On the ice

While I did not get to ice fish as much as I would have liked this winter because of my travels south to chase bass around on the FLW Tour, we did have some good trips, fun fishing and filming episodes of Fishing With Gussy.  

The late winter timeframe is prime time to catch big walleyes and while I did not catch that really hot bite that happens over the last two weeks or so of good ice, I did catch a flicker of it in late March.  Here's a good one on my favourite ice bait of all time, the Northland Buckshot Rattle Spoon.  

Late ice is also prime time for magnum sized pike and while I missed out on the best time to be out there this year, I did get a little bit of good fishing in before I left for the Beaver Lake FLW Tour event.  The absolute BEST way to catch these big pike is with a Frabill Tip-up and a Northland Predator Rig.  We'll hang a large cisco on the Predator Rig and it's deadly.  

https://youtu.be/_w26FMFZJVA  (Predator Rig Video)

While there are newer Humminbird units available for portable ice fishing, I have been using the 385ci unit for several years now and it continues to get the job done for me.  It's so nice to be able to drive around on your snowmobile or ATV with a lake map loaded into the machine.  As well, it's convenient to be able to save waypoints of your hotspots so you can get back to the exact location on your next outing.  
On the newer units I would recommend the smaller Humminbird Helix (Helix 5) machines - they are AWESOME!!!
http://www.humminbird.com/Products/HELIX-5-SONAR-GPS/