Grouse Hollow Journal for January 24, 2013

Grouse Hollow Journal for January 24, 2013 by Greg Koelker

El and Vince and I strapped on our Yak Trax ice creepers and dragged our ice fishing gear out on the bay at Stoddard on Saturday morning. It was sunny and warm, like upper 30's and on January 19! On the way out I scanned the layout of shacks and camps of ice loving anglers trying to get some sort of feel for where we should try first. We had seen a picture of a ice sled full of nice ring perch pulled up through the ice the weekend before allegedly in Stoddard Bay, and we had designs on duplicating that in some fashion or other. I finally said, “Let's try in between those two groups.” I told Vince that I had a strong hunch and he said that if his success at fishing depended on my hunches, well . . . Anyway, the place I picked only had three feet of water and lots of weeds, so we moved out farther. We no sooner got set up and Vince remarked that he was picking up lots of fish on his fish flasher, and then he pulled a decent ring perch up on the ice! We were in business! I put my fish camera down the middle of the three ice holes in front of Ellen. Rats! I and immediately stirred up the bottom by letting it get too deep. Eventually, I could see the area around our jigs and – there were NO fish anywhere to be seen. After not seeing or hooking any fish, I started moving from hole to hole to check out the territory. Here and there I spotted someone bringing up a small fish and even a decent perch once in awhile, but it was evident that nobody was slaying them. A couple young Amish men were on hockey skates and they were gliding about the bay checking out the fishing, while others were doing what I was doing, moving hole to hole. I dropped my orange Fiska into a big hole that I had just “toed out” with my boot. That is, as the temperature never got very cold the night before, there were plenty of holes with just skim ice over them. I felt a tug immediately. I missed the fish at least three times before I pulled up my first fish, a “cigar” AKA a four-inch ring perch. I was off the snide and let the little fighter back down the hole to get bigger. The sun was up, but the and with it came the wind. As the morning progressed, a stiff breeze started out of the south, making things uncomfortable. Vince coudn't leave his bucket without it taking off to the north. I put a heavy camera battery in it to anchor it. In the end, we decided that there would be better days. Vince donated his catch to a guy who had a couple perch in his pail and the three of us headed back in. I for one was cold but not as cold as the fishing.

Quick, hide your guns before somebody - sells them! According to the news, guns are going off the shelves faster than Beanie Babies or Cabbage Patch Kids on a Black Friday. The gun buying hysteria is in reaction to fear of what lawmakers are going to do. Aurora, Oak Creek, and Newtown are nightmares that are real. Something has to be done or at least we have to try to do something to prevent horrible crimes like these from happening in the future. If more gun laws will do that, so be it, but we have hundreds of gun laws on the books and these mass murders just keep on coming – in increasing numbers. There have been at least 62 mass shootings across the US since 1982. Almost half – 25 - have occurred since 2006, and seven of them took place in 2012. There were151 victims of mass shootings in 2012. The big questions have to be, why is this phenomena apparently on the increase and what or what combination of things can we do to make people safer? I heard an NPR analyst provide the following analogy last week: there are about 300 million guns in public hands in the US and there are about 300 million people. Think of the guns as 300 million drops of water in a swimming pool. Now think of the people as 300 million drops of water in that same swimming pool all mixed together. Our problem is figuring out which dozen or so of those 300 million drops are going to combine with the potential for mayhem. Ironically, one positive statistic that seems to need examining is that murders overall in the US are down almost half since 1980s in the US. Figure that out and who knows what the possibilities could be.

As for the gun buying rush, no one who matters is claiming that hunting rifles and shotguns are on any list to be banned, and I don't think they will be.

Until next time, get out – I got my spring turkey permit last week. On Saturday morning, Ellen and I saw half a dozen tom turkeys strutting and making woo over two hens. The warm weather must have fooled them. As I finish this it is -1 out, so they probably have cooled off by now. Oh yeah, I use a single shot for turkey hunting. Enjoy.