Grouse
Hollow Journal for February 12, 2015 by Greg Koelker
The
Scottish poet Robert Burns once wrote,
“The
best-laid schemes o' mice an' men
Gang
aft agley,
An'
lea'e us nought but grief an' pain,
For
promis'd joy!”
I
thought of this old classic line when my Sunday fishing expedition
was waylaid. Vince and I had been planning this for awhile. On
Saturday I bought a bucket of bait, borrowed a bucket of tip-ups, and
took most of my gear over to Vince's. The plan was to meet a friend
of his in Onalaska at 7 a.m. and drive up to the
Millston area to ice fish on a cranberry bog. As some of you know,
ice became the problem that morning and sent things awry before I
even started my truck. At 5:30 a.m. and when I looked at our patio,
it appeared to have had a Zamboni smooth it out, leaving a coating of
ice. A hand out the porch door proved that it was still raining and
a look at the local TV station warned of freezing rain and sleet with
an annoying pink map and flashing warning crawl. I had already made
coffee and a half-a-dozen trips up and down the basement steps piling
up my bait pail, boots and coveralls, drills and batteries, Vexillar
flasher, Fish Cam, coat, mittens, and hats on the kitchen floor.
After a couple of text messages and then a phone call or two, we
pulled the plug on the trip. As it turned out, half of the bait was
belly up because my aerator quit working in the night wasting most of
$8. Ellen came down stairs and we had coffee and I started carting
my junk all back down the steps, sans the already odiferous bait pail
that went outside on the ice, uh, the patio that is. Tonight for
dinner instead of a fish fry, I am grilling some venison wieners.
My
nephew Jared texted me about going ice fishing up north for a couple
days in a couple weeks. The plan is for the family gang to gather
in River Falls and follow the lead of nephew Cory to some ice with
hungry fish under it. A couple years ago, our group drove north to a
lake (that must remain unnamed or I won't get invited again) and we
brought back several buckets full of slabber crappies, blue gills,
and perch. I know six of us cleaned fish for almost two hours that
day. I am looking forward to it for sure.
Vince
told me that he asked uber fisherman, Guy Boardman where the fish
were last week and Guy replied that they just aren't biting. As
Vince said, if a Boardman can't find fish, we might as well do
something else. Anyway, the bite everywhere should improve as we
move past mid-February.
Until
next time, get out - This mostly grey world we have been stuck in
has proved perfect for baking cookies, reading by the fire, and with
the ending of the football season, catching up on some Netflix
series. I just finished the second season of “House of Cards”
with Kevin Spacey. It is intriguing, violent, and definitely a
mature rated look into a political fantasy world that I would
describe as the anti-West Wing. Speaking of fantasy worlds, Ellen
and I just started watching “Downton Abbey” together after being
offered the first two seasons on Dvd by our friend Rox. It's
beautiful to watch, funny, sad, and just plain entertaining with
multiple plots and absolutely ridiculous snobs - mostly the servants
by the way, expressing their opinions. Oh yeah, we have been
watching Badger Men's hoops too. Go Badgers! Enjoy.
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