12/19/11 Report!

Tonights story- Small Metro Crappies. And lots of em!

Got out on Some local water tonight. This trip was just a quick un scheduled trip. Mindy has a big exam this week so she needed to study, and Zoey was at grandmas. What else was I to do then run to the lake!
Set up in about 7 feet of water on a small flat that tapers off into deeper water that max's out at about 11 foot. Also within a few yards is pretty much the only rock pile in the lake that tops off at about 5 foot.

Small Crappies was tonight's game, I think the biggest came in at 10 1/4" and smallest was a whopping 4 inch monster that literally pulverized a 1/100th Oz hair jig tied up in my favorite combo Chartreuse Head and Brown hair.
I was able to get two fairly decent gills that were about 8 1/2 inches. Bonus fish for this lake. Those came in on the chart/ black Lindy Bug.

I also got to try out some new rods. I picked up a a pair of Thorne Brothers power Noodles as a Gift to myself for making it 100 days without a smoke.
Now I know what your all thinking, Why would he have them build rods for him when He builds rods. the answer is simple. Something different, nothing more than that. I have always been a fan of the power noodles and build almost all my own rods on the same blanks. These being the first two I actually had "them" build for me and I have to say the craftsmanship is what one should expect given the price tag.

A new section for this weeks blog and hopefully every week to come will be "Around the Shop". In around the shop this week, I am working on a Christmas present that my neighbor is giving his dad. This rod is neat because it is being built on one of the original Fenwick HMX blanks. These blanks are amazing and I cant wait to get it done for him!

First Ice report!

Well we finally have Ice I got out about a week ago on a fairly small lake in the southern portion of the state. On thursday Night the little one was sleeping and mom was making cookies so I ventured out to some local lakes to check thickness. I got out to the first lake and walked down to the shore and it was completely capped over, I looked at the northern shore line and saw a portable out, Great!

I got the hand auger out and started drilling, First hole 5 inches, Walked out another ten feet, Drilled, 5 inches, walked out, drilled, 5 inches.....This went on for about 100 Ft. After that it dropped to about 4 inches and stayed that way as far as I went.

Fast forward to Saturday Morning, I got up at sunrise, Packed up the house, And headed out. When I got to the lake I saw a portable and 2 guys making their way across the ice, as well as 1 pop up hut all the way across the lake at the other access. I still checked thickness every 10-15 feet on the way out leaving the shack and gear in the car till I had drilled out to where I wanted to fish. Once there I drilled a set of 10 holes and walked back to shore to get the house and gear.

Once set up I was in 5 foot of water with a lit up vexilar. First drop a ten inch crappie. Second drop a little smaller fish. On the third drop I shut off the vexilar and Started sight fishing, My Favorite way of fishing! This continued for about an hour and 27 fish. It was then that I heard people talking and a few augers running. I had noticed the Ice getting a little Wetter, When I looked around I noticed that I now had about a dozen people fishing around me, I looked down and with the augers running and people moving about on the gin clear Ice the fish had moved off to location unknown. I packed up and headed out.

Not a bad first trip, Just enough to scratch the Itch till we get some more Ice. Right now the temp is sitting right around freezing with a high Of 47 tomorrow.... After the last two day of rain Those of us in this portion of the state are gonna have to wait a little while yet before getting to crazy....
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