Yesterday I got all my honey doos done before noon and was heading back home with nothing special in mind.  I thought to myself…Why Not Go Fishing?…..a good thought for sure.  I called Brandon and asked him what was going on…he said nothing was going on….so I asked him about the thought I had and he said, Sure!  And so he started rattling the kids to see what interest there was with them…Makenzie was on the phone with a friend and had just made a plan to go over to her house to play…WOAH!!!  What a dilemma she had now!  She had just made plans to go to a friends house to play, and suddenly out of no where comes an invitation to go fishing!  Drama goes on!

As quickly as the drama began it ended with the decision made to go fishing!  Good choice!

We were all bundled up and on the ice by 2 p.m.  The forum guys had said the ice was a good 4 inches thick which made me not too nervous.  We used holes that other guys had drilled and were leaving the lake as we got there.  I figure holes is holes when it comes to ice fishing.  But I will drill holes if the holes don’t seem to be too productive.  Sometimes drilling a hole just a foot away from a non-productive one will work…it’s all about luck right?

Anyway, as we fished, I noticed the ice was only about 3 inches thick, which made me nervous, but just a bit.  The ice was not cracking around us.  But there was evidence of it dipping which allowed water to flow out of the many holes the others had drilled and as they fished their big body weight had made for a nice slushy puddle between the holes…..we were not as big as them and so the ice did not dip and I felt we were safer than they were.

Conner was the first to catch a very nice perch!  His first drop to the bottom and he had a fish.  I don’t know who caught the next one, but I think it was Brandon, who caught a nice trout.  Then Conner nails a very nice trout!  And then another!  What is going on here?

Makenzie then nails her first one…a smallish perch, but a trophy fish at any rate..her first ever fish from ice fishing!  She is hooked!

I have not had a bite yet.  HMMMM.  Neither has Cody….HMMMM.  We are fishing with the same bait.  Nearly the same lures.  We are holding our mouths right.  Still no bites.

As the minutes tick by it gets colder and colder and then the sun decides it is time to hide behind the mountain…and THEN IT GOT COLD!!!!!  BRRRRRR!

Suddenly, warmed by the sight of the tip of my pole slowly bowing toward the ice hole.  Then back up it comes and then back down with a sharper pop.  I grab the pole and jerk up…weight!  YES!  Fish on!!!!!!  A nice 14 inch trout comes to the surface and lays itself flat on the ice.  I unhook it and toss it back into the depths!

What?  Conner says I have to keep them!  Opps!  Next time, if there is a next time.

So, Cody is the only one without a bite so far.  I suspect he has been having bites, but does not know how the bite looks.  Ice fishing is much different than fishing during the summer when the fish grab the bait and head for deeper water in a hurry.  Ice fishing bites are like breath against a feather.  If the pole tip moves a quarter of an inch, you just had a GOOD bite.  Sometimes the fish will grab your bait as it swims past and gets hooked and goes crazy.  That does not happen often, but it does happen and that is usually when your pole tip goes into the water, the butt end of the pole goes straight up and the whole thing disappears below the surface of the ice…PLUNK!  But still, Cody has not had a bite.

Minutes have now turned into two hours.  I have caught another trout and so has Conner.  Brandon has also iced another trout and so the total is Seven trout and two perch on the ice….It is VERY COLD and we really need to be going.  But Cody is a die hard and wants to catch a fish.  I can’t blame him….but OHHHH it is SOOOO COLD!  My hands are without feeling.  My ears are falling off.  I did not come prepared to stay this long….did I say it was cold?

Cody’s mittens have gotten a bit wet on the ends and they are frozen to the point he can not get the reel handle to go past the end of the glove when he tries to reel his line in.  Suddenly he pole bends with the weight of a large fish.  He tries his best to reel the line but can’t….HELP GRANPA!  I grab the pole ahead of the reel and start to wind the reel handle.  Cody is yelling GET IT IN!  GET IT IN!  I’m trying and his little hand is still holding onto the butt end of the handle.  A few cranks later and the fish lets the bait go….it’s gone….it’s off.  Sad.

