Actual Ice Fishing Update w/ Pics

On Saturday I was putting up walls at my house all day, but my dad and Steve Ryan and his buddy Doug were out at my lake ice fishing most of the day!! I knew with the warmer weather in the forecast all of this upcoming week that the safe ice was only gonna be around till Sunday, so I actually skipped church Sunday morning and went out ice fishing! That perhaps could be my only ice fishing trip of the entire winter????

Here are some pics from the weekend ice fishing:

Reports around the area said fishing was generally good on Saturday, but very inconsistent on Sunday.

The ice is not safe any longer, so dont even think about ice fishing this upcoming weekend. Speaking of this upcoming weekend, I will have a crane at my house on Saturday setting trusses. Anyone out there with nothing to do come on over and get some fresh air. Last weekend my brother in law's parents Barb and Tony came out and helped us set walls all day long. They were invaluable! I can't thank em enough for helping out!! (Their new 4 acre pond over by wildlife prairie park is gonna be extra awesome, I can tell you that for sure!).

Here are some pics from Saturday:





We were able to get all of the walls up and straightened on Saturday! It was a looong but very productive day! We figured out a way to set the exterior walls with the skid steer so that helped tremendously!! Justin has been going to town on the new skid steer. It is a 90 HP beast! This winter he has been pushing snow, planting trees, grading lots, and he has a couple big timber clearing and trail clearing jobs for hidey hole food plots with the new machine. Already have over 200 hrs in just a couple months which is awesome!

This week I have been finishing the remodel of a cabin at Oak Run and the rest of the week I will actually be setting trusses at a big new house we are also building at Oak Run. We custom design and build the coolest lake houses and cabins on the planet!

Just 9 more days and we are heading to New Orleans for a cruise to Cozumel! I should have been a travel agent because planning action packed trips on a dime is my forte. I found a 5 day cruise from New Orleans for $209 per person and with taxes, etc. it came to $247 each. My parents and all of my brothers and sisters and all of their kids (25 of us in all) decided to head down and cruise to Mexico! It is about a 12 hr drive to New Orleans and we are staying just a couple miles from the port. All food is included and let me just say that the Herman family will eat their moneys worth in 5 days on that ship.....

I found every fishing opportunity from New Orleans to Venice to Cozumel to Progresso and every patch of water in between, but the women said absolutely no fishing on this vacation....Is that possible to be that close to the Ocean and not go fishing??? Seriously, the full moon is gonna have the Wahoo's and Yellowfin Tuna feeding like crazy off the oil rigs the day before the cruise leaves! Amberjacks which are my favorite are piled up near Venice in February.... Spearfishing in Cozumel looks sweet, and the only Captain in Progresso who speaks english is available to go to the big shipwreck bottom fishing the day we are in that port. Then on the way back some backwater redfish fishing near New Orleans would have topped it off on the way home......I just dont know how I can be so close but with no cigar......