February 6, 2020 Whitbourne Argo Ice Fishing Trip (29 Photos)

 

29.   With previous plans for the week abruptly cancelled, French and I took advantage of a beautiful day Thursday to head out over the highway to do a little ice fishing. The weather was forecast to turn poor Friday into Saturday so this would be a great opportunity to get up in the woods.

 

 

 

28.   We headed to Whitbourne and dropped the machines near Monty's Place Restaurant. We took the old rail bed a short distance then broke the snowmobile trail East all the way to the pole line. I knew the route so I powered my '89 6x6 through the deep snow with surprisingly little difficulty!

 

 

 

27.   Once we got to the pole line French lead the way to our desired fishing destination. Snow from our mega blizzard was packed down quite well and provided a surprising amount of traction for our tracked Argos. Usually these machines on tracks have difficulty climbing steep hills but today they performed that task with ease.

 

 

26.   My 1989 6x6 tearing up fresh powder in High Waters.

 

 

25.   Both machines worked great especially in deep snow and we soon made it to High Waters to plant some ice fishing lines.

 

 

24.

 

 

23.   We both ran our convertible tops with the driver door rolled up just in case we broke through as we weren't 100% certain of ice conditions on every section of the gullies. Our heaters still kept us toasty warm even with one door open!

 

 

22.   We were surprised to see over a foot of ice everywhere we checked. Reports just after the blizzard had ice levels at 5-6", but we had 20mm of rain since then. All that rain soaked into the 12" of snowpack on top of the ponds but froze solid before it drained. This created lots of ice, not as strong as clear hard ice, but enough to safely support our machines.

 

 

21.   My new ice fishing lines from Outdoor Pros (not a sponsor) work great and look great. I'll probably be picking up a few more in the future.

 

 

20.   My 6" auger and drill adaptor continues to work really well with my Milwaukee M18 FUEL drill. I would like to make up an auger extension as this auger is short which limits how thick the ice can be when boring holes. (Check out my 2020 Garage Projects on the Projects in the Shed page).

 

 

19.

 

 

18.

 

 

17.   While I set out our fishing lines French got out his trusty Husqvarna top handle chainsaw and knocked down a few dead trees to have a cook-up.

 

 

16.   These fantastic saws are lightweight, compact and make the task of gathering firewood so much simpler and faster.

 

 

15.

 

 

14.  In no time we had an awesome fire roaring built on a bed of green logs laid directly on the snow.

 

 

13.

 

 

12.

 

 

11.

 

 

10.   For lunch I fried up 2lbs of Wild Game flavour Ground Moose made this past fall and later added 2 cans of beans for a kick ass hearty trail lunch.

 

 

9.

 

 

8.

 

 

7.

 

 

6.

 

 

5.

 

 

4.   When lunch was nearly done I added a couple green logs to the fire to prop up my Kelly Kettle which boils in about 3 minutes. A couple cups of coffee went really well with lunch.

 

 

3.

 

 

2.

 

 

1.   All in all it was an excellent day. Plans may change, but often times as in this case they change for the better. We had an excellent day in the woods, caught a half dozen keeper mud trout and had an outstanding Argo rip.

 

Cheers, MIKE

Return to Rips and Trips

Copyright © 2011 Michael Smith