Catching Splake on Limekiln Lake Feb 2019

Hosts Brad & Carol

Tracy and I spent a nice three day weekend up on Limekiln Lake with our great friends Brad & Carol, son Bradley, and dog Camo.  It was a beautiful weekend.  We took an ATV and two snowmobiles and set up the ice shack on the south shoreline of the lake. Brad plowed off a 100 yard strip of snow and augured a bunch of holes for tipups.  The ice was over 24" thick. 

I used a new DIY ice anchors for holding the shack down.  The tent is an 8 person tent so it takes a lot of ice screws to hold it down.  Ice screws are a royal pain to use especially when you need to use 10 of them.  I cut 24" long pieces of 1" pvc pipe, drilled a hole in the center of the pipe, and tied a 6' piece of line to it. I drill holes with my gas auger, put the pvc pipe in the hole to where it from vertical to horizontal immediately under the hole.  Took 5 minutes to run 8 of these.  The tent stood mightily for 48 hours.

I lost a 10lb+ splake at the hole.  My 2 pound test snapped on the edge of the ice.  I caught a 6lb splake which was fun as it got snagged on another tip up line under the ice.  Brad had to cut the line on the snagged tipup so I could pull the splake through the hole. 

Bradley's Live Well With Splake

Bradley made an ice live well.  I had never seen one before.  He took the auger and drilled a series of holes next to each other being very careful not to go completely through the ice.  He then took a screwdriver and hammer to punch a small hole through the ice causing all the holes to fill up with water.  Worked great!

Success!!!

View from my bucket