Ice Fishing – Syndication Server

112-pound halibut caught through the ice in a unique fishery

Three fishermen working with scientists under a special arrangement on the unique fishery of the Saguenay Fjord landed a fish of a lifetime.

A trio of fishermen working with scientists under a special arrangement to go ice fishing on the Saguenay Fjord in Quebec landed a 112-pound Atlantic halibut that gave the anglers an adrenaline rush to remember.

Last month, Denis Lavergne, Stéphane Rivard, and Jean-François Simard were allowed to ice fish the fjord under a program in which the fishermen agreed to submit their catches to scientists, who record biological data from the fish, as reported by Field and Stream. Recreational fishing is otherwise prohibited.

“The Saguenay Fjord is a unique and very special ecosystem,” Simard, a wildlife technician for the Quebec government, told Field and Stream. “The main species caught here are redfish, Atlantic cod, and Atlantic halibut.

“A layer of freshwater flows over the saltwater, which provides us with a solid, safe covering of ice in winter, allowing us to fish for saltwater fish at depth. This glacial valley has very steep walls and a depth that can reach slightly more than 800 feet.”

Two hours into the fishing trip, a big fish took the bait and the trio took turns reeling in the halibut. While fighting the fish, they realized they needed to widen the hole, and managed to do so without breaking the line.

“When we saw the fish in the hole for the first time, our stress and adrenaline levels reached their peak,” Simard told Field and Stream. “We managed to hook it a first time with a gaff, but it broke free from the gaff and dove about 50 feet below the surface of the ice.

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“Given the size of the fish, we widened our hole a second time to make it easier to pull it out…The final moment came soon after and I had the honor of hooking the fish with the gaff the second time. I must admit that I still get goosebumps when I remember the moment I felt the fish struggling in my hands.”

Part of the fight was captured in video and posted on YouTube:

The fish was weighed, measured and had its stomach contents analyzed at the Fjord Museum.

“From the moment the fish was hoisted onto the ice, it was total euphoria,” Simard told Field and Stream. “We were running on adrenaline and were all very proud of accomplishing this feat. We were also in awe of this enormous fish. And we felt honored to be able to have had such an experience so close to home and surrounded by the beauty of the Saguenay Fjord mountains. As a team, we caught the fish of a lifetime, and we know that this memory will stay with us forever.”

Photos courtesy of Stephane Rivard and Jean-Francois Simard.

Angler pulls 57-pound lake trout through the ice; ‘I was frozen’

Sam Boucha plunged her hand into the icy water to hold on to her prize while her boyfriend drilled a bigger hole in the ice.

While ice fishing in Canada, Sam Boucha battled a monster lake trout for nearly an hour before realizing the hole in the ice was not big enough for the fish, so her boyfriend Brad Molloy started drilling a second hole.

In the meantime, the fish spit the hook, but Boucha managed to plunge her arm into the icy water and grab ahold of the fish, and waited for the expanded hole in the ice.

“I was frozen,” Boucha told CBC. “We had a shack to warm up in afterwards so it was nice, but, yeah, it was bare-handed, arm down the hole to my shoulder, holding on to that fish until the second hole was drilled.”

Boucha told Outdoor Life she “could barely hold it” through the 2½-foot ice hole.

Once the hole opened up, Boucha pulled it through the opening. The lake trout measured 57¾ inches with a 31-inch girth. It topped out at 50 pounds on a hand scale but was estimated to weigh 57 pounds based on a calculation from the measurements.

It was the biggest fish Boucha has ever caught.

“I’ve caught a 35-pound trout before and this was something similar, so we’re pretty excited,” she told CBC. “It was unreal.”

The fish died, so Boucha plans on mounting it and putting it in a family cabin or in her home. She donated a pectoral fin and an ocular bone to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry for research and to get the fish’s age.

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Boucha made the catch on Red Lake in the town of Red Lake, Ontario. Though some people were upset that the fish died, many commenters on social media were positive about the catch.

“[One] was from a family friend here in Red Lake and he was like, ‘You’re a fishing goddess,’” Boucha told CBC. “I like that.”

Photos courtesy of Sam Boucha.

Ice fisherman spears 177-pound sturgeon, joins Heavy Hitters Club

A fisherman accomplished a rare feat on Valentine’s Day while ‘sturgeon spearing’ on Lake Winnebago. Yeah, it’s a thing in Wisconsin.

