Daydreams about Ice Things

It happens every year. Usually about this time. Sometimes sooner. I see posts from friends about days spent on ice-covered lakes or read about ice fishing events, and my mind strays north. Way north. One minute I'm focused on a task at my computer, working from my home in Georgia. Then my mind strays to a small nameless lake in Northern Minnesota, a reservoir in the Black Hills or the edge of Presque Isle Bay in Pennsylvania, where I'm on bundled in winter gear, kneeling on ice, holding a tiny rod and starting intently at a my graph.

Soon I snap out of it and get back to whatever I had been doing, but it doesn't take much to send me back to wherever I just was or to jump to somewhere else. Sometimes I can look at a few of a buddy's posts or visit Jeff Sundin's fishing reports to do a bit of vicarious fishing and get it out of my system. At least that's what I tell myself. It probably actually makes things worse.

It really hit me this week when I realized the St. Paul Ice Fishing and Winter Sport Show is this weekend (starts tomorrow afternoon). It's a giant show that sort of kicks off the season (although folks way to the north and at high elevations in the West have been ice fishing for a couple of weeks now) and is show I've always wanted to attend. I'm hopeful that some year it will be a good fit for me.

The ice dreaming has been worse for the past couple of years because I haven't done any of the real stuff. I made a few multi-day trips north per winter for several years to fish, take photos and gather story material, but ice fishing hasn't fit with work needs for the past couple of winters. I've mostly gone south instead of north to fish during the winter, which most folks would say is the sensible thing to do anyway.

I enjoy ice fishing way to much for a guy who lives in Georgia. I even bought an auger, ice scoop and sled a couple of years ago, and I already had the clothes, rods, electronics and lure. So I could drive north and be self sufficient if need be. For the moment, I guess I'll just keep dreaming and hopefully will find good reason pack up the ice stuff and head toward ice country some time this winter!

Vicarious Ice

The St. Paul Ice Show (which is a big one) was last weekend, and friends from the North and the West are starting to post pictures of lakes freezing, gear being prepared, fish from past winters, and even a few fresh ice catches from this season, and all that has me daydreaming.

Most places don't have good ice yet, but a few do, and conditions are changing quickly. I don't have any ice-fishing plans this winter, as of now, and I don't see where hitting the ice will likely fit with work needs, so it might be another winter of vicarious ice fishing.

Don't ask why someone who lives in Georgia wants to travel way north during the winter. I know I'm way in the minority, and it's hard to really explain. I really enjoy ice fishing, though, and I miss the ice culture when I don't get the chance to get up there. I'm originally from Minnesota, and one friend suggests that it's just in my blood. Maybe he's right.

Ice Ready

It's official: I'm ice equipped. With the recent purchase of an auger, a few accessories like a scoop and bait pucks, and even a sled to drag stuff onto the lake, I now own the basic stuff needed to point the car north and go ice fishing on my own. I still don't own loads of gear or possess years of experience, but I have enough and know just enough to go and am excited about that idea.

 

I haven't set any ice plans in stone yet for this winter, but I have a couple of likely plans going. I'm certain I'll make it north at least a couple of times, and I'll likely do so by driving and try out my own gear at least once.

 

I'm actually debating traveling to the St. Paul Ice Show the first weekend in December to meet folks and learn much more, so if the ice is well in place by then I might add a couple of hard-water play days at that time. I've never been to that show, but it's the biggest one out there, and from what I can tell, the whole US ice community pretty well gathers on one place that weekend. It's a long drive to Minnesota, though, so we'll see.

 

First things first. The catfish are biting on the Santee Cooper lakes, and I'm headed that way tomorrow!

Spring Springing Quickly

Spring is officially about a week away, but I'm glad to say that signs of the changing season are plentiful. A month ago today I was fishing atop the Indiana ice and getting ready to travel to Michigan, just in time to welcome a big lake-effect snow. My family raced the biggest southern storm of the winter home from that trip and soon had our coldest temperatures of this year. The snow that fell has only been gone a couple of weeks, but forecast is full of 60s, and I can count half a dozen kinds of flowers blooming in my yard.

