Last minute ice fishing. Along with Mike, we setup tip ups on a drop off and covered structure. The first couple hours were quite slow with only a few perch and one big fish lost off a tip up (most likely a pike). The idea of moving to a new spot came up in coversation but a sudden slow movement of a woden tip up gradually moving down at a very slow pace ment a decent fish had come to shake the cage. Mike jumped to get the line and pull the fish up, after a couple big head shakes we managed to see the gold and white belly of a very decent walleye under the hole then the line went slack and she was gone. NO!

We sit back down and keep jigging, from the corner of our eye we notice the same tip up, very slowly dipping down gradually like it just did a couple minutes before, another big fish? This time we cannot lose it. The fish comes up close to the surface, it's a big walleye. The jig gently pops out of it's mouth, Mike then dives his entire arm down the very cold hole of icy water to grab the big walleye... he pulls out his arm with nothing to show for it. NO!! it got away again! It's hard to deal with missing two oportunities at a big walleye on the ice and the adrenaline is flowing, when another tip up drops down and remains still. I run over to it and pick up a nice pike out of the hole. It's not as exciting as what just happened, but as I remove the hook another tip up dips down and Mike runs for it. As he passes by the first tip up I notice that one drops down slowly and remains down as well. Double header while I am holding a pike in my hand. I quickly release the pike down a hole close to me and run to grab the second tip up, and feel a good tug and run, feels like a good pike. While I scream over to Mike to tell him I have a good one, he screams back: " it's not as big as this one, get over here quick". I pull up the pike quick and see that infact it's only about five pounds. So I grab my camera and run over to where Mike is fighting the fish. As I get there Mike has his hand down the ice hole and he is pulling up a big gill plate attached to a mouth full of teeth. I turn on the camera and hit the record button . . .

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