CATCH OF THE DAY

[NorthernWinos]

We took the morning shift at the spear house today....

The fish were fairly active and aggressive.

We only saw one worth taking...

Sunday dinner on ice...

 

[Waldo]

Looks like the makings of a mighty fine dinner NW

 

[NorthernWinos]

Have been getting a touch of 'Cabin Fever' so went to the lake to look at some different scenery....

The Sunnies were thick today....

Saw a few Bass....

3 Walleye Pike...
28 Northern Pike....some looked pretty tasty to me...
Jim always hopes for bigger ones...

They don't have to be big to have an attitude and bite at the Teaser and Decoy...

Finally it was time to 'Head for the Shed' and we took a small one for a meal....

Feeling so Fine....
Life is Good!!!!

 

[jobe05]

Tell Jim that the small ones freeze up as well as any.......... so he can take them all!

Thanks for sharing. It's tough for some of us to find the time to enjoy such activities, and impossible for others. I truly enjoy living the dream through your post.

 

[grapeman]

You can stop sending that cold weather this way right now Miss Northern Winos! It got up to 5 deg today, -5 last night and then it is supposed to get colder all week. I think you need to keep it there to keep those little lakes frozen up good for fishing.


What was that little one, a small 5 pounder?

 

[rgecaprock]

NW, Are you seeing all of these fish in one ice hole? I guess they are all looking for food and converge on the same food source. It must be interesting what you see swimming by. What is the biggest that has cruised by your bait?


I would love to ice fish!!!!

 

[Jack on Rainy]

Good picts N Winos,
But Ramona, They are probably looking down that hole 5 or 6 hours a day! And they take picts at 1/200 or less so most of the time there is a blank green screen to look at

. Bird watching is MUCH more action

!


We're at about the same latitude as N Winos so have similar weather. This is the most snow in December that I can remember in my 30+ years here. That makes for thin ice. I heard yesterday tha one of our neighbors can't plow a road to their island because the ice can't support a plow. All that snow insulates the ice so the cold weather isn't helping ice conditions. BTW -33F last Monday!

 

[NorthernWinos]

Jobe...Your right...They all taste the same in the pan.....

Ramona....We offer not food nor bait...only flashy plastic and steel to lure their inquisitiveness...and then....do a selective harvest of their flesh for our tables...as for big ones...over the past few years we have been going out there 8...12..17...and 19 pound fishes we have eaten...this little lake has an amazing production.

Appleman....the weather is predicted to become very cold...lows in the -20°s F or more for the week ahead...one of those winters the old timers talk about...Wait a minute....WE are the old timers.

Right now it is an adventure just to get out to to our little shanty, about 1½ miles across the lake. Follow a plowed road winding through ice fishing shanty villages...and then bucking snow about 2 feet deep the rest of the way ...Our 4X4 pickup jalopy leaves impressions of it's 'punkins' [transmissions]...dragging it's bottom all the way to the end of the trail through the deep snow...

It's kind of neat to sit in a dark house and watch the bottom of a frozen lake and see all the life that exists where no man would care to be...Beneath the ice.

I have been under the tropical sea [scuba] and was so enthralled by what I saw...this the is a poor man's ocean...Not so pretty, nor so colorful, but life that not many see...The ocean has colorful and bountiful fishes....the small lakes of Minnesota has it's own beauty and food for the poor men.

Life is Good on the frozen Tundras....We find beauty in the snow, ice and boney fishes presented before us....

Life is only as Good as you make it.

 

[NorthernWinos]

Jack on Rainy....We can take about 4 hours at the spear house and I get a stiff neck looking down the hole...Kind of interesting tho...seems that the spot we are at, usually some kind of fish is in view..even the unmentionable..Bull heads. Had company today, some friends stopped out to check on their big house ..... visit and show their kid the fish in the hole.

We have been -24°F a few times already this winter...It can get a lot worse...Was -7 when we got to the lake today.

They are saying maybe -30 this coming week, but hope not.

Once it gets so cold and few more degrees doesn't really matter...the snow just squeaks a bit more when you walk on it.

For you Southern Folks....The snow is very crunchy when it gets below zero..It squeaks beneath your feet...Your doors squeak when you open them...and some other things as well...Like the starters on your cars.

The birds are very active at the feeders...The deer are thick in Jim's corn that he left in the field...the strong will survive.

But...you can never breathe air this fresh....Nor, see stars this bright.
There is beauty here...
But...
We are sick of it already!!!!

 

[whino-wino]

Crappie is another thing. We would eat them if we could find them! Tough to do that here.

Jack,


Not sure where you'd go in the winter as I've never fished Rainy through the ice, but if you want crappies in the spring/early summer head to Black Bay. I go up there every year and we catch more than we can keep, big ones too.


