02-18-2014, 08:42 PM
[#0000FF]Encouraged by the pics and report of open water off the north marina at Willard I set up my tube, got my mussel certificate online and headed out. 33 degrees air temp and 35 degrees water temp at 7 am. TDC on both counts. But I was committed...or should be.
Glassy calm at launch and for an hour or so afterward. The edges of the ice were between 150 and 200 yards out from the marina entrance. But there was a stack of ice on the south point of the marina entrance...indicating that the ice is moving with the breezes. Got a good demo of that later.
Looks like the water level has come up about a foot in the last couple of weeks. Maybe more. Hoping for a lot more...soon. Willard needs it and so do the fish...and fishermen.
Started out dragging a minnow on one rod and fishing a mix of plastics and "baitbug" jigs on a lighter rod...tipped with worms. My sonar was miffed at the cold and didn't want to show me any fish. Only let me see a very few all morning. But I saw more on "TV" than on the end of my line.
I kept changing around...minnows, crawlers, Gulp goodies, etc. Also kept switching lures and bait rigs. Might as well have been fishing in my bathtub. Well, maybe not. Hooks hurt. I had two tentative pop and drops on minnows and a couple of light inquiries on the jigs. Inexperienced or bashful fish. Just couldn't get themselves hooked. That was it.
Even in the 35 degree water I was fairly comfy. All except for my toes. I only wore two pairs of socks today...instead of my usual 3 pairs for super cold. And it was super cold. So my tootsies started complaining. Had to kick in to shore about 9 to get out on the bank and do the "tubers' stomp" to warm up my frigid digits. It worked.
I had thought that maybe this might be one of those days...like we had while ice fishing...when the fish did not get active until about midday. So I planned to tough it out until noonish to see if something might want to play at lunchtime.
Unfortunately, Mama Nature decided SHE wanted to play. She abruptly kicked up a stout north breeze...with some cold in it. And that started some large sheets of rotten ice moving toward me. I could tell the ice was moving by watching an eagle that was watching me from his place on the ice. He was moving south pretty fast.
I've played this game with Mama before...where she waits until I am well out away from a harbor entrance...and then pushes ice in behind me to block my escape route. She has almost won a couple of times, but I am getting smarter in my old age. So I brought in my lines, fired up my electric motor and headed for the marina.
I did have to bounce off a few pieces of ice and had to work in and out a channel between a couple of other pieces. Had a brief flash about ending up like Mike4Cobra when he tried to make his boat an ice breaker a couple of years ago. But...taaa daaa...I made it. On the road home by 10:30.
Had a short day and no fish to show for it. But it was good to get out in the tube again. Plus, I got my annual first-trip-to-Willard-skunk out of the way. Now I can fish some of the other waters, catch some fish and let Willard do without me until about May. Also, the time at the fillet board was mercifully short today. Count my blessings.
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Glassy calm at launch and for an hour or so afterward. The edges of the ice were between 150 and 200 yards out from the marina entrance. But there was a stack of ice on the south point of the marina entrance...indicating that the ice is moving with the breezes. Got a good demo of that later.
Looks like the water level has come up about a foot in the last couple of weeks. Maybe more. Hoping for a lot more...soon. Willard needs it and so do the fish...and fishermen.
Started out dragging a minnow on one rod and fishing a mix of plastics and "baitbug" jigs on a lighter rod...tipped with worms. My sonar was miffed at the cold and didn't want to show me any fish. Only let me see a very few all morning. But I saw more on "TV" than on the end of my line.
I kept changing around...minnows, crawlers, Gulp goodies, etc. Also kept switching lures and bait rigs. Might as well have been fishing in my bathtub. Well, maybe not. Hooks hurt. I had two tentative pop and drops on minnows and a couple of light inquiries on the jigs. Inexperienced or bashful fish. Just couldn't get themselves hooked. That was it.
Even in the 35 degree water I was fairly comfy. All except for my toes. I only wore two pairs of socks today...instead of my usual 3 pairs for super cold. And it was super cold. So my tootsies started complaining. Had to kick in to shore about 9 to get out on the bank and do the "tubers' stomp" to warm up my frigid digits. It worked.
I had thought that maybe this might be one of those days...like we had while ice fishing...when the fish did not get active until about midday. So I planned to tough it out until noonish to see if something might want to play at lunchtime.
Unfortunately, Mama Nature decided SHE wanted to play. She abruptly kicked up a stout north breeze...with some cold in it. And that started some large sheets of rotten ice moving toward me. I could tell the ice was moving by watching an eagle that was watching me from his place on the ice. He was moving south pretty fast.
I've played this game with Mama before...where she waits until I am well out away from a harbor entrance...and then pushes ice in behind me to block my escape route. She has almost won a couple of times, but I am getting smarter in my old age. So I brought in my lines, fired up my electric motor and headed for the marina.
I did have to bounce off a few pieces of ice and had to work in and out a channel between a couple of other pieces. Had a brief flash about ending up like Mike4Cobra when he tried to make his boat an ice breaker a couple of years ago. But...taaa daaa...I made it. On the road home by 10:30.
Had a short day and no fish to show for it. But it was good to get out in the tube again. Plus, I got my annual first-trip-to-Willard-skunk out of the way. Now I can fish some of the other waters, catch some fish and let Willard do without me until about May. Also, the time at the fillet board was mercifully short today. Count my blessings.
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