Fishermen outside Wisconsin might not grasp the concept, but Wisconsinites certainly are familiar with sturgeon spearing, so they can appreciate the “once-in-a-lifetime” fish landed by James Gishkowsky on Valentine’s Day.

Gishkowsky speared a 177.3-pound female sturgeon through a hole in the ice on Lake Winnebago, giving him entrance into the Heavy Hitters Club reserved for those who spear a sturgeon over 170 pounds on the Lake Winnebago system.

It was the seventh-largest sturgeon speared since 1941, and the largest since 2013 when a 179-pounder was landed. The record is 212.2 pounds and 84.2 inches long, speared in 2010.

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Gishkowsky’s sturgeon measured 79.9 inches or nearly 6-foot-8, just 4 inches shorter than Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo, according to the Fond du Lac Reporter, which also stated that the fish is “`taller’ than 10 of the Bucks’ 15 player’s listed heights.”

“It was a big adrenaline rush,” Gishkowsky told the Reporter.

Gishkowsky told WTAQ that he had to call in reinforcements to help him hoist the fish out of the hole, adding that “it’s a-once-in-a-lifetime [experience].”

Gishkowsky plans to have the fish mounted, and said it will hang in TJ’s Harbor Restaurant in Van Dyne.

For those unfamiliar with sturgeon spearing, it is “a sport rich in tradition” in the Winnebago system, as stated on the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources website.

The season is from the second Saturday in February and lasts for 16 days or until any of the sex-specific harvest caps for that fishery are reached. Spearers can fish from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. each day and must register their fish by 2 p.m. on the same day.

Spearers typically fish from a darkened shack on the ice, giving them better visibility. They use various types of decoys as attractants, and use a spear with a long handle up to 8-feet in length, with a detachable spearhead. It kind of looks like a flattened pitchfork.

Gishkowsky told WTAQ he’s only ever seen three sturgeon before spearing the 177-pounder. His previous biggest sturgeon speared weighed 96 pounds.

Photo courtesy of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.

Minnesota boy lands giant walleye to win massive ice-fishing tourney

A 13-year-old boy landed a giant walleye to win a Minnesota charity tournament that attracted participants from around the world.

A 13-year-old boy was the top angler Saturday at a Minnesota charity tournament that attracted participants from around the world.

Zac Padrnos claimed bragging rights at the 33rd annual Brainerd Jaycees Ice Fishing Extravaganza by reeling in a 9.45-pound walleye that struck his jig at a depth of 50 feet.

Padrnos, who is from Minnesota, was fishing with 3-pound-test line, so landing the hefty walleye presented a major challenge.

“He thought it was a tullibee, but in the end with adrenaline running he ended up reeling in a fish of a lifetime, a walleye,” event staff stated via Facebook.

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Walleye are the most sought-after game fish in Minnesota. The state record stands at 17 pounds, 8 ounces.

The Brainerd Jaycees boasted that nearly 12,000 people from as far as Australia and France participated in the event. A record 14,300 holes were drilled into area lakes by volunteers on Friday.

Padrnos won a Ford F150 truck, which was among the donated prizes. It was to be claimed by his guardians.

The Brainerd Jaycees said that this year’s largest beneficiary of the charity competition is the Confidence Learning Center, an outdoor education facility for people experiencing cognitive and developmental disabilities.

The group has donated $4.3 million to more than 75 charities since the first event was held in 1991.

Watch: Frantic moments for angler as shanty is dragged across ice

Seth Trobec was alone in a portable ice shanty, line in the water, when suddenly the shanty began to slide at an increasingly high speed.

Seth Trobec was alone in a portable shanty, line in the water, when suddenly the shanty began to slide rapidly across the ice.

His fishing companion, Cody Mjolsness, had left on a snowmobile to fetch another friend and had forgotten to unhitch a tow line connecting the snowmobile to the shanty.

The accompanying footage, captured by a GoPro camera mounted inside the shanty, shows Trobec screaming while attempting to control his balance, and bailing from the shelter like a man jumping from an airplane.

“I decided to bail when I realized my buddy wasn’t slowing down,” Trobec told FTW Outdoors. “My thought was, we had some expensive gear on the ice, and I was afraid something maybe fell on the heater or into a fishing hole, and wanted to get back and make sure all was OK.

Trobec added: “The scream was a failed attempt to get his attention.”

