Pike Slime and Chicken Legs

Having moved into our new home has its obvious perks. We have ample space to house anyone that is willing to make the trek north to visit us and share the variety of outdoor activities. Michael Parker asked me last summer if he could get a group of his friends up here to chase some fish on the hard water. With little to no coercion of the Mrs, we had a weekend set and they were going to make the trek up a day early. Friday the 10th could not come soon enough. I spent the week prepping gear and food for the six college guys that would be joining us. Thursday evening I grilled a boatload of chicken legs for lunch on the ice. When the first load of guys arrived it was a little before 1am, with the second truck about a half hour behind them. To say we were all jacked for the day was an understatement. We blasted out and were on the ice a little after 8:15am. The bay that always has guys in it was almost void of guys, with only one diehard far up into the bay. We set up camp and starting dropping our mine-field of tip-ups.

It took far longer than I had hoped before we hooked into a pike, but Trent stuck the first one, and the best one of the day.

We spent the majority of the morning hopping from hole to hole and watching the tippers.

We rotated guys on the tippers, and even survived the dozen or so tippers that Keaton was unable to land a fish on over the course of a couple of hours.

It was fantastic when he finally did land one so we could all have a chance again!!!

Through the morning I kept my eye on the guy on the interior of the bay, and whatever he was doing was on the ticket as he was putting a lot of fish in the bucket and was throwing back a fair number of walleyes. I told the guys to not get too close as to push the guy out as he was here before we were. As the morning wore on I was not the only one keying in on this guy as another truck just about ran over our tip ups to get close to the action. I had my eye on him as well. When the first guy finally had his fill and packed up, I wasted no time honing in on his spot. I sat down in one of the last holes that I saw him land a fish in.


It took me all of 5 minutes to land a HOG of a perch!

The other guy was after the perch and landed ten or so waldos while I was sitting there trying to get the attention of the other guys in our group. Mr. Blue pickup packed up his gear and left as he was not catching perch. He was not even out of the bay and I had our guys pulling their pickup in his place. We reset a bunch of our tippers and drilled some more holes. It didn't take long and we were on the fish! Walleyes and perch with an occasional flag here and there. It was a splendid afternoon indeed!!!

As seems to be the case with this lake, I did not want to miss the evening bite. These guys were here to fish so we stayed until dark. We took a great group sunset photo before the evening bite was in full swing.

We ended up doubling our walleye count by the time we called it to head home.

Upon arriving home, cold beer and hot food welcomed us with open arms. Rachel had a later day at work, so dinner was later than expected, but that allowed us to get the fish cleaning done so we didn't have to do it after gorging on Rachel's legendary chicken noodle soup. Having borrow a giant stock pot from the bar in Willow Lake, every time someone opened the door, a giant waft of soup filled the garage. It was divine torture. When the last fish was cleaned, Rachel's head popped in the garage and told us it was good to go!!!
We did indeed gorge ourselves on the largest batch of chicken soup I have ever seen.

I figured the guys would party hardy the rest of the night, but it did not take long for he numbers to fade and we had day one under our belts.




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Slow bite January

Its has been a little more difficult to get out every waking moment but I suppose that is a good thing. We have however managed to catch some nice fish in the last couple of weeks. We have struggled to find quantity, and frankly it has been a tough bite but we still have found fish. An afternoon on Indian proved really slow but a couple of pike found their way onto the ice.

The walleyes have been difficult to catch, or even find for that matter. Once we found the waldos on Cottonwood it has been a cat and mouse game since. Weekend of the 14th Paul, Adam, and Cathie came up and we struggled to find much. I did manage to find a waldo, and while Adam was chasing his tail around I took one of his tippers and caught the largest perch I have ever seen. 14.5 inches and 2 pounds!!!

I eventually convinced Dad to come join us as he was coming up later to help with the dishwasher but we needed to get him out on the ice! Shortly after his arrival he was able to pull in one of the nicer pike we caught that day.

As seems to be the case on that lake, about 20 minutes before dark, the walleyes starting biting. In a little under an hour we managed 12 walleyes. None of them were very big, but they were eaters indeed!


We packed up and took some pics back home.

The next day Dad and I installed our new dishwasher and we did so without flooding the house or damaging anything horribly. We were granted a quick afternoon fish so back out to Cottonwood we headed. The fishing was slow, and we only managed to catch a few pike, none of which came on the tippers. Dad did help with another limit of walleyes though!




