Sunrise...

Oh, I think I forgot to mention that you get to watch sunrises like this....

They Just Keep on Comin'

At times it can seem almost unfair, at least when you find yourself right smack dab in the middle of days like this. Brandon won the biggest northern prize of the day with that brute up top. And Matt, who had lost a nice one earlier in the morning on account of, um, well, let's just call it "an equipment malfunction", landed his first tip up northern this year...

I had hooked into the first fish of the day with this handsome fella.

I was just about to knock off for the day just a little earlier than everyone else, so I made my rounds one last time and checked my tip ups, just to make sure everything was still all good. Not two minutes after I had reset my second tip up, and literally right under my feet,( as we were standing right over the hole), I had a flag up, and I had hooked up with a right stubborn monster. A minute into the fight, and it finally showed itself at the hole, a muskie! At that point, my hands were already trembling, half cold, half full of adrenaline, and then seeing what was on the other end, that only made it worse. Now my tip up was rigged downright ghetto, with some old 20 lb. braided line and a small pimple with a smaller stinger, no leader, no nice thick vinyl tip up line. That fish came up a couple of times, dipped back out of sight and finally, just parked his head right up under the edge of the hole and wouldn't budge, and then he made a break for it ripping line from the spool at an alarming rate. All I could really do was hope that my line didn't get hung up on the underside of the hole, try to keep it tight, and tire 'em out. And, thankfully, in the end, that is exactly how it all played out. Brandon braved the frigid water and scooped 'em up, bare hands and all, and that right there, is the very first muskie that any of the three of us had ever seen come through the ice.

Fish Stories....

Ask anyone who as ever fished a day in their life, and they will surely tell you, there is always at least one story about the one that got away. On open water in the spring, summer and fall, most of the time those stories will revolve around pure speculation as to what kind of fish it was and how big it truly was... But when you find yourself sitting in a dark ice house, watching the fish swimming five feet below you, you get a chance to see some truly spectacular things. You get a front row seat to watch finicky crappies, spittin' out minnows a thousand times and not get hooked, or watch as they fly out of the weeds looking for an quick snack, and you get to witness the monster northern and muskies, come lumbering through, if only to check out your minnow, and watch helplessly as they disappear, just as quickly as they appeared in the first place. You get to see just how big and powerful they are, and you know, as soon as they vanish, that they are still there, hanging around, just out of sight, waiting for that perfect moment to come back and eat...
That feeling alone is enough to make your heart race, to keep you out on the ice another two hours. Sometimes, it is almost better than actually catching the fish. That excitement of the unknown, the thrill of the chase. But that excitement has two very definite, very different faces. It can also be terribly bittersweet, as we all know all too well.
We have all been there at one time or another, and this season for me is no different. The very first time we set foot on the ice this season, we had line stripped from a reel at a blistering rate, only to be snapped on the jagged ice on the bottom of the hole. We have watched as tip ups zipped around and around, and fought bravely, if only for a split second, and wind up empty handed in the end. We have seen the mouths of monsters fill up the holes in the ice, but could only helplessly watch on as our hooks were seemingly spit out of those great jaws.
Having seen just how big those fish really are, watching them from above, and seeing that they are really there, makes it that much more painful, that much more personal. If you have ever read Moby Dick, you must recognize that this is the exact kind of motivation that fueled Ahab, that motivation that drove him to incessantly pursue that white whale, and that motivation that ultimately drove him over the edge.

More Monsters...

One week later, and another Saturday morning of fishing before work. I cannot thank my wife enough for affording me the opportunity to get some time in to get out and chase some fish with some good buds...

This one here is a 39" northern caught on a tip up rigged with a large pimple coupled with a stinger hook and topped off with a big ol' sucker minnow. The tip ups have quickly become a massive and integral part of our arsenal out on the lake. In military terms you would call those a "force multiplier". Oh, wait a sec, quick Google search... here it is right here... "Force Multiplier Definition noun any activity or equipment which increases the combat effectiveness of a military grouping without actually increasing its firepower (such as engineer support, electronic warfare, deception, and surprise)"

Suckers, in my humble opinion, can catch anything, from the big nasty cats in the river to these sleek, monster northerns in the lake, suckers are the deal for real.

The Ice is Here...

I'll have to skip a few months of the whole catching up deal, and fast forward to more current events. The ice is here again, and with it comes some beautiful fish, some freezing cold hands, and some absolutely majestic sunrises. My first trip out to one of the many metro lakes here was perfect, a Saturday morning out on the lake before work
and I could not have asked for anything more than this....

35" northern on four pound test and a tiny Swedish pimple tipped with a crappie minnow...rod and reel style! I honestly thought this beast was gonna run my spool out under the ice. And this is just the beginning...