It's not just here either. Posts I'm seeing on Instagram, facebook and Twitter scream spring. Big bass freshly caught, flowers blooming, people playing in short sleeves, families getting out... Even way to the north, where friends are still ice-fishing, the pictures suggest late ice, strangely moderate conditions and change trying to happen.

My upcoming trips, although all to different places, are definitely springish by design, and on my most recent trout outing with Asher, we shed coats in the afternoon.

I'm not saying the cold has fled us for the year. Some of our most winterish weather often comes very late some years. The trend is toward spring, though, and that's good news, as far as I'm concerned.

Ice Rod, Open-Water Bluegill

Did using an ice rod provide any real advantage? No. If the boat was still so my tiny jig went straight down I could pick up the bait a bit better on my Humminbird than with a longer rod, but I can't claim that helped me coax any fish into hitting. The truth is that it was pure novelty. We had an ice storm, so when Nathaniel and I headed went to the pond for a bit of fishing, I thought it would be fun to fish for bluegills with an ice rod. And it was.

The bite was tough. We made one lap around the pond casting for bass (with regular length rods) and got no strikes. Then we switched to vertical presentations of ice jigs tipped with worms, with only me opting to use an ice-fishing rod. For a while we didn't think we'd catch anything. We weren't marking much and were getting no bites. Eventually, Nathaniel and I each managed a single bite, and fortunately we both succeeded in converting bites into landed fish. I notched my first open-water fish on an ice rod, and we both enjoyed a bit of fishing with snowy banks.

Now we're ready for it to go away, though!

Indiana Ice Fun

I met Doug Sikora at a writer event at Lake Chickamauga last summer. He was there on behalf of Bobby Garland Crappie Baits. I was there to get photos and story material. While together, we got to talking about fishing -- as fishermen tend to do -- and realized we had a common fondness for ice-fishing.

"You should come up and fish with me this winter," Doug said.

I agreed that I should.

A lot of conversations like that happen in boats, but despite good intentions on both sides most don't ever amount to anything. Doug remembered that conversation, though, and when the bite got good he called his contact at Bobby Garland to see about connecting with me.

That was a week ago yesterday. Today, Doug, a friend of his and I spent the day on Doug's home lake in Indiana and probably caught a triple-digit tally of fish, including about 30 keeper crappie. Best I can recall, we caught seven species. The first white crappie I caught this morning was both my first ever fish from Indiana and my first white crappie for 2015. Before the day was over, I also added white bass and yellow bass to my 2015 list, bringing the year tally to an even dozen.

Probably my single favorite quality a fishing trip can have is someone sharing a kind of fishing they really love -- especially on home waters. That described today. Doug is passionate about ice-fishing, and his favorite approach is to travel light and walk as far as is needed to get to the best spots and then drill a lot of holes. He is a tournament crappie fisherman, but he fishes for and catches everything that swims, and he especially enjoys the multi-species approach. Today's plan matched his favorite kind of plan, and the fish chose to cooperate. My kind of combination.

I appreciate Doug following up on that summer conversation, and I'm guessing today was the first of many outings together. I also appreciate friends at Bobby Garland connecting the dots!

Fleeing from Spring

Or first daffodil of 2015 opened yesterday, and several other will follow soon. Today brought beautiful weather for Little League tryouts, and I think the temp has probably found the 60s by now. The whole 10-day actually looked fairly nice, last I saw. So what am I don't? Heading north to go ice fishing again, of course!

Sensible friends in the industry travel south to fish for bass or various saltwater sport fish this time of year -- thus bringing on the enjoyment of spring even before it arrives wherever they call home. Being far too fond of ice-fishing, I instead travel north and extend winter.

Next week's travels will take me to Indiana to chase crappie (and assorted other species) through the ice. From there, I'm headed Traverse City, Michigan. Hard to say what we'll chase up there. Too many fine options to even guess. I've been assured, however, that I will see no daffodils.

First Month of Fishing

Guide Donald Cranor with a pretty cutthroat, which was part of Norfork River
trout slam (brown, rainbow, brook, cutthroat) and species No. 9 for my 2015 tally.