Monday the 16th was another one of government-workers-free-day and I took advantage and yet again, headed straight out to Cottonwood. I walked all the way out to the island to see if I could find a pike larger than the snot rockets we had been catching. I knew they were in the lake, but I was struggling to find anything of any size. Even out at the island I only found small fish. I could tell this was not going to be the day so I headed back towards the bay opening. I drilled some quick holes and set up for the last couple of hours of daylight. In less than 20 minutes I had my first walleye. As I was taking it to the cooler, my tipper went off and I had my first decent pike of the season at 32 inches!

I did not end up catching another pike the rest of the afternoon, but I made short order of my four walleye limit and stuck around to see if I could catch more. I ended my evening at 15 more walleyes, again none that big but a blast to catch anyway.


Hopefully I can find one of these illusive giants, but until then:




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Sleep Wars: Revenge of the Bib Farts

Day two of our iced excursion was set on Indian Springs. We headed straight for the point where I caught my giant pike last year, and there were perch in the deep. With the water clarity at an astounding crystal clear, I knew we were going to have our work cut out for us. I managed a medium pike on my rod, but that was it. Even with our minefield of tip-ups there was nothing happening. We went on a head-hunt for cloudy water, as that is where fish were being caught out here. We finally settled on the location that Adam and Paul found luck the week before. We managed two pike on tippers, but again, that was it.

We relocated to a point of cattails in hopes of finding some fish in the weeds. With 5ft of water right up to the weed edge, I thought we had found a jackpot. Instead, we didn't so much as move a fish. It was finally decided that setting up the warm tent, drinking, and enjoying the camaraderie would suite us much better for such a slow day. As we made our way back to the main bay I noticed a flag up near our first set. my Iowa flag tipper was left behind at the first place we stayed, and miraculously, there was a fish on it! After cleaning up that mess, we finally got to setting up our tent on the road in the bay and setting some lines. 5 tippers and each a line in the tent was plenty for our last hoorah for the day. The fishing was super slow, but we could see clear to the bottom in the clear water and it was like watching TV. It wasn't 30 minutes into our set up and Ethan starts carrying on about something. What I didn't realize was he had watched a huge pike come out of nowhere, stop at his bait, and proceed to suck it right in!!! Ethan was fishing with one of those ultra-light hand reel deals and I didn't know how this was going to go. We moved gear out of the way and I positioned myself near the hole. In the fracas, she had hooked Michael's line, came loose from Michael's line, and had swam around almost every hole in the hut. I knew she was big, but this was a stout fish indeed. Every run, Ethan feathered like a pro. When she came up for her final run, Ethan was careful to turn her into the hole without ripping out the hook, and I was able to grab ahold of her and the rest is history!!

At 36 inches and 11 pounds, this was our second best fish to come out of Indian Springs. In fact, when all was said and done, Ethan decided this fish was by far big enough to put on the wall!!!  This was about as good as it gets for fish through the ice on an ultra-light. We reveled in it's magnificence for the remainder of the afternoon without so much as a nibble and none of us really cared all that much.


As the snowstorm converged on us, we collected our gear and headed back to base camp for venison, steak, French fries, green beans, and whiskey.


Again, the evening was supposed to be the guys helping me hang slabs and antlers in the basement, but instead turned into unsuccessfully fighting off sleep. It was borderline painful trying to stay awake. We eventually called it an evening, and Nick and I pulled the plug on the idea of fishing in the morning as there were a few things I needed help with and they needed to get on the road at a decent time.


This trip was by far more enjoyable and productive than I could have wished for. Yes, it was exhausting, but in the most therapeutic way possible. I don't get to see these three stooges very often, but every time we can get together we have a great time. I highly doubt we will ever be able to replicate this adventure, but if it happens again, I am sure we will find a way to entertain ourselves.










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Sleep Wars: Wampas in Hoth Pants

Having planned this trip in July of last year, we were all in high anticipation of this year's New Year's Eve. Nick, Lisa, Ethan, and Michael carpooled and arrived late Friday evening. We proceeded to bounce around most of the remainder of the evening, planning the next day's adventure. Nick convinced me that getting up early was our best option and despite my exhaustion from moving we did our best. Our plan was Cottonwood for pike as we had done last year. When we arrived at the road, it was mostly blown shut, but the adrenaline got the best of us and we forged ahead. By the time we had gotten to the gate, we blasted through more drifts than I had cared to try to deal with, and we could go no further. We had to turn around. This of course, did not go well at all. We ended up getting VERY stuck in the first major drift. My expert driving techniques plowed us right off of the main path and into deep crusted snow.....Without Michael remembering the scoop shovel, we would have been super hosed.