We went out last July and launched from Voyagers. There's a landing there right at Black Bay (since you live there I'm sure you know where this is). We basically went straight across from the landing and started working the shorline in about 10 feet of water with 3/8 oz jigs tipped with a fathead. Cought some nice slab crappies and a few very large perch.


I've noticed the same thing about people up here. Most will only eat Walleye. I guess I'm an oddball. My favorite beyond a doubt is sunfish, perch would be my second and Walleye a distant third. I can't stand Northern Pike. That's why I don't go spearing, looks like fun though.

 

[admiral]

Northern Winos, what beautiful prose to describe your environment. Itopens forus, here in the sunny South (Kentucky), whole new vistas. I can't imagine gearing up to go fishing in such an environment. -20 degrees! Yikes! I get reluctant to go out if the temps are in the 30's. Thanks for sharing your views of a part of the country that many of us have never experienced.

 

[gaudet]

Northern Winos, what beautiful prose to describe your environment. Itopens forus, here in the sunny South (Kentucky), whole new vistas. I can't imagine gearing up to go fishing in such an environment. -20 degrees! Yikes! I get reluctant to go out if the temps are in the 30's. Thanks for sharing your views of a part of the country that many of us have never experienced.

And way down here in the Deep South, we shudder to think of fishing in weather colder then 50 degrees. I was outside early this morning and its had to be about 55 degrees (winter in New Orleans). The wife commented that she wouldn't want to be out fishing today...... Maybe I should show her your pictures Northern

 

[admiral]

Northern Winos, what beautiful prose to describe your environment. Itopens forus, here in the sunny South (Kentucky), whole new vistas. I can't imagine gearing up to go fishing in such an environment. -20 degrees! Yikes! I get reluctant to go out if the temps are in the 30's. Thanks for sharing your views of a part of the country that many of us have never experienced.

And way down here in the Deep South, we shudder to think of fishing in weather colder then 50 degrees. I was outside early this morning and its had to be about 55 degrees (winter in New Orleans). The wife commented that she wouldn't want to be out fishing today...... Maybe I should show her your pictures Northern

I guess it is all a matter of what you get used to. Although, -20 degrees? How do you get used to that?

 

[rgecaprock]

Yes gaudet, a little dip in temps from 80 degrees this week. I was checking out my epiphyllums(jungle cactus)yesterday and they have new growth on them. And I spent some time potting up some new cuttings that I just received from California so it kind of feels like spring here. I don't know if we are going to have a winter.........so to speak.
Ramona

 

[Waldo]

You are because of where you were when !!!

 

[NorthernWinos]

Our cold weather seems to be stuck here....It didn't want to warm up today....
Was a mere -27°F this morning, a tad warmer than yesterdays -35° to start the day.
We hung out for awhile and then head to the lake when it got to -25°...had to make an appearance there and clear the ice from the hole before it got too thick...Had about 6" in the past 2 days since Jim had been there, he had to saw and then pushed the ice chunk under the ice...

The fish were very active....

Had 4 Northern Pike in the hole at once...only caught 2 in this shot..

The sunfish were just thick...

We stayed for a few hours and enjoyed the warmth of the shanty and watching the fishes...Didn't take any today they were all too small.

Sure was lonely out there...only 2 other pickups....Had warmed up to -19° when we got home...The wind was bad today....

Dropping fast now to -27° already...suppose to be the coldest night tonight.....Glad we did our road trip yesterday when there was no wind....

You folks in the NE...be prepared...this is nasty frigid weather...Warmer by Sunday with snow.

So it goes.

 

[kdcurl]

NW


Do you get those pics with a flash, or do you use a light?

Keith

 

[Jack on Rainy]

Great Picts NW!
It is easy to agree on the cold. -42 here both yesterday and today and it might do it again tomorrow. Causes me some distress in the cellar though as the remote thermometer on the lowest shelf with wine on it showed 46.2 yesterdayso I banked the door with snow last night and it came up to 48 today. Colder than I would like and than I have seen in the pastbut I didn't have a remote thermometer in that spot either so who knows.
Fire in the stoves tonight, Mary off to a meeting but with a cell phone and me here doing wine stuff on the computer. To quote you "life is good"!

 

[kdcurl]

Only -15 here right now, But it has been ugly these past few days with wind chill and all.

 

[OilnH2O]

Forgive me NW and kd.. but I'm almost a little embarrassed to admit that even though it's after 7 in the evening, it is STILL 41* outside -- kd, what's that, 5*C? Now I'm not complaining, but it is January in Montana, and I know it was warmer than that this afternoon, but I don't know HOW warm. But don't get me wrong: I'm appreciative!