Oh well, that’s fishing!  With the rest very cold they choose to head back to the truck, but not Cody.  He wants to catch a fish.  Grandpa and Cody stay for more brutal punishment.  But not too long.  Maybe 10 minutes and now I can’t stand it any longer and I make him mad by forcing him to go home.

Back at the truck my fingers and ears tell me there is hope they will not fall off, because the blood starts to flow once the outer half begins to thaw.  You know how that feels.  Ouch!  Cry, cry, cry.  Makenzie says, “When I get home, I’m going to get in a hot bath”.  I say, “When I get home, I’m gonna get in the fridge”…….for a beer of course.

It was a fun couple of hours on the ice…..lesson learned….Don’t buy kids princess gloves and socks.  Buy them wool gloves and socks.  Buy them clothing that will keep them WARM when they get wet!  Layering is a very good thing and these three kids had 5 to 7 layers of clothes on their bodies.  It was the hands and feet that got the coldest!  Remember this for the next trip.  By the way, Christmas is coming….WOOL!  WOOL!  WOOL!

Thanks for going fishing with this old guy kids!

Bears Butt

Dec. 2011

With a current temperature of 9 degrees and a high expected to only be 20, I have to ask myself, why am I planning on going duck hunting?  The water is all frozen with at least 2 inches of ice.  There isn’t any open water except the Willard Bay.  Will there be any ducks that do not have their feet frozen into the ice?

AH!  There is hope!  I saw ducks two nights ago and thousands of swans and even though I do not have a swan permit, they are still fun to watch fly past.  I’ll have my camera and maybe!  Just maybe a mallard will come up to where we are hiding.

Bears Butt

Dec. 2011

We ended up leaving the house about 1 p.m., still very cold outside.  Drove down to the duck club and unloaded the gear.  We used the sled I usually use for ice fishing and loaded all the gear in it for the drag out to where I figured maybe there would be some birds.  It was capped with ice about 2 inches thick.  Wow!  I was not prepared for this.

I thought about putting us up in an old box and I began to bail the ice water out of it as Dry Dog set out the decoys.  I bailed for about 10 minutes and there was more water coming in the box than I was able to get out….bag that idea.

So we settled into sitting on our buckets in a stand of phragmites.  It was the coldest day of duck hunting for me so far this year.  Had to break out a couple of hand warmers that I won at Muskrats “unturkey shoot”,   Thanks Muskrat!

We waited in our blind until the season closed for the day…5 p.m….Well nearly, we were back at the truck, loaded and headed out at 5 p.m….cold and ready for a cold drink back at home.

Birds?  Oh ya, I almost forgot.

We had a flock of 7 geese come over and Dry Dog thought for sure we could drop a couple of them.  Six shots later and a whole lot of pellets hitting birds, but none fell…I reckon we did not have any golden beebees in our shells.  We hit them all six shots, but to no avail.

Then after much sitting here comes a lone duck, skimming the slew like a komokazy(sp) pilot right into Dry Dogs lap…Boom!  Too close a shot to do any good.  Boom!  Feathers flew out the back end!  Boom!  Down it comes!  Good Shot Dog!!!!!!!!

Much later, I’m telling Dog about the bearsbutt.com story of his hunt and the sequence of shots of his celebration and suddenly up he jumps and swings on a duck that has snuck in on us from behind…BOOM…down it goes…Good Shot Dog!

So for all of you keeping score….I shot three times at the geese and got zero birds.  Dry Dog shot a total of 7 shells and has two birds!  Not bad for a guy who has not been out hunting ducks since I took him last some two or three years ago.

Thanks for joining me Dog!

Another fine day, even though it was colder than heck, day in the field!

Bears Butt

Dec. 5, 2011

I’m thinking seriously about entering the Devils Creek ice fishing contest being held on Jan. 14th 2012.  How about you?

Bears Butt

Woops!  Too Late!