Fish, for real FISH

Noah had no school Friday so we packed up for a day on the lake...it was cold and windy but we set up the large tent with the double sunflower heater and was very comfortable. We fished all morning until 2 pm and although there were lots of fish on the flasher nothing was biting (again). I stopped to talk to a couple of other fishermen on the way off the lake, a real nice gentleman named Gary also pulled me out of a snowbank that I tried to smash through when I high centred the truck.

Can you imagine staring at a flasher that look like this all day and not being able to coax a bite?





















































It can make a fisherman go crazy, however I am not the only one. I have talked to a dozen fishermen that knows the lake and they are all having the same issue, very poor fishing. I am wondering if it has something to do with the serious floods we had here last spring. roads were (and some still are) washed out and the lake overflowed the damn and left many thousands of crappie laying everywhere. The fairways of the golf course were literally covered in fish...that is not to say there are no fish left in the lake, there are, however the quantity of fish to forage is dramatically changed and I am thinking they are having a very good winter and just not hungry.

On our way out Friday we stopped at the COOP gas bar where we buy the bulk of our fuel, one of the guys there mentioned that the perch had been biting really good on Pelican Lake which is very close to our hunt camp. Andrea and I decided a drive to Pelican would be in order Saturday morning. We were in Baldar where we would turn North to the camp when I realized I had likely forgot the battery pack for the auger. Now you can improvise a lot of things ice fishing but without holes in three feet of ice you are out of luck. We decided that if we could we would beg someone to drill us a couple of holes. We pulled onto the lake and could see a bright green auger close to an area where lots of people were fishing. A nice military gentleman from Shilo was kind enough to lend me his battery and I drilled out holes for us. Popping up the flip shelter we set up and I immediately missed a bite but caught a perch shortly after. Andrea proceeded to catch three in short order and I caught another. I then had a huge hit that cut me off immediately then minutes later the same thing happened to the gentleman that lent me his battery. His father in law switched to pike gear and caught one close to 30 inches. Andrea then hooked up into a nice pike and actually played it for three good runs on 3lb test tied to a 2lb mono leader, quite impressive I think before it cut her off. Shortly after that the wind changed, the clouds blew in and the bite died!!! You could just tell all the locals knew it was over as within minutes everyone packed up and left, we tried for another 30 minutes but no more bites. The end result was 5 perch landed, 4 hours of driving and three hours of fishing. BUT we caught fish and both broke the skunk on our new Abu Garcia ultralight rods (they work quite well when there are fish biting).

Highly excited I dropped Andrea off at work Monday morning, the weather forecast was for -18 with only 15 Kmh winds, should be a great day to catch fish right? Not so much, it started really well as I was on the ice just at daylight and the air was barely moving. I had to move around a bit to get on fish but I did (the flasher picture above is what it looked like when I found them) but they were not biting. I decided to drop a piece of minnow tail on a jog head on a dead stick (a rod sitting in a holder not being jigged) while I jigged a wide selection of different colours, tails and even hard baits trying to entice a strike. The wind kept blowing harder and harder until it was actually trying to blow my sled across the lake...great fun but I eventually seen the tip of my deadstick dip and quickly set the hook...

I landed my first crappie of the season  - a very nice 11" fish that fought more like a pike than a crappie, very fun. I fished through until 2 pm but that was the only bite I had. I stopped and talked to another local named Darryl  who is thought to be the most knowledgeable fisherman on the lake. He reported no fish either although he had only been there about 2 hours when I left. 

Anyway I have chores to do Wednesday and the weather is looking harsh until Saturday so I may not get out again but I only have seventeen days of fishing left before I become a one armed winter bound old man so I am pushing on the ice fishing...the surgeon mentioned the torn rotator cuff is only part of the problem, one of my bicep tendons is really messed up - he is going to try and fix it but odds are it will have to be cut...I am not growing old gracefully...