Slip Sliding Away

Fished with Daryl on Woodburn Lake. Temperature this mid morning was 21 degrees with a north wind of 5 to 10 knots. By the time we were done fishing it was a balmy 34 degrees. The sky was blue and the sun was bright and that was a good thing. We launched the boat on Bruin Lake, which was half frozen over, went through a canal to Watson Lake, which was completely froze over, through another canal, which was half frozen over, through Patterson Lake, which had the most ice on it (3/4 inch), through another canal to Woodburn Lake, which was only half frozen over, to the canal we wanted to fish, which was completely froze over. We busted the ice in the canal and started to fish. Don't know if it was all the noise we made or it was too cold but we caught no fish so we moved to another canal. This canal was also frozen over so we went towards the island and dropped anchor there. Fished for half an hour without a bite so we went back to the last canal we were at. Broke some ice in the canal and started to fish but we had no bites. By this time the sun was high in the sky and the ice was starting to melt. Made a move back to our first fishing spot and we had a little more open water to fish and we started to catch some fish. Made a few moves around the canal once the ice started to melt and we were able to get to some of the good fishing spots. We caught a lot of fish but we only kept 7 big bluegill. It was definitely an interesting trip.

This Could be IT!!!!

Fished with Daryl on a small lake in Chelsea. Temperature this morning was in the upper teens and when we quit fishing it was almost 30 degrees. We thought the lake might be in bad shape after all the rain and snow we had Saturday but the water was in great shape and so was the ice. The wind was out of the east less than 5 knots. The sun was shining bright which made for a nice fishing trip.The ice is still 8 inches thick. I will not be able to fish for a week, so this could be my last ice fishing trip this year. We talked to a few fisherman on the way out to our spot and not even one person had a bite, so things were not looking very good. We set up and decided to fish out of the shanty again today. We started catching fish but they were all small ones. After a little while we started to catch some keepers so we just stayed put and sorted through the fish. Kept 17 blue gills and 2 crappie.

Sunny but Windy

Fished with Daryl in Chelsea. Temperature this morning was in the lower 30s and the temp was dropping throughout the morning. The wind was out of the west 12 to 18 knots so we decided to take the ice shelter with us. The ice is still 8 inches thick and after the last snow melt it was pretty slippery. Set up to close to where we have been fishing and we never moved. The catching was not very fast but we just waited out the fish today. Most of the fish we caught were less than a foot off the bottom. If we were not so selective we could have caught our limit. Kept 25 bluegill and 2 perch. With the cold temps we should have a couple more weeks of ice fishing. Sure glad we had the ice shelter, we stayed warm and cozy all morning.