Ellen and I went for a hike on the hardwater of Stoddard Bay on Saturday. The sun felt warm even though the thermometer said otherwise. We, okay, mostly She pulled our Frabill two-person sled and ice shanty out of Water’s Edge around 2 PM, joining maybe 150 other fishermen on the bay. The ice was mostly clear and slick - even in the parking lot. Before we left the truck, we had stretched Yaktrax ice creepers over our boots. With the Yaktrax, we lowered the danger of a head smacking fall.
Once on the ice, we stopped to visit with a guy set up on the first line of fishermen some 75 yards out from shore. The report was that it was slow. He had been out since 8 AM and said there was a perch run around 10 AM. He hooked maybe 10 fish - but reeled up only one keeper. Nothing since. That was not promising, but I had a plan to go way out to a spot where no one was fishing. We headed west.
We caught fish last year at the spot I wanted to try. As we approached that spot, we watched another guy move almost right where I planned to fish, so we went a bit farther north. I drilled a couple holes with my electric drill and Nils auger. While Ellen scooped out the ice, I set up my Fish Cam TV. I dropped the fish-shaped tv camera down one of the holes and slowly lowered it to near the bottom trying not to make the water cloudy and probably scare any fish. We could see a sandy bottom and some plants, but there were no fish - within viewing distance anyway. We tried the spot anyway, catching all the fish we had just seen on the camera.
When we stood up to move, the aforementioned guy on “my” spot was moving already too. As we walked south toward the “line” of fishermen and shacks and four-wheelers, Ellen asked, “Is that a bird or wait, is that a drone?” It was a silver drone hovering over the line and flying up and down the bay. We thought it was cool. Ellen speculated that someone could be delivering pizza with it. I wonder. Later, while we were trying another spot, the drone went by and Ellen said “I don’t see DNR on it anywhere.” Hmmm. . . an eye in the sky over fishermen. Anyway, we talked to the aforementioned guy later, and he said he’d been out all day with no luck and was about frozen through.
My toes got a bit cold too, but we enjoyed the sunshine and fresh air and the walk and the drone anyway. Back at the ranch, our erstwhile canine sentry welcomed us loudly. She wanted to watch football too I guess. There is nothing like coming in from the cold to a warm kitchen.
On Sunday morning, we saw a buck and two other deer feeding in the sunshine down the road from home while we were heading to town. Farther on, we saw maybe a dozen deer up on the hillsides making a living in picked corn fields. It is good to see some deer, but it makes me wonder what their daylight feeding portends weatherwise. By the time you read this, we’ll know I guess. For what it’s worth, I am pulling for a January thaw to give wildlife and our town road crews a break from all this danged ice. Speaking of pulling, I pulled a trail camera card when we got home, and while there were deer tracks here and there in the meadow, there were only three pictures of the same small deer on the camera - along with pictures triggered by the snowball sized snow flakes from earlier in the week and a bulging brown chore coat walking away from and approaching the camera.
Until next time, get out - Ellen and Scout just headed out on snowshoes; that is Ellen is on snowshoes and Scout is tagging along. El is wearing her new day pack I got her for Christmas that has room for one of our Nikon DSLR cameras at the ready. I look forward to her pictures. I took down the rest of our holiday decorations and went in to warm up my easy chair for watching football. How about them Packers?! I just may have to get a Mason Crosby jersey! Enjoy.
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