First Ice-Muzzleloader Update

I spent the weekend checking some lakes up "North" and doing some scouting for my dad who was trying to close the deal on a Muzzleloader buck yet this year.  The hunting didn't go as good as planned, thanks to the warm temps and lack of snow but the fishing was excellent.

The plan for the weekend was to only hunt the evenings to avoid pushing deer of the food plots in the mornings.  This strategy has worked well in the past for late season deer as they tend to feel more comfortable feeding during shooting hours the less they are pressured.  Once again the plan worked well Friday night as there were a lot of deer feeding early, but only one mature buck came out on the field during shooting hours.  And, if my dad had been on the field I was scouting his season would be done, because despite being a 8 pointer, it was big and mature.

Without a deer Friday night we hit the lakes on Saturday for some panfish action.  The bite was good most of the day for bluegill and crappies in 9 ft of water.  The target location was existing weed beds that were still standing so we could sight fish.  With no snow on the lakes and 10 inches of solid clear ice, the sight fishing was excellent with plenty of light penetration.  In all the fishing was excellent and we were able to keep a nice limit of bluegill for the pan.

Unfortunately the same 40 degree temps that made fishing so good did nothing for the deer hunting.  This time of year warm temps mean deer are not going to be out feeding early, and the old saying held true.  The same field I scouted the night prior was void of deer and dad did not see a deer until well after shooting hours on the walk in.  This same had a shooter buck along with 5 other bucks and 6 does and fawns the night before.  And, as trail cameras show, they showed up about 8 PM with the warm temps and bright full moon.

Speaking of trail camera pictures, the bucks are VERY active right now.  They are still chasing does hard, with a lot of fighting going on.  I had over 500 pictures of bucks fighting on camera over the last two weeks. 

For our last fishing expedition of the weekend we decided to try some spearing and tip-up fishing for pike.  I elected a lake known for its excellent pike numbers and we set up blind using our LakeMaster chip in the Humminbird 385ci.  The lake had a solid 11 inches of ice  but I could not get myself to be the first one to drive on the lake so we opted for the ATV on this trip. Before everyone had their houses set up I had a nice 29 inch pike on the ice.  The water was crystal clear so it made for great spearing and the luckily the pike were very active, which made for great tip-up fishing.  I believe I saw roughly 20 fish in the spearing hole and had 10 hit the tip-up.  Truly a great day on the ice for everyone!