First weekend on the ice

Well, I finally got out on the ice.

I spent two days at my parent's cabin in northern Wisconsin last weekend and had a pretty successful outing.

We jigged one day and caught quite a few pan fish, but they were mostly tiny. The other fisherman said they had better success a day earlier and proved it with a tasty fish lunch. Nate, a family friend, landed a nice northern on a tip-up, but the other northerns we brought in were in the "snake" category.

The first night was culminated with a trip to Golden Eagle Pizza, easily my favorite pizza joint of all time. My sausage, mushroom and onion pizza did not disappoint, though in the old days Golden Eagle Pizza served my favorite pizza topping, green olives, which would have went great on top of my pizza concoction.

On the second day, the other fishermen left and Joe and I decided to fish exclusively with tip-ups. We had 10 flags in the six or so hours we were set up and hauled in seven northerns. Joe caught a fat 25-inch northern that was the best we saw all weekend, though Nate's was probably close to the same size.

I'll post some pictures and related stories of the trip in the coming days.

Danger: Thin Ice

Well, news on the ice fishing front continues to be a letdown. I haven't stepped a foot out on any ice and it doesn't look like I'll be able to anytime soon either. The ice conditions across the state are less than desirable due to the warm weather.

Amie Jo Schaenzer of The Reporter did a story on the ice conditions on Lake Winnebago the other day: http://www.fdlreporter.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070110/FON0101/701100491/1288/FON01.

The plan is to hit the ice by my parent's cabin in northern Wisconsin the weekend following this upcoming weekend. We'll see if there is enough ice to put up some tip-ups and do some jigging too. I haven't been up to the cabin since the "winter" season started. A cold spell over the next couple weeks would be nice.

Here's hoping for some cooler weather and some snow on the ground.