one of the season is one I think I'll remember best.
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  #19  
Old 04-01-2018, 01:57 AM
bestowlaughing bestowlaughing is offline
 
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You are one lucky man. Awesome fish and I love size
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Old 04-01-2018, 09:58 AM
barbless barbless is offline
 
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Wow nice hogs for sure. Some butter in the pan mmmmmm good eats. By putting some back the fish GODS give you the rewards.
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  #21  
Old 03-11-2019, 02:06 AM
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You are so lucky i wish i will do these things in a season.
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Old 03-12-2019, 09:24 AM
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Quote:
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You are so lucky i wish i will do these things in a season.
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