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The men were fishing last Monday at Canisteo Mine Pit Lake in Coleraine, Minn., when the incident occurred. Nobody was injured and the only damage was a broken fishing line caused by the shanty being pulled over the fishing holes.

The footage shows Trobec’s dramatic exit multiple times and includes descriptive text. It also shows Trobec “picking up the pieces” after the shanty had been repositioned.

A few days later, Trobec posted a video showing him fighting and landing lake trout. He wrote on Facebook:

“I uploaded a couple more videos to my YouTube channel. I figured, with all the attention my first video is getting, I better show proof that I actually do catch fish out there!”

‘Monster’ catfish reeled through ice during epic Iowa sunset

An Iowa angler who was ice fishing with minnows recently on Lake Manawa was surprised by the “constant power” exhibited by the 34-pound flathead catfish at the end of his line.

An Iowa angler who was ice fishing with minnows recently on Lake Manawa was surprised by the “constant power” exhibited by the massive catfish at the end of his line.

“The fight was unlike anything I’ve ever caught through the ice,” the Council Bluffs resident told Field & Stream. “It was constant power. It was a whole new battle to get that big of a fish to turn its head on a rod and reel that wasn’t meant for something of its size.”

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The flathead catfish, caught during a spectacular sunset on Jan. 31, tipped a scale at 34 pounds before Campbell placed the fish back into the hole and watched it swim free.

He told Outdoor Life: “I only caught one fish that night but it took us the whole night to get it in.”

The catch caught the attention of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, which on Wednesday shared the news via Facebook.

“Surprise! That’s no panfish. That’s a 40-inch, 34-pound Iowa Master Angler flathead catfish!” the agency exclaimed. “Gavin Campbell was recently ice fishing Lake Manawa when he pulled this monster from the ice.”

Many of the comments pertained to the beautiful sunset on display in the image captured by Campbell’s friend, Ryan Higginbotham.

Iowa’s Master Angler Program recognizes exceptional catches in state waters.

Campbell told Field & Stream that it was his largest-ever ice-fishing catch.

For the sake of comparison, however, the Iowa state record for flathead catfish stands at 81 pounds. The behemoth was caught at Ellis Lake in 1958.

The all-tackle world record is the 1998 catch of a 123-pound flathead catfish at Elk City Reservoir in Kansas.

67-pound sturgeon top catch in ‘season’ that lasts only minutes

If Michigan anglers eagerly anticipated this year’s Black Lake sturgeon season, it appears to have come and gone in the blink of an eye.

For Michiganders who eagerly anticipated this year’s Black Lake sturgeon-fishing season, it appears to have come and gone in the blink of an eye.

The Michigan Department of Natural Resources announced Monday that the entire season closed after only 36 minutes Saturday, after a six-fish quota was reached.

“That’s how long Michigan’s shortest fishing season lasted this year,” the MDNR stated on Facebook.

The six-fish quota was designed to allow some harvest while ensuring the continued good health of the lake sturgeon fishery in the Cheboygan River watershed. But it’s unclear if participants expected the quota to be filled so quickly, despite a registered field of 565 fishermen and women.

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According to the MDNR, the season began at 8 a.m. and closed at 8:36 a.m.

Harvested fish included a 67-pound male sturgeon (the largest), a 48-pound female sturgeon (the day’s first catch), and four male sturgeon that weighed between 23 and 45 pounds.

Spearing and hook-and-line angling were allowed.

To prevent going over the quota, the MDNR utilized text messages and staff visits to ice-fishing shanties to announce the end of fishing.

All six fish had been captured and released previously by researchers conducting surveys during Black River spawning runs, or on Black Lake.

Giant muskie catch on icy lake may have ‘crushed’ 64-year-old record

A Minnesota angler appears to have broken a 64-year-old state record with the nighttime catch of a nearly 56-pound muskie.

“The rumors are true!” Nolan Sprengeler wrote on Facebook after his catch Monday of a 55-pound, 14.8-ounce muskie at Mille Lacs Lake.

The current record, 54 pounds, was set at Lake Winnibigoshish in 1957.

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Sprengeler, 27, of Minnetonka, told FTW Outdoors that he submitted his record application to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources on Tuesday. As of the time of this post he had not heard back from the agency.

Sprengeler told KARE 11 that he and some buddies were enjoying perhaps the final night of fishing before the lake becomes too ice-covered to fish from a boat. The air temperature was 18 degrees as they broke through ice near the marina to access deeper water.

