tough going

Hi Folks, Guided the hard water yesterday from my shanty.  Pretty tough going on the ice with allof the snow.  Lots of false ice and water on top of 18" of solid black ice.  Certainly slows down the traffic on the ice when it is difficult to get around.  The snow was knee deep and a lot of post hole walking.  Good boots that are warm and waterproof are essential right now.  We located smelt up in the water column and caught them jigging Hali jigs tipped with maggots.  The smelt schools seem to rise up in the water column as the day progresses.  We found yellow perch towards the bottom and it appeared that they were chasing the smelt.  We had one trout on a tip up run into our jigging lines under the shanty and create a giant mess.  Pretty interesting.  We set tip ups with live smelt from 2' to 10' below the ice.  Will be after trout again tomorrow with guests.  Remember to obey the bait laws and keep VHS at home.  Have fun, Willy