Sometimes the fishing year starts sort of slowly, with limited angling opportunities during January. This was not one of those years. My first fish of year, bluegill and bass from a pond near home, came only a couple of days into the new year, and last week, while trout fishing on the Norfork River with guide Donald Cranor, I tallied species No. 9 (a cutthroat trout) for January. Looking back, it looks like I got to spend at least part of about 10 days fishing during January, and all except for a couple a short pond outings were full days on the water.

Fish listed came from four states: Georgia, South Carolina, Pennsylvania and Arkansas. I also got to spend a couple of days at Lake Taneycomo in Missouri and caught a bunch of rainbows and browns, but those species were already on the list from a fun day on the Chattooga River earlier in the month. Three species (pumpkinseed, yellow perch, black crappie) came to me courtesy of holes in the ice in Pennsylvania while fishing with Dave Lefebre.

From a fish species list standpoint, the cutthroat might be my favorite January fish because that's not a species I get the opportunity to even fish for every year. I do anticipate more opportunities to fish for cutters this summer, when Asher and I head west on the #RebelTroutTrek, but I'm happy to already have one on the list.

I wonder what February will bring!

Tungsten Advantage

Tungsten has been a buzzword in the bass world for several years and in the ice fishing for the past few years; however, the last couple of days of Erie Ice Camp clearly showed me a real advantage of tungsten ice jigs.

The best bite we found for big bluegills, yellow perch and trout was in 40 feet of water. Most fish were suspended -- some quite high in the water column -- but others were at the bottom, and they were apt to show up almost anywhere so it was important to move up and down a lot. Anything light took a long time to fall through the water column, meaning a lot of wasted time, and at times the fish would be gone before the bait ever got within ambush range. They wanted a small profile, though, so a spoon or a big lead jig would draw lookers but not takers. A VMC Tungsten Tubby proved ideal for getting down to the fish efficiently but showing them something subtle.

We would have caught several fish with other offerings, but I'm confident that we caught far more with the little tungsten ice jigs that we could have with any jig made from lead. I wouldn't use them in all situations both because of the higher price and because I think a slower fall is sometimes better. It's definitely worth having a some tungsten jigs in your ice box, though.

Erie Ice Camp Over

 

 

It's hard for me to believe that three days have already passed, but indeed we put a wrap on the second edition of Erie Ice Camp this evening after a day of catching bluegills, yellow perch and trout from Lake Pleasant. We actually spent two days on Pleasant and one on Misery Bay, which is off Presque Isle Bay. I wouldn't want to try to guess at the total number of fish caught, but it was a bunch. More importantly, from a work standpoint, I got many good photos and much fine story material, and I really appreciate Dave Lefebre and the folks at Ice Force making it happen.

 

I even drilled my first holes on this trip, and a Strikemaster Lazer Synthetic Ultra Lite hand auger made quick and easy work of about 8 inches of ice.

 

I'm actually still in PA and am not sure of my total plan. I might even find my way back to the ice before I head south. The official camp has wrapped up, though, and most of tomorrow I'll be focused on writing fish stories.

2 Species Tallied

Today's ice adventure on Presque Isle Bay allowed me to add two new 2015 species, bringing the tally seven. I actually caught four kinds of fish today, but I'd already caught largemouth bass and bluegills this year. New additions to this year's list were pumpkinseed and yellow perch. I came within inches of adding black crappie to the list as well, but the one I nearly caught broke off about the time its nose hit the hole. It wasn't sufficiently in control for me to feel like it could be counted. I also had a break-off from something bigger and stronger that I never got a look at. I'll never know what that one was!

Complicated Packing

My next two fishing trips are to Pennsylvania to ice fish for crappie and various other species and to Missouri to fish for trout on Lake Taneycomo. Consecutive trips that are dissimilar in character happen a fair amount for me, and I'm used to those. What complicates these trips is that they are aren't quite back-to-back, but they are close enough to one another, date-wise, that going home between trips kind of doesn't make sense. Geography doesn't help either. They are neither near one another, so it would be obvious that I should stay in the area, nor in the opposite direction where home is in between anyway. Instead, home and the two locations make a giant triangle.

