In the earliest hours this morning, not long after the bartenders told their soggy patrons, "You don't have to go home, but you have to get up out of here!" my alarm went off. A small army of friends and relatives was planning on coming fishing shortly after sun up and I decided that I wanted to have a nice pile of crappies on the ice and some tip-ups set before they got there. Not wanting to wake the wife at 3 AM, I slept on the couch. This move unwittingly made me the first line of defense when my daughter woke with a sore throat and my youngest began screaming for his mommy, both at about midnight. I was glad to be able to field these late night issues and let Michelle sleep, but I knew that my short night just got shorter and it was going to take its toll.
I was glad when my fitful sleep on a too short couch was ended. All of my gear was lined up and ready to go, so it didn't take long for me to hit the road. I fell into a bit of a sleepy euphoria on the ride up to the lake. I had the heat on way too high, but it seemed to suit the mood. The rock station that I had been listening to the last time that I drove, however, was carving on the back of my skull. Country went with the mood. Kellie Pickler was asking me didn't I know how much she loved me. Frankly, I had no idea, but it was nice to hear. The last 4 or 5 miles after the exit are back roads, so I shook off the stupor and kept an eye out for deer and black ice. What had been an occasional snowflake in the headlights when the ride started out had turned into steady flurries. I hadn't noticed snow in the forecast, but I'd take it over a brisk wind.
I pictured having that "only person on earth" feeling, walking out on the ice at shortly after 4 AM. Surprisingly, 3 or 4 homes on the lake already had their lights burning bright. A couple of backyard dogs spotted my headlamp and went into a hysteria. In my head, I apologized to the sleeping neighbors. After hauling my gear and dropping the tip-ups, trudging through over a foot of snow the whole way, I had a pretty good sweat going. I knew that this would turn into a chill later, but I'm not sure how else I could have played it. I would just have to deal with it.
I found the crappies in 40 feet of water. There was a huge school that covered most of the bottom half of the water column, and an occasional fish showing up just 10 feet under the ice. I haven't done a ton of concentrated crappie fishing, but my limited experience has been that if you drop a minnow just above them, they slide up to it and eat it without hesitation. This school hadn't read the same manual that I read. They couldn't care less about the minnows that I was putting right in front of their snooty noses. The only reaction that I could get out of those fish was fleeing the minnow in a panic. I didn't have anything else to do, so I continued to toy with them. Just as it was getting light, I finally talked just 2 into grabbing on. They were about the same size, decent but not huge. So much for trying to act like a big shot. A pile of 2 wasn't going to get very many "attaboys."
A friend from work, Chris, was the first to show up. He came out just after 7:00. He fished with me in the deep water for awhile and managed to hook a couple of small gills. Just as we were heading back to my normal spot, our first flag popped. It was the 40-incher hole that I marked with a dead branch. I had a good feeling about this one and saw that it was running as we approached. It continued to take out line as I picked up the tip-up and gave the line a sharp yank. Nothing there. I'm guessing I pulled the hook right out of the fish's mouth, but I never even felt the slightest bit of weight on the line. Frustrating, but still good to get a flag this early.
Josh and Elijah showed up next and the other guys followed fast on their heels. I lost count of exactly how many guys we had out there, but it must have been close to 15. We had a good half ton of Elyea on that ice, plus friends and in-laws. It would have been good to have Jeff and Mike with us, but maybe we can catch them on a summer excursion.
Because of some recent catches, we were pretty sure that the perch were going to pile up. Didn't happen. Most of the perch that we caught were pencils and we never really found a school. Whatever the phenomenon was that I experienced last week, it seemed to mark the peak of the ice season. Something about today just felt like the beginning of the end of this winter's fishing season. Even though the perch weren't doing much, Jared's brother-in-law, Tim, did find some hungry crappies and a few decent bluegills. I have to admit that the chase for the panfish is probably where my short night took the toll that I talked about earlier. I just didn't have the energy to keep moving through that deep snow and drilling hole after hole. I was content to stay in the first hole that I drilled and if I got into them, then great. If not, don't care.
Something else that probably helped diminish my concern for pannies was the fact that we got flags relatively steady all day. We decided that most of them were bass. We had a lot of pop and drops. We pulled in a number of empty hooks or dazed minnows. They looked like Linsay . . . wait, I already used that one. We did manage to land a couple of nice bass that pushed 20 inches. My Uncle Tim caught a really healthy looking 29-inch pike. He'll tell you it was over 30. Just agree with him. We landed a few more smaller bass.
The party broke up around 2:00. There was some disappointment at not hammering the perch. Josh bought a fillet knife for the occasion and now he has to dig through the trash for the receipt. My only complaint is the excruciating charlie horses that I'm getting in both legs from high stepping through snow all day. I've had to walk them off a few times just in the last hour. Despite the bite not being as hot as it has been and my hamstrings getting tied in knots, I really enjoyed today. What a great bunch of guys! I look forward to getting out with them again. In the mean time, I think my next fishing trip is going to be back to the muskie lake. I have a goal of catching one on the ice before they go out of season. Getting a little nervous about following through with that one.
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