So, today about 10 a.m. I moved on down to Weasels and picked him up.  Off to Mantua we went.  The morning was brisk and somewhat sunny and warm for a day on the ice.  Very little if any wind.  And that combination always makes for a wonderful day on the hard deck.

We drilled a few holes and tried our luck, but nothing seemed to be working where we were.  So we moved into a shallower area closer to shore.

Now when you are talking about Mantua, the word shallow is relative, because Mantua is only about 10 feet deep over all and so shallow could be 2 feet or 7 feet…you decide.  I think I found a place that was close to 15 feet deep once, but over all I’d have to say the lake is 10 feet deep.

In our shallow area we could see our flashers just under the ice cap, but the beauty of it…I had a bite!  The first of the day!  YAAA!  I missed the fish but then I had forgotten just how shallow I was and when I jerked…well I almost hooked myself!  The one thing you learn about ice fishing is this:  The bite might be very light, but in order to set that hook into the fishes mouth, you have to jerk pretty hard and the deeper the line is, the harder you have to pull up.

So, it’s totally understandable for me to jerk the line up and out of the water when I saw the bite.  After all, it was my first bite of the 2013-2014 ice fishing season!

OK!  Weasel decided after a long wait that we needed to move out t0 a little deeper water.  I was all for that.  Another thing I have learned over the years of ice fishing, if you aren’t getting bites where you are…move!

So, we moved out about maybe 50 yards and after drilling our holes, we found the depth to be about twice what it was in closer to shore….not a bad thing to find out.  We also planted ourselves very close to a spring!  How do I know it was a spring?

Weasel drilled his hole on the East side of the spring and I drilled mine on the West.

I was using waxworms we picked up at the Perry Maverick….$2.60 for 12!  A bit pricey, but they are bait and you have to pay for bait!….Weasel was working shrimp.

On my first drop, and 1 1/2 cranks up…bam!!! …a bite!  I pulled up and re baited and dropped it back down.  No more than it hit the bottom and I felt a slight tug on the line.  I tightened the line a bit and pulled up (not so hard this time) and it was FISH ON!!!!!

It wasn’t the perch, bluegill or crappie I was hoping for, but for the quarter I was going to get from Weasel it was ALLLL WORTH IT!  I even tried to help Weasel out by putting that bad boy down his hole!  A dad will do most anything for his son!

With a fresh quarter in my pocket, I danced my way back over to my hole and re baited up.  The fishing was slow, but still just being out was wonderful.  And my coughing for the last week…GONE!  I didn’t cough but one time the whole time we were out fishing!

We had been in this “spring spot” for about an hour when a guy came along and started flying an electric remote control airplane.  I took a video, but it didn’t turn out very good.  The plane was cool an the guy eventually came out and talked to us about his doings.  We told him we didn’t mind him buzzing our heads and trying to get away with our fishing rods by catching the lines on the planes wings or the other antics he was pulling.  I just made all that up….it was fun to watch him do his thing around us.  He was a nice guy, just not a fisherman.

While he was doing his thing a fish decided it would do its thing with my lure and what do our wondering eyes did appear?  Fish and Quarter number TWO!

Another nice fat rainbow!  That one went down Weasels Ice Hole as well…I’m just trying to be a nice dad!

I told Weasel as I danced back toward my hole that trout usually swim in schools and to get ready for a hit on his line.  Re-baiting, I dropped the line down and pulled it up the 1.5 revolutions and BLAM!  Another fish on!

Trout!

As it flipped and slithered on the cold hard deck, Weasel calmly came over and offered up this third (in a series) quarter, which I politely accepted, and did a jiggity jig two step hop as I dropped it in my pocket on top of two others I so rightfully earned!

This time I put the fish back into the lake via my own ice hole.  I have to teach my son that trying to make something happen in his own ice hole can only go so far and in the back of my mind I was thinking that with three quarter of his in my pocket, a fourth would be a very welcome thing.  It’s always easier to remember “I took 4 quarters that day”….than it is to remember “I got you for seventy five cents that day”…don’t you think?

As time was clicking by at an alarming rate.  (Weasel had to be back at home by 2:30…a time with no extension allowed)!  We were both watching our phone clocks in earnest.  As a polite gentleman as I am, and a very good role model for my son(s), I told Weasel we could go home at any time.  AND I politely reminded him that if we continued to stay and fish I just might catch another one and he would end up giving me a fourth quarter.  He grinned!

My line pulled and then pulled again and it was once more…FISH ON!

Quarter four in my pocket and fish number four back into the lake.  I offered once more the word that we should probably be going home.  He glanced at his phone/watch and said nothing.  I re-baited and dropped it in………………………

BAM!  FISH ON!  Quarter five!  I’m really on a roll now baby!

So, with time running critically low, my dad instinct takes over and I offer him my “hole/pole and I’ll bait it and drop it in for you” rutine…he took it!

I moved to his hole and had to re-rig his bait etc.  By the time I got it in the water he called “TIME”….and home we came!

Jingle, Jingle, Jingle!  I got him for five quarters!  It will take him the rest of the year to get them back!

Good day of fishing Weasel!  Thanks and I sure with your brother would join us…I’dahadtenquarters!  Just sayin!

Bears Butt

December 28, 2013