Wednesday Ice Fishing Bonanza

Below I have some really awesome ice fishing pictures.....Since the weather was calling for abnormally hot temperatures we started out fishing at 6:30 am....We all knew that once Mr. Sun came out we would be scurrying off the ice... Since we knew we wouldnt be fishing after lunch, we planned on doing what we do second best---EAT....


The pic above was taken after 5 hrs of ice fishing... we gobbled down marinated deer loin, elk burgers, yellow fin tuna steaks, skin on snapper, jalepeno brats, and some of the best deer salami on the planet.....Twas the perfect end to a great morning of ice fishing...so here is the rest of the story....

The day before I filled up my truck to the brim with every kind of ice fishing gizmo under the sun...


Wednesday we started the day with 4.75" of solid clear ice (so clear I could read the vexilar without drilling a hole). When we got off the water at noon we were down to about 3.5" of ice that was getting soft....

Typically when we get temps in the mid 40's ice fishing is not only very comfortable, but the fish are usually on fire as well.....Normally at this property we ice fish the 15 acre cemetary lake which is a bluegill factory. On Wednesday though, for whatever reason the fish just wouldnt bite at the cemetary lake? very odd.....

Its a good thing though that just 15' feet away is the 25 acre big lake....the fish over there were on fire from pretty much any hole you drilled anywhere in the lake....Seriously only 15' of a pourous rocky dirt road seperates these two lakes and yet on one side there were active fish across the whole lake and on the other side there werent any active fish anywhere in the lake????

So Jim and his buddy from the Quad Cities pretty much fished in the same holes all day long....





Archernut from Southern Illinois was determined to get some of the big gills from Cemetary lake to bite....Finally after a couple of hours he crossed the dam and started making his own pile:


Phillip and his crew set up shop and never moved either. He didnt use bait and claims he caught more fish than his buddies that way, but upon closer inspection his pile was indeed not the biggest......



Tom and his buddy fished with chef and by the end of the day they also had a very impressive pile of fish!!



I didnt get pics of Brett and Tom Brown or Sean and his buddy cause they were hopping around all over the lakes, also in this pic you get a glimpse of Tony and Lampe who slipped in for lunch..There really is something special about being outside in January, eating wild game, and listening to the past seasons hunting adventures...Throw in a morning of catching lots of bluegills and you have the makings of a day that wont soon be forgotten...



Once the cold weather and ice returns we will hopefully get the opportunity to set up a couple more special event combination cooking and fishing days like this one...We still need to get our quota of fish out of the cemetery lake this winter which will be another load up on MEAT day, and also Chef and I want to host a TROPHY ice fishing day at my 33 acre proving grounds lake where we will target 10"+ plus bluegills, 10 lb+ rainbow trout and stripers, 15 lb+ pike, musky, and catfish..... I have a fish taxidermist all lined up for clients this year for their trophy ice fishing catches at this lake...!!!