Hockey and Fishing

My little bro had an outstate hockey tourney this weekend and Britt and I decided to head out and watch him play a couple games, got some great photos of him playing. After watching them absolutely trounce Grand Forks early afternoon (with no help from the refs) we decided to head out to a local lake near the rink and fish for a while since they didnt play again until after dark. I am glad we headed out!

With no maps or info aboot the lake prior to setting foot on it, we decided to edge a group of guys who were out fishing. Started marking fish right away but most were smaller perch, with a few small gills mixed in. We drilled a little more and found some larger perch and crappies, but it seemed that all of our larger fish came from spots in this little area that had white ice from snow melt as opposed to the clear black ice that was almost all over the lake.

Britt had the hot hand on the perch today, almost everyone she caught would have made a nice fillet had we been keeping any fish. After getting whooped up on by her for the first hour we were out there, I finally was able to get her to tell me the color combo she was using. She had on a green/glow pink bug with a red plastic. When i tied that combo on, I was quickly able to catch up. I also had on a great fish right before we left that broke me off, several expletives were yelled when that line snapped. I guess next time I will remember to check my drag before I head out fishing...

New Years Weekend

Was up in the Crosby, Mn area for a long new years weekend. Got onto some great fish on Saturday, but when that cold front came pushing through it shut almost everything except for the bass and some small bluegills off. Got some awesome fish Saturday hopping around on a basin area, they were really on the move so we had to stay on top of them. We were rewarded with some nice gills and crappies though. Kept a few small fish for a fry and put the big girls back to be caught another day.

Sunday was an entirely different story. Cold and wind came roaring in and no one was too eager to get out on the ice right away. We made the decision to just watch tip-ups from the cabin and we had a lot of action right away, but missed quite a few fish, but we were able to land a few bass. Probably would have had a lot more action but we werent checking on the tip-ups too often. One of the tip-ups a northern had left his mark on a sucker and when it was reset, the bait was down in the weeds. On another, we had a jigging spoon with a small sucker and when we went out to pull it out near dark it was discovered that the bait had been stolen and the treble hooks were tangled on the line. And on the final tip-up, the flag had froze down with blowing snow and a bass had it for quite a while. He was very deeply hooked, so we kept him for a meal.

Monday was another blustery day, but we made the decision to head out and camp in the portables. Had to turn the heat down or off several times as that thermal fabric kept it really warm. Found some light biting bluegills and Britt broke off a nice bass. Made a short move to slightly deeper water over some mud and found a christmas tree of crappies on the flasher. I even managed to catch a shiner that we promptly put down as bait. Unfortunately, the most of these crappies that were schooled up were rather small. All in all a good weekend with great company, even if we weren't able to stay up till midnight on new years eve.