Sprengeler has been pursuing the catch-and-release record (57-1/4 inches) for weeks. But the muskie he landed Monday, “after a quick battle and a few ridiculous head shakes,” was deep-hooked and not responsive during the release attempt.

“I didn’t realize how giant this fish was until I pulled it out of the net and immediately called Kevin [Kray] over to assist with the buddy pictures,” Sprengeler wrote. “It measured an incredible 57.75” in length with a 29” girth.

“The next hour or so was spent trying to get her to release. Eventually we realized this was not going to happen and made the decision to bring it to a certified scale and crush the Minnesota State Record.”

On Tuesday, the fish was weighed at a UPS Store in Golden Valley.

For the sake of comparison, the International Game Fish Assn. lists as the all-tackle world record a 67-pound, 8-ounce muskie caught at Wisconsin’s Lake Court Oreilles in 1949.

–Top image shows Nolan Sprengeler (left) and Kevin Kray posing with the giant muskie

Fishermen trapped on river ice floe rescued, but odd item is left behind

Two fishermen on a slab of ice connected to the bank of a river were sent drifting downriver when the ice broke free from the bank.

Two men were fishing on a slab of ice connected to the bank of an Illinois river Monday when the 20-by-20-foot patch of ice broke free and began slowly making its way downriver.

The incident occurred on the Rock River in downtown Rockford where the unidentified fishermen were at the mercy of the river and ice as the floe traveled some 500 yards downstream.

“Luckily, the current was moving very slowly,” Rockford Fire District Chief Luis Duran told the Rockford Register Star.

Witnesses immediately called 911 and the Rock River Water Rescue team arrived on the scene and plucked the two fishermen from the ice floe with an inflatable banana boat. Fortunately nobody was injured in the incident.

#UPDATE Rock River Water Rescue. Two people were rescued from a large floating piece of ice from the river. The ice they were fishing from near the shore broke off causing them to float down down the river. pic.twitter.com/oyQONEVb7M

— Rockford Fire (@RockfordFire) March 2, 2021

Commenters on the Loves Park Neighborhood Watch Group on Facebook made light of what the fishermen were forced to leave behind, as several commented that when rescued off any ice like this, the rescuers only take you, no gear.

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Remaining on the ice floe going downstream were two ice augers, a fishing rod, a bag of chips, a plastic water bottle with some drink remaining and a … mattress?

“My question is why did they have 2 hand augers and a casting rod? I don’t even wanna know about the mattress,” one commenter wrote.

Duran told the Star that the fishermen were fortunate the slab of ice didn’t break up. Instead it remained in one piece to keep them afloat and prevented them from falling into the river and risking hypothermia.

Photos courtesy of the Rockford Fire Department and Loves Park Neighborhood Watch Group on Facebook.

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Boy’s disqualification in ice fishing tourney proves controversial

A 14-year-old who caught a brown trout that would have made him a second-place winner of $500 was disqualified, causing an uproar online.

A 14-year-old boy who caught a brown trout that would have made him a second-place winner of $500 in an ice fishing tournament in Colorado was disqualified by organizers in what turned out to be a controversial decision that caused an uproar online.

Darron Boling caught a 2.68-pound brown trout at Vallecito Reservoir on Saturday during the fifth annual ice fishing tournament put on by the Vallecito Conservation and Sporting Association, as reported by The Durango Herald.

Contest rules require competitors to purchase and display a $5 daily recreation permit in their vehicles. Darron was disqualified for not having a valid permit. Boe Boling, Darron’s father, had driven his son to the event but fished elsewhere and was not part of the competition.

The Herald reported that the Boling family maintains that Darron tried to pay the $5 fee when he registered on his own, but when asked if he drove to the event and answered no, that he was only 14, he was told by the registration attendant that he didn’t have to pay the fee.

“Watching my son be told he didn’t do everything by the book, watching him be told that he cheated and he wasn’t an honest sportsman hurt,” Boe told the Herald.

Tony Shurts, president of the VCSA, disagreed with Boe’s account, telling the Herald in an email, “It was determined that his father brought him. It was also determined that there was no recreation permit displayed in that vehicle.”

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The permit requirement was announced several times during registration and in the event advertising, Shurts told the Herald. The tournament website states, “At least one person in party must have valid PRID recreation pass display in their vehicle. Violators will be disqualified and forfeit their registration fees,” which were $40.