Friday Fishin'

Something about a winter storm takes me vividly back to my school days? Staying up late, neglecting homework, and just praying real hard that the weatherman gets this one right! I would always wake up abnormally early and head straight for the window hoping beyond hope to find the ground covered with at least a few inches of snow. More times than not, I would be pretty disappointed to see the grass sticking out of about an inch of snow, but I can tell you this: There is no better feeling in the world that even remotely compared to seeing your schools name flash across that tv screen on the morning after a snowstorm!

Nowadays, snowstorms only mean TONS of extra work and are quite inconvenient, but for some reason I can't help but get excited when I hear 3 to 5 inches expected! I still tend to stay up way too late and neglect my normal responsibilities on winter storm eve, hoping to wake up in the morning and be snowed in. Pretty much making me worthless the next day, regardless if the storm comes or not.

Such was the case today. Heavy icing was expected last night, and my dad and I were already making icefishing plans for today, yesterday afternoon! (when the roads are bad, you can't make it to work, but you can always make it to the lake!) We got the ice, but not bad enough to keep both of us from making it in to the office. The weather didn't cooperate enough for us, so in order to salvage our fishing plans we had to fall back to plan B. Plan B was used numerous times this year on Fridays. It is to work real hard at the office in the morning, get tons of work done and then slip out unnoticed sometime after lunch and head straight for the lake. (today due to the combination of the night before anticipation, the icy roads, and the fact it was Friday; we procrastinated at the office just long enough to justify a days work and headed for the pond) If anyone is still reading this fishing report after being ran around a collaberation of random thoughts that probably doesnt make any sense to anyone but me, well i can't really think of anything to fill in the blank there cause its getting late and hopefully you get the point? so anyhow here are a few pics and a fishing report from Friday, Dec 19.

Air Temp 34 degrees
Water Temp 37 degrees
10-15 mph NW winds
Mostly Cloudy
3 acre pond
11 feet deep
4.5 inches of Ice
2.5 hours of fishing
105 bluegill
6 crappie
2 walleye
1 largemouth bass

Fish were suspended throughout the water column. Most fish were caught 7 feet down, but occasionally they would come up as close as 2 feet below the ice. Walleye were caught on goldfish fishing with flex bite tip ups. Crappie were caught on fathead minnows, suspended at 5 feet below the ice. Largemouth hit a Northland forage fry tipped and dipped in Berkeley Gulp Alive. Bluegill were biting fairly light on a variety of small jigs tipped with wax worms or pieces of Gulp.

Here are some pics of our catch today!