Evil's 18/19 Hardwater Thread

[Evil69]

The 2018/19 Hardwater season is here!

Filled my Mulie Tag last week so I spent the day checking ice conditions. Here are a few pics for those addicted to Hardwater. If your like me you've been twitching like a meth head on the Tuesday before welfare Wednesday to get on the ice. I will update as the season progresses.

Little Bow Park

5.5 inches once you get past the thaw/freeze zone. Very thin spots along the shore line and pilings with one hole Showing only 1 inch ice. Be careful!

Fishing was slow with very few whites caught, I lost one and missed 3. A few walleye were caught by the Asian fellow next to me but overall a really slow morning. Had the Camera down and water is a bit cloudy but viewable. Not many fish were detected overall.

Travers spill way

2.5 inch clear 1 inch white. Lots of thinner spots. Decided unsafe and moved on.

McGregor Boat Launch

3.5 inches clear. A bit too thin for my 300# butt, Unsafe. Checked the canal and south point. Ice is sketchy to say the least and there is open water still in the middle. Going to need a cold snap before I consider it safe.

Not great news but we are close, short term forecast is warm for a few days then a cooling trend.

It was a great day overall, met two nice fellow fishermen at McG, saw some great scenery and I got to get the lines in the water for a bit.....stay tuned.

[Elchinodiablo]

Thanks Evil...itching doesnt even describe it!!!

Sent from my SM-G935W8 using Tapatalk

[Left_Lane_Outlaw]

Lessard averaging 7 inches looks like full coverage. I didn't cross the shifting ice ridge and check center lake but overall 6.5-7. 95% clear ice.

East Pit Lake the same report minus about an inch.

No fish caught in either lake.

[slingshotz]

Did the guys at MacG report any success or slow like last few years again?

[Evil69]

Was at lBP today.
Only safe ice (4"+) was near the pumphouse. Pilons are 1-3 inches. BE CAREFULL lots of melt occurred during the last few days and the shore line is thin. I'd give it another week before taking the family down there.

Fishing was real slow, a few walleye and one pike in the 8-10# range made a mess of the camera cable. Whitefish were occasionally seen cruising by the camera but showed no interest in anything I threw at them. Lots of gamorance in the area so I'm no surprised.

First Hardwater fish 2018/19




Lots of these guys crawling around the weed bed.



Be safe out there this weekend. I wil report on McG Next week.

[Bigfeet]

IBP? Short for.....?

[PlayDoh]

Thanks for all the reports.

Is it Wednesday yet?

[Evil69]

Hit McGregor today. 7-8 inches south of boat launch. 5-7 inches in the canal. The ice looks fairly good with a thick layer of clear. Lots of movement and cracking all morning. Some crazy ice formations @ the south end.


Water clarity was fair.

Didn't see a single white all morning however I did land several pike and walleye in both spots. The afternoon was more pike and I tricked this 3 1/2 lb Rainbow into hitting a pink rattle spoon.




Heading to Badger next week.........

[Evil69]

Fished Badger today (South West)

5-7 inches ice. 4 FOW to 11.5 FOW. Water clarity was excellent. Weather was snowing and windy till 2pm.


From what I saw on camera today the pike are bouncing back, Lots of big fat healthy fish passed by. As usual lots of big Whites that showed zero interest in anything I threw at them except my swivel. I'm starting to think it's personal.

I'll be back @ Christmas...

[MoFugger21]

Thanks for updates Evil!

[Evil69]

Fished McGregor Yesterday......

Beautifull in the morning, blown off the lake by 2PM


9.5 inches ice, water clarity was poor. I expected this Chinook to melt like last year, to my surprise the ice sheet grew. We'll be chasing Ling by Christmas

Only saw 3 whites all morning and the were only interested in my swivel again. So today a fresh start, I changed the line on my reel to 4# and tied a few "secret" weapons.....if they want my swivel so bad, here ya go.


Back at it tomorrow....maybe a trip to Travers

[PlayDoh]

Well done, awesome reports as usual.

[Evil69]

Finally made it to chain....I wanted to go to Beauvais or Beaver mines Guess who lost the coin toss


10.5 inches ice, water clarity is fair and it was cold. The Jaw Jacker holes were freezing up quick and by noon we pulled them in and stayed in the tent.


Lots of action all day. Suckers(Whites and a longnose) on the bottom, bows a few feet above. White was the colour of the day and some of the trout hits were very subtle, easy to miss. A little excitement later on , a large bull trout passed by the camera and took a swipe at my partners jig but he was fixated on his bag of potato chips and by the time he realized what was happening (because me screaming "SET THE HOOK!" 3 times wasn't a clue) it was gone


After loading up on a couple dozen suckers for bait I kept the last two bows for a little pan fry this evening with the Mrs.


Overall a good day Now that I have bait, I'm off to find some 40's in Keho and some ling in Lake xyandz.

Have a Happy New Year everyone!

[Evil69]

Fished Mcgregor today.....

13.5 inches of ice, fog was thick, water clarity was poor.


7:30am to 9 am was fantastic, several healthy walleye over 22 inches and lots of whites taking a look.


After 9 things died off completely so I went exploring around the east side of the lake by Milo. There is a fair sized pressure opening just off the south west tip by Milo. It freaked me out so I walked to shore to get around it, looks like it was open yesterday. I wouldn't be taking a vehicle over that thing for some time.


Not finding my targeted species in the usual spots I went deep on a hunch....


Glad I did


A few whites took bronze/red wire worms, so I manged a meal for tonight. The most notable thing from today was that I didn't see a single pike all day. Very surprising to say the least because there were lots of everything else, trout, walleye, whites and I even saw a fat perch swim by the camera. He showed zero interest in my jig and seamed nervous as I watched him swim out of view

So off to Keho Monday then I guess Emerson will be getting a little attention Tuesday & Wednesday

[Roth66]

Are they driving on the north end of Mcgregor at the campground?.

[BPman]

NO!! Not yesterday at least...

[PlayDoh]

Good luck Evil!

[Evil69]

Yes I'm still here lol.
Both my laptops comitted suicide so my ability to post has been limited.

I've been on badger and McG a few times the last week and can give you a brief update before everyone heads out for the family day weekend.

Badger...
Fishing for pike has been good. Standard tip up suckers and minnow tipped jigs are producing lots of fish in the 24-36 inch class of fish. Whitefish have turned on a bit with green and white genz worms tipped with 1/2 minnow were what they were chasing, stir up some mud to bring them in and then watch your camera for the suck. lol Ling are starting pre spawn housekeeping and we managed a couple of 18 inchers near the inlet.

McGregor......
Things have been hit or miss. As usual lots of walleye and a few pike to kill the time but long periods of slow fishing made for a lot of searching for fish. Whites are fairly dispersed and the shallows are not producing like past years but there are fish there. Red and black wire worms and micro jigs/meal worm. Trout bite has died off but we are seeing them on camera still. Ling are in pre spawn and last night we saw the first signs of whites trailing ling. A sure sign the spawn is just around the corner. Glow jigs tipped with sucker belly produced best last night but they were hitting minnows as well. Our largest was 26 inches. Not a monster but the first keeper( self imposed greater than 24 inch limit) of the season for me so guess who's having fish for dinner tonight lol

Full moon Monday should make for a great weekend of fishing and temps are forecast to rise.Ill be at McG for a few days starting Monday so with any luck I'll have some stories to share.

Ps sorry can't upload pics on my phone so I will try and borrow a laptop and get some.pics uploaded. The color on the ling last night was an odd ball I've never seen before

[Fishtracker]

Very well written report. Thank you!