As of now, I remain undecided about whether to just link trips and fill the days in-between with other fishing or drive home for a couple of days. One giant trip is my leaning today, but it might be different tomorrow. However, if I want to make that an option, I need to tote along stuff for both trips and enough clothes to last me a week and a half. So today, along with filling a duffel very full with a big variety of stuff, I've been gathering everything from ice gear to trout fishing waders. Because the trips are so different in character and gear needs, the car will likely look like it's packed for a month of travel.

Of course any time I'm packing, even for a single trip, I wonder what important thing I will forget. And naturally I figure it out about the time I need it. Two trips in one equals twice that risk. I guess I'll find out eventually how good (or bad) a job I did!

Erie Ice Calling

Ice cover in the Presque Isle Bay area is getting thicker all the
time. Dave Lefebre photo.

Dave Lefebre with a
big yellow perch caught
during last year's trip.

When the ice clearly calls I only know of one reasonable response, and right now that call is coming from Erie, Pennsylvania, where it's 5 degrees at the moment, according to the little weather experts inside my computer. A possible plan to head north and fish the frozen waters of Presque Isle Bay and other Northern PA locations with bass pro Dave Lefebre had been hanging out there, but all hinged on the ice. The cold that's gripped a lot of the country over the past few days has a firm hold on the Erie area, and the ice is thickening in a hurry.

Yesterday, after scouting some ice and looking at the long-range, Dave said the time was right to settle plans for sooner, rather than later. Looks like I'll be pointing the go-cart north in a little more than a week. It'll be my first drive to ice country, which is kind of cool. Mostly, I'm mostly just excited to have an ice plan solidly in place. No temps above freezing between now and then and not a lot of snow, so the outlook looks great for high-quality ice

Last year we divided time between a bay off Presque Isle Bay and a cool little trout lake called Lake Pleasant, and we caught crappie, yellow perch, one largemouth, various sunfish and a couple of kinds of trout, that I can think of off-hand. Lots of fish and lots of fun. I'm not sure exactly where we'll fish this year, but I'm certain Dave will have a cool plan and all the right stuff for an outstanding trip. Stay tuned.

A Dozen Delightful Days

Yesterday, I recapped half a dozen specific favorite fish from 2014, so today I thought I'd highlight a few of my favorite days on the water. When I looked back, though, I had a hard time narrowing it to a few. In fact, I picked a dozen, and I'd have a hard time ranking those, which only serves to remind me what a blessing it is to get to travel and fish and write fish stories for a living. And even with a dozen stellar days listed, I could have included several others. Listing is roughly in calendar order. Where a fuller post from the day exists, I've included "Blog Post" link.

Alabama Baitcaster Crappie - TJ Stallings and I spent a crazy fun day catching giant black crappie on Road Runner Rollin' Runners matched with 4-inch swimbaits, all on baitcasting gear with 14-pound test. Most weighed 2 pounds or more. Two broke the 3-pound mark. Blog Post

Bass Crazy Hobie Day - Nathaniel and I got to spend a couple of days with the Hobie Kayaks crew, trying out boats and taking photos, and enjoyed some seriously fast action bass fishing on private waters in South Alabama. In case you've ever wondered, fishing with your son, each in your own little Hobie Pro Angler, and catching more bass than you count, is seriously fun.

Wading the White - During last year's Gaston's trip, Nathaniel and I spent half a day fishing on our own, and as much as I always enjoy going out with the guides, there was something extra fun about wading shoals straight out from the resort, picking our own spots and catching a bunch of trout on Rebel Crawfish and Minnows and Ugly Bugs. Blog Post

Dry Run Farewell - No fishing for me on this outing. It was Nathaniel's final two-hour visit to his
favorite youth-only stream in Arkansas before he turned 16, and he managed to catch a huge and beautiful brown trout.

Niagara Slam - I mentioned this day with Capt. Frank Campbell yesterday because it included a brown trout that was one of my favorite individual fish from 2014. We mostly fished for smallmouths, and I'd guess we caught 50-plus fish that range from about 3 pounds to a weighed 5-15. Then, we put a cap on the day by running up the river and adding a steelhead and a lake trout.

