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Doug & a buddy, hit the ice, on Saturday;

Nice! Still waiting on the weather here. 🙄

I did get out a couple hours one morning a couple weeks ago, but that was a total fluke of a cold snap, and the ice was completely gone again within a couple days.



It will probably be another 3-4 weeks down here before we're solid... I'm on the very tail end of the ice belt, so when and how long we get ice is extremely variable year to year

Some nice slabs there. No hard water here yet.

Oh yeah, so good !!!

I love the transition from shanty to plate 🤤

My local water is starting to freeze, but it's going to be a bit yet.

Tell me more about how that walleye was prepared, please.

Hey Scott,

Dredged in seasoned corn starch, onion powder, sweet & smoked paprika.

Pan fried in a little sesame oil, blended with grape seed oil & a decent knob of butter.

Rice from rice cooker, water replaced with coconut milk.

Finished with green onions & thai sweet chili sauce.

That sounds really tasty. Thanks for the recipe.

I stepped onto my local lake this evening after work. It's too thin to fish, but I'm excited that it's frozen over.

I went to by some sweet chili sauce yesterday $4.95 a bottle, last year it was $2.20 a bottle, unbelievable!

Great on Chicken too.

Has ice fishing become an arms race by anyone else? The average ice fisherman has a ranger and an ice castle behind his HD or SD pickup to catch bluegills. I'm like, seriously? I still prefer a schooley on a bucket. Good luck to everyone

I use a DX portable to keep my hands/feet warm anytime it's real windy or below about 20°, but I haul it in the back of a hatchback car, and I use Schooleys for most of my gill fishing. Picture from last season in January.



I agree, though... in general the amount of gear people haul onto the ice has seems to have increased at an exponential rate since I was a kid.

No ice here atm, but we have a big long cold snap forecast starting Friday, so I should be pond hopping by the middle of next week.

I never seem to think of crappie as a fish you find "up north". I used to catch them regularly downstate in central Michigan, but they're hard to find up here. My dad and I caught the first and second crappie I've ever seen come out of my local water over labor day weekend this year. Heck, I didn't even know there were any in this lake.

Another delicious looking plate, pal!

What are you using to "batter" those fillets?

Fine dining as one would expect from your presentations.

Howdy Louis,

Walleye;
Dredged in seasoned corn starch, onion powder, sweet & smoked paprika.

Pan fried in a little sesame oil, blended with grape seed oil & a decent knob of butter.

Rice from rice cooker, water replaced with coconut milk.

Finished with green onions & thai sweet chili sauce.

Crappie;
Not this exact bag/product, but a bagged tempura batter mix I grabbed at Safeway, when grabbing the coen torts & avocados


Made with a really cold lager beer !

It was amazing !

Scott, yeah, they are non-native / invasive species that someone planted - pretty common now.

Being invasive, our MNR decided on "generous" bag limits, 10 on most lakes & 15 on a few !

Is there a size limit? Here in Michigan, there's no minimum size limit and the daily take is 25. None of our panfish - perch, bluegill, crappie, white bass, etc., have a minimum size limit.

My local water has a healthy population of bluegill and pumpkinseeds. Back in July I started trolling for them with ultralight equipment and caught some really nice ones including 3 pumpkinseeds and 1 'gill that qualified for master angler awards. Trolling for them in 3-5 feet of water has become my new favorite tactic for panfishing.

Great stuff and great eats! Very nice!

We're supposed to be having some really cold weather moving in (highs in the teens next week), looking forward to getting out on the ice!

No size limits here, for the crappie, either Scott.

Paul, I wish the Crappy's would bite in the summer.