Went up to the cabin again this past weekend. Was not near as cold this weekend with temps only 5 or 10 degrees below freezing - practically summer compared to the last trip. Took my nephew up this time as he has never been ice fishing before and has never ridden a snowmobile either. Gave him a quick lesson on the machine with particular emphasis on slush. Slush on top of ice and hidden by a snow layer is the bane of all things mechanical.

Slush this weekend was about 12 inches deep on top of main lake ice and hiding below a thin crust too weak in most places to support a machine. Only way to deal with it is drive fast and if possible faster - keep it pinned. Only stop when by feel/observation i know we won't break through into the slop. So his instructions were follow me (but not right in my tracks - offset so as not to hit something weakened by my passage) and don't stop unless i stop and keep up. Riding fast for me means anywhere from 50 to 70 miles per hour when pulling a 250ish pound toboggan. Pulling that toboggan my machine tops out at about 78 mile per hour so close to the limit at times. We rode 10 miles like that before locating a bay that met with my approval.

No other way to do it short of hovercraft. ATVs, side by sides and even tracked atvs and side by sides get defeated by slush - they are just not fast enough and don't float well enough to stay on top of the slush.

Anyways enough talk about slush. Fishing was slow but we managed our limits with fish like this:





And as always didn't see a soul:





Nephew has a blast but did admit that the ride at speed freaked him out a bit.

Looks incredible. Walleye are so tasty. I sure miss ice fishing.

Cool and yep that's fast in those conditions. Heck most bass rigs down here can't run that fast across open water and sure not as smooth. Unusually warm here 90% yestereday just west of DFW.

Good job. Love me some walleye fillets!

Awesome pics and story! At those speeds and with that amount of cargo, what kind of range do you have on a snowmobile? Do you have to carry extra fuel?

My machine has a 12 gallon tank so it's pretty good. Unloaded i can go about 230 to 240 miles on a tank. Pulling the toboggan like that though range drops to 140 ish miles. Still more than i would typically go in a day of ice fishing. So typically i always fill the tank before setting out and don't bother carrying extra.

I've done some crazy shi- to kill a deer, but wow. Ya'll must really have wanted to catch some fish! That's awesome.

Roger that!

Pretty cool!

Thanks for posting!

The picture of your nephew holding the fish, it looks like he still hasn't thawed out yet or gotten that holy chit from going 70 + mph on his first snowmobile ride on the ice.
Neat pics and very nice Walleye

You dudes are some hardy souls.