Three drifts later and we were back on track. At the other access we came up others doing the same thing. One large SUV managed to get over the crust and on the lake without an issue, but the truck that followed did not meet the same fate. It was a rutted and truck buried mess. Nick and Ethan attempted to help dig the first truck out while Michael and I loaded up gear on the sled. It was going to take some serious truck to get this mess cleared and we were not it. We parted ways as three trucks tied together with ropes to pull the guy out.


We made it out to our spot and started the drilling and tip-up setting.

We set out a minefield of baits and were able to pull some pike out in short order, as we had done last year.

It was not as hot and heavy, but there were fish there. As Adam and Rick have taught me, keep moving until you find some fish. I drilled some satellite holes from our base camp location, and jigged for awhile in hopes of stumbling upon a perch. Instead, I caught keeper walleye!!!!

I went all of last year without catching a walleye, and my second fish of the season was an eater! Nick and I switched off manning the tent and jigging that hole before we decided to move the tent all together. This would be the best decision of the day.

Things were very slow until about 4:00 and it was just short of hand over fist from there.
I had originally told Rachel we would be home by 4:30-5ish and I had to plead my case with the wives to let us fish longer. We were given the green light thanks to Ethan Shetler's trump card: It was his birthday!!!!!!!!!!!!


From Michael, Poindexter, and myself: Thank you Ethan!!!


By the end of the evening, we caught a 4 man limit of walleyes and then some, a handful of MONSTER perch, and a couple of rod and reel pike.

Two of the perch we so big, that Ethan decided he was going to take them home for the taxidermist.

At 1.5 pounds and 1.7 pounds, and 13.25 and 13.75 respectively, they were two of the largest perch I have seen come through the ice.

We fished until dark before calling it an evening.

We collected our gear, giggling almost the whole way back to the car and back to the house.

With the ladies back home we were greeted to a house that smelled of freshly baked cake and frosting. For Ethan's birthday, Rachel and Lisa made giant marble cupcakes with homemade frosting topped with a Swedish fish. These women are saints.
Not only was there cupcakes, but Rachel finished off the evening with homemade  shrimp alfredo. It was a great meal to come home to from being out in the cold.

We did our best to stay awake for the new year to come, but most of us were in and out of consciousness for the remainder of the evening. Fighting off sleep seemed to be the hardest part of our entire day. Ethan was garbling about something, Michael would squeak every now and then, Nick would let off ripper snores, and apparently I at one point blurted out clear as day "GUSTEAU!!!"




This was a day to remember and a great way to finish off a troubled 2016. I can't wait to see what 2017 brings!




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Deliverance Motel No More

We finally closed on the house!!!!


Not only have we closed, but we moved into our new home and are still in the process of settling in. It is an amazing space that has its own set of new challenges, but it has been -15 degrees and the house is still above 60 degrees! This whole ordeal would not have been possible if it weren't for the following people:


Machelle- food; we would have dropped the ball and all been way too hungry to deal, for that I am grateful
Paul- facilitation of proper moving and providing the trailer to move our possessions
Adam - assisting with moving the big stuff and quit only when it was done
Cathy- finish packing the little stuff and hauling as much out as possible
Mom- manning the house between shift and working on getting the internet fixed, cooking the meal we would so desperately need to eat.
Dad- for moving more totes and boxes than I am sure you wished to have had to deal with in a lifetime.


For the time being Rachel and I continue to make this new space our own. Rachel has the reins for decorating the upstairs, and so far it has turned out amazing; I couldn't have done it better myself.

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Rachel's Cookie Maddness

Despite the fact that we were in the process of packing before closing on our new house, Rachel still managed to pull together a weekend (actually two weekends) of Christmas cookies. I did manage to contribute my usual dishes duty and dipped cookies. In the end the first batch came out to about 45 dozen cookies.

The second round ended up being an additional 14 dozen making it an un holy almost 60 dozen cookies for family and friends. We miss our friends and family back in Iowa, and this is by far the best thing we can contribute as a gift. Rachel's cookies get better every year and are work of art every time. It's amazing what 13 pounds of butter, 10 pounds of flour, and 12 pounds of sugar can make!!!

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