Grouse Hollow Journal for February 5,
2015
I was late for ice fishing on Saturday
morning. Vince called and said he was at the landing and heading out
on the ice. The weather was warm enough for the last day of January
and there was a hint of something moist in the air but only a slight
southerly breeze. I stopped in the Stoddard Landing shelter - the
headquarters of the 10th Annual Stoddard Jiggin' Jamboree
fisheree and dropped $20 on my entry fee and the last square on a
hundred-square board with my eyes on a prize. I visited with Rick
Anderson, Steve Davis, and the other guys doing all the work of
getting ready for a bunch of fishermen when they came in to warm up,
talk fishing, and for the lucky ones, register their fish at 1 PM.
They said it was the best year yet for registration for the fund
raiser. The guys attributed the attendance to the good weather. I
was getting my sled out of the truck when my better half pulled up.
She said that Vinny called the house and told her he forgot his
flasher, and she noticed that I forgot my Fish TV, so she drove the
fish camera down to the landing. Thanks, Darlin'. Anyway, Vinny was
waiting and I headed out on the bay, dragging my Frabill sled with
me.
There were singles, pairs, and parties
of fishermen close to shore and some way out on the bay and a whole
village to the north near Tully's Marina. The ice right in front of
the landing looked kinda sketchy with some broken ice and even water
on top of it in places. I walked south around that, stopping to chat
with some young guys who had been out for a while and had nothing to
show for it but a growing pile of aluminum cans. I picked out Vince
some 200 yards distant. He had a hole drilled and a line down. His
morning had started out shaky like it often does for me. He also
forgot his tip ups. He did remember the pail of bait though. I
checked the depth with my Vexilar Flasher, and we decided to try for
deeper water with fewer weeds. We headed north to a channel where I
thought we might find a blue gill or perch to put in a frying pan
later or even win a prize with (last year I won second place with a
smallmouth bass and Vince finished fourth with his blue gill).
As we walked north, this girl in a
bright yellow coat comes walking up all smiles. It was biology
teacher Peggy Miller, Vince's co-worker and my former co-worker at De
Soto High School. She and her husband Kevin were setting out a field
of tip-ups. Kevin had been drilling holes with his Jiffy LP fueled
ice auger. Kevin made us an offer we couldn't refuse, quickly
boring us a few holes in the 16-inch thick ice. We got set up with
my Fish TV down one hole and my Vexilar down another. I put on a
small jigging spoon with a red rosy minnow. Vince had on a jig and a
bigger minnow. On the camera we saw a nice bass swim up but not
bite. Later we saw a huge bass come in and turn camera shy;
otherwise, we didn't see any other fish on the monitor at all.
Jigging didn't seem to be the answer to the fish fry formula.
Meanwhile, Peggy and Kevin had a flag, that is one of their tip-up
flags sprang to life. For the uninitiated, a tip-up is a fishing rig
where one puts a few feet of line down a hole with a live shiner
attached to a treble hook. The line is attached to a reel that has a
trigger set with a small bright flag on a spring loaded pole. When a
fish strikes at the bait it often pulls the line with it and the foot
tall flag will spring up. Fisher people will yell “Flag or
Tip-up!” to alert the tip-up owner that he or she has a fish on -
maybe. The fishermen race, run, or in my case trundle over to the
flag to see if the reel is spinning. If it is and when it stops,
then they get really excited and wait! If the reel turns again (and
sometimes when it doesn't), up comes the tip-up and the fisherman
grabs the line and starts reeling like crazy, hopefully setting the
hook on a nice northern pike or bass. This day, in a span of 15
minutes or so, Peggy and Kevin had four flags, three with fish still
attached. Their second fish was a nearly 35-inch pike that Kevin
deftly put on the ice. This could be a winner we all agreed. Peggy
pulled up the next one, smaller but still fun.
Anyway, Vinny and I caught up, solved
the problems of the world - except how to catch enough panfish for
dinner or a winner, and headed in to see the second half of the
Iowa-Wisconsin basketball game and get a cheeseburger and fries at
the Thirsty Turtle.
On the snowy Sunday morning after a
breakfast of pancakes with sorghum molasses and grilled bacon, our
friend Marlene Gallup dropped over in a snow storm to surprise us
with a beautiful fleece blanket she made for us. It has hunting
pictures on it of dogs and deer and ducks and moose, very beautiful.
She said she saw the pattern and knew it was just for us. She said
she loves the winter and driving her four-wheel drive truck in the
snow. She had first tracks on her drive over the ridge to get here.
Mountain man Mark called from Colorado
while Marlene was here. He has just touched down back in the USA
after a fantastic snowboarding trip to Japan last week and a couple
days at a snowboarding and ski trade show in Denver where he helped
represent Weston Snow Boards, his sponsor. Mark said that the trip
and snowboarding in Japan weren't really all that expensive. He and
his buddies stayed in a small hotel - they were the only guests when
they arrived, and the family that runs the place was great, even
driving them places. The food - mostly many varieties of fish - was
amazing. He sounded pumped but pretty tired. I know he and Whitney,
his better half, haven't seen each other much in the last month, as
she had been in Panama for a week before he left for Japan, so I
think he was a bit homesick too. It was good to hear from him.
Until next time, get out - our bird
feeders are the most popular place
in town for eating out or so it seems. We have dozens of chickadees,
sparrows, nuthatches, woodpeckers, blue jays, and over 20 pairs of
cardinals regularly now. We also have a squirrel and a hawk or two.
I got a picture of the sharp-shinned hawk on Sunday after it cleared
the deck of diners - and went hungry itself - and then took a moment
to collect itself on a pine limb just outside the kitchen window.
The woodpeckers are cleaning up a suet block almost daily and the
feeders need to be filled almost as much. Ellen just told me
she is headed out to try her snowshoes on the six inches of fresh
snow we had so far today. I went out in the snow this morning to
take care of Scout and Gypsy and get the paper, but Ellen (she also
loves to shovel snow) shoveled the patio, sidewalk, kennel, and in
front of the garage, so now I am going to get the beast started in a
bit and move some more of it off the driveways and paths around the
farm. Like Marlene and our kids, Ellen loves the snow, me not so
much. Enjoy.
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