Deadwood Finale' - Simple and fun. Wading right through Deadwood, South Dakota with friends from Cabela's and then exploring the canyon just downstream of town and catching more than our share of beautiful brown trout. Blog Post

Smallmouths in Sight - Clear, shallow water in the Sturgeon Bay areas and loads of big smallmouths absolutely locked in. Let's just say that we put the new Ugly Stik Elite outfits to a really good test that day!

El Salto, El Grande - This is another one I mentioned yesterday because it included my biggest largemouth in several years. Often you have to choose to go after numbers or target big fish. Paul Davis of Abu Garcia and I didn't have to pick on day one of my trip to Angler's Inn, which yielded 70 fish, including my 9-2, before lunch! Blog Post

Splendid Sequatchie - One of my favorite kinds of fishing is wet wading a cool-water stream for multiple species with spinning tackle, and the day I spent with Pat Roberson was that style of fishing at it's very best. We both fished with a single lure all day, and we caught countless fish and nine different species. Blog Post

Big Snowbird Plan Change - Nathaniel and I thought our day was done before it started when a muddy dirt road prevented us from getting to the delayed harvest section of Big Snowbird Creek. We instead waded a downstream section that probably hadn't been stocked for a couple of months, but the fish were surprisingly plentiful and quite cooperative, and we had the stream to ourselves. Blog Post

Asher's Birthday Outing - Asher and I only caught 10 trout in a pretty full day, but it was his first North Carolina trout outing, and it was just plain fun spending the day together knee deep in a stream. We also were celebrating his 10th birthday, so catching 10 fish was kind of cool. Blog Post

Ice Season Start - Going back only a couple of weeks, I quickly forgot about my nine bonus hours in MSP airport after I got on the ice with Jeff Sundin and Jon Thelen of Lindy. The first crappie came moments after I dropped a line in a hole, and the crappie/sunfish action never let up. The weather was also mighty nice, for ice fishing, and it was just plain fun being back out there. Blog Post

6 Favorite Fish from 2014

Toward the end of the year I always like looking back at favorite fishing trips, days on the water and specific fish. For the moment, I'm going focus on specific fish and what made each a favorite. And I'll just go ahead and apologize now to any extra cool fish from this year that I'm not thinking about at the moment.

Northern Minnesota Tulibee - It was neither a trophy nor a kind of fish that most anglers even target. So why was it one of my favorites? Mostly, I suppose, because I'd never caught a tulibee, and being sort of a wannabe northern woodsman during the winter, I'm intrigued by all things ice. It also was a fun catch because I marked just inches beneath the ice when I was fishing near the bottom for bluegills, so I reeled up quickly and started jigging with a very short line. It hammered the bait and just about pulled the rod out of my hand.


Green Bay Smallmouth - We didn't have scales, so I can't assign an actual weight. I'm guessing high 5s, at least, though, and it may even have outweighed a 5-11 (my biggest weighed smallmouth) that I caught from Erie about a month later. This particular fish, which came from a small Green Bay tributary, was an extra prize and very satisfying because enduring winter weather made fishing unusual tough that week. I caught it on a Get Bit Baits Crawling Tube.

Lake Pactola Lake Trout - The cool thing abut the laker was how similar it was to another lake I caught a few years ago while ice fishing on the same lake. Both days I was fishing with Tyler French on days based out of Deadwood and we were jigging over deep points, and I caught both fish on minnow-tipped Lindy Watsit Grubs!

Niagara River Brown Trout - My biggest brown ever - right around 10 pounds - and I caught in the midst of catching a gazillion jumbo smallmouths on tubes at the mouth of the Niagara River with Capt. Frank Campbell. Again, it was a Get Bit Baits Crawling Tube that did the job. That day was actually one of my favorites from last year, but I suppose that's another story for another time.

El Salto Largemouth - It was my first trip to Angler's Inn at Mexico's Lake El Salto in about15 years, and the 9-2 largemouth I caught on the first full day of the trip might have been my biggest bass since last time I was there. I've caught a few big pond bass that I haven't weighed, so I'm not sure about that, but it was sure one of the biggest in quite a few years. It was a classic El Salto fish that hit a big Power Worm fished through flooded trees. My first trip to El Salto, by the way, yielded a 10 1/2, which remains the biggest bass I've ever weighed.

Red Lake Walleye -The best walleye from my most recent trip wasn't a genuine trophy by Minnesota walleye standards -- just a good quality fish. However, I caught it from the first sleeper ice house I've ever spent a night in, and I caught just moments after arriving. I probably hadn't been fishing two minutes when the fish hit, and I was surprised to bring up a thick-bodied walleye that landed right in the middle of the Red Lake slot and therefore went right back down into the hole almost as quickly as it came out.

Chill Challenge Embraced

December fishing on the Nantahala River. Photo by Asher Samsel.

Duluth Trading Company proposed a Chill Challenge -- a test of one of their Flannel Shirt Jacs against the elements during my winter fishing excursion. Two rounds into testing, the Shirt Jac has moved to the top of my favorites list for when I need a seriously warm layer that fits comfortably. Beyond casual coat wear on cold mornings around town, which it also works well for, I've used it for a few days of trout fishing in the North Carolina mountains and for a recent ice trip to northern Minnesota.

The trout outing brought snow and sleet on two different days, and pretty cold brisk lows. My hands reminded me of the cold when I fished without gloves, but I was how impressed by how warm my body remained. Same story in Minnesota, where lows hit close to zero and the highest high in a few days was somewhere around freezing. I admittedly wore an insulated ice suit for kneeling on the ice and fishing in fresh falling snow, but the Shirt Jac provided the most important body-warming layer.

The DTC Flannel Shirt Jac seems somewhat heavy when you simply pick it up because it combines 8-ounce flannel as an outside layer and 200 gram fleece as an inside layer. The cut must be perfect, though, because it is amazingly comfortable to wear despite the weight in hand.

Of course, the Chill Challenge has only just begun for me. Existing winter plans include trout in Missouri and more ice-fishing in Minnesota and most likely will include several days in local trout streams and on nearby ponds, plus some other ice fishing, possibly in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and/or South Dakota.

Lots of unknowns about fishing plans for the rest of the winter. What I do know is that I'll remain plenty warm!

Meet You Halfway Crappie

As much as I like playing the coaxing game and trying to figure out what combination of lifts and twitches will make a fish bite, I like it even better when they are super aggressive, like they were this morning. The crappie did get fussier as the day wore on, but for the first couple of hours, if there were fish on the graph when I began lowering my bait, chances were good that at least one would start coming up before the lure got very far down, and if I just stopped it halfway down, they fish would come all the way up and attack it. It was that simple. No waiting. No coaxing. No rejection. They'd just come up and grab the bait, which is just plain fun.

I had said yesterday that we would be walleye fishing today. Plans shifted a bit, and the walleye day is now tomorrow, but Plan B, which was orchestrated by Jeff Sundin, worked out far better than most people's A plans. I really don't have any idea how many fish we caught -- most of which were released like the one in the clip above. I actually wish I'd kept a rough tally of my own fish, just to know. I only know we caught a bunch. I caught almost all my fish on a Watsit Grub body rigged on Lindy Bug or Toad jighead.

Pan-Tastic Ice Season Start

Spent a mighty fun day today catching bluegills and crappie with Jeff Sundin and Jon Thelen of Lindy Fishing. We caught a lot of fish, and while the temperature was pretty low (mid teens, I think), the breeze was only slight and it was plenty comfortable fishing on the open ice. It also snowed just enough last night and today that the ice had some snow on it for traction, which is good because I forgot my cleats at home. Mighty good start for an ice season, I'd say.

I used a Lindy Fat Boys jig all afternoon and caught a nice mix of both species. The fish were in fairly deep water, but the most active ones were at least a few feet off the bottom. Through mid-afternoon, the bite got really steady, and the crappie especially were charging hard when they decided to eat. Just before dark, we had to work a little harder to persuade fish to bite.

Walleyes tomorrow and Thursday.

Travel Ready

Well. The first leg went smoothly. Ninety-six miles from home to ATL, plus parking, check-in and security, and as of now flight number one appears to be ontime. I'd never flown with a