Today we went fishing with the legendary Dave Genz , perhaps the best ice fisherman of all time. We also had the privelege of fishing with Tod Todd of midwestangling.com, a few other professional ice fisherman, and Chef Todd Kent.
We were fishing a private lake North of Rochelle, Illinois. Words cannot describe what an amazing day this was! The wind was blowing 30 mph, the temperature was about 14 degrees, everyone had little portable Dave Genz fishing shelters to fish in but us, the film crew had to cancel because of the bad weather, the fish were not biting very well due to the cold front and high pressure system, and did I mention that it was freeeezing cold outside? Anyhow, despite all that, it actually was an amazing experience that I will never forget!
For those of you who don't know, Dave Genz has already been inducted into Minnesota's Fishing Hall of Fame, and he will be inducted into the national fishing hall of fame shortly. He is in the upper half of the 50 greatest fisherman of all time, and perhaps one of the very best ice fisherman in the world! Dave has his own line of ice fishing apparel, fish houses, fishing poles, fishing jigs, and much more. He also has been ice fishing with just about every professional angler on TV!
The day started out about 9 am on the ice. We pulled up with our schoolie rods and 5 gallon bucket seats. They pulled up with their snowmobile rigs, portable fish houses, power ice augers, umpteen vexilars, St. Croix and Dave Genz rods, ice armor snowsuits, jigs with actual names, colored eurolarvae, and probably other stuff I can't think of at the moment. We got everything loaded up on Dave's snowmobile trailer and headed out onto the lake.
First thing we did was drill about a dozen holes per person and start checking them all out for fish and weeds. The bite started out pretty hot for Dave and his daughter Missy. They caught about a dozen real nice crappies right off the bat, and then the fish were tight lipped the entire rest of the day. We moved around quite a bit trying to find a school of fish willing to stick juicy maggots into their mouths. When we couldnt find many takers, we decided it was time for a little ice fishing 101 with practically the inventor of the vexilar.
We headed in for lunch about noon. The owner of the lake Chad had a nice warm shed near the lake, and him and Chef Todd cooked up a feast! We ate grilled lane snapper, cheddar deer burgers, homemade cole slaw, and iced cherry coffee cake dessert! Inside we had a good time taking pics, telling stories, and gorging on some of the best food imaginable!
After lunch, we didnt have much of a desire to move around and look for active fish, so we all just camped out over a small hump with a live weed bed and hung out! Of course Chef and I bombarded Dave with bajillions of questions, and he spent several hours just teaching us about ice fishing and telling fish stories. We even hashed out a few lake and fish management issues as well! As far as fisheries are concerned, he comes from a much different world than I do. The lake we were on today at 20 acres was teeny tiny to Dave, yet fairly large in my book. Managing public lakes that are 10,000 acres big with thousands of fisherman is much different than managing a private lake with only one or a handful of owners!
Anyhow, since the TV crew couldnt film and Dave's schedule had him checking into a comfort inn in Antioch later that night, he had the whole day free to just spend time hanging out with us. From 9am to 5pm, we got to hang out with an icefishing legend! Dave is an extremely nice and personable guy. It was also an honor to get to spend time with Tod and his buddies! When we werent bombarding Dave with questions, we were soaking up their information!
When it comes to fishing, we have learned to stack the deck completely in our favor! We stock lots of fish into private ponds, give them gated communities to live in, and train them to focus most all of their time and energy on eating. Dave, Tod, and their crew however, they actually know how to FISH!
On a day like today, average fisherman would walk home with absolutely nothing. These guys still managed to catch a few keepers for dinner.
We were fishing a private lake North of Rochelle, Illinois. Words cannot describe what an amazing day this was! The wind was blowing 30 mph, the temperature was about 14 degrees, everyone had little portable Dave Genz fishing shelters to fish in but us, the film crew had to cancel because of the bad weather, the fish were not biting very well due to the cold front and high pressure system, and did I mention that it was freeeezing cold outside? Anyhow, despite all that, it actually was an amazing experience that I will never forget!
For those of you who don't know, Dave Genz has already been inducted into Minnesota's Fishing Hall of Fame, and he will be inducted into the national fishing hall of fame shortly. He is in the upper half of the 50 greatest fisherman of all time, and perhaps one of the very best ice fisherman in the world! Dave has his own line of ice fishing apparel, fish houses, fishing poles, fishing jigs, and much more. He also has been ice fishing with just about every professional angler on TV!
The day started out about 9 am on the ice. We pulled up with our schoolie rods and 5 gallon bucket seats. They pulled up with their snowmobile rigs, portable fish houses, power ice augers, umpteen vexilars, St. Croix and Dave Genz rods, ice armor snowsuits, jigs with actual names, colored eurolarvae, and probably other stuff I can't think of at the moment. We got everything loaded up on Dave's snowmobile trailer and headed out onto the lake.
First thing we did was drill about a dozen holes per person and start checking them all out for fish and weeds. The bite started out pretty hot for Dave and his daughter Missy. They caught about a dozen real nice crappies right off the bat, and then the fish were tight lipped the entire rest of the day. We moved around quite a bit trying to find a school of fish willing to stick juicy maggots into their mouths. When we couldnt find many takers, we decided it was time for a little ice fishing 101 with practically the inventor of the vexilar.
We headed in for lunch about noon. The owner of the lake Chad had a nice warm shed near the lake, and him and Chef Todd cooked up a feast! We ate grilled lane snapper, cheddar deer burgers, homemade cole slaw, and iced cherry coffee cake dessert! Inside we had a good time taking pics, telling stories, and gorging on some of the best food imaginable!
After lunch, we didnt have much of a desire to move around and look for active fish, so we all just camped out over a small hump with a live weed bed and hung out! Of course Chef and I bombarded Dave with bajillions of questions, and he spent several hours just teaching us about ice fishing and telling fish stories. We even hashed out a few lake and fish management issues as well! As far as fisheries are concerned, he comes from a much different world than I do. The lake we were on today at 20 acres was teeny tiny to Dave, yet fairly large in my book. Managing public lakes that are 10,000 acres big with thousands of fisherman is much different than managing a private lake with only one or a handful of owners!
Anyhow, since the TV crew couldnt film and Dave's schedule had him checking into a comfort inn in Antioch later that night, he had the whole day free to just spend time hanging out with us. From 9am to 5pm, we got to hang out with an icefishing legend! Dave is an extremely nice and personable guy. It was also an honor to get to spend time with Tod and his buddies! When we werent bombarding Dave with questions, we were soaking up their information!
When it comes to fishing, we have learned to stack the deck completely in our favor! We stock lots of fish into private ponds, give them gated communities to live in, and train them to focus most all of their time and energy on eating. Dave, Tod, and their crew however, they actually know how to FISH!
On a day like today, average fisherman would walk home with absolutely nothing. These guys still managed to catch a few keepers for dinner.
What a great blog! That sounds like the fishing trip of a lifetime.
ReplyDeleteNIce blog and even all the post i have read so far mainly for Fishing Apparel were awesome..
ReplyDeleteKeep up the hard work1
very nice post, i certainly love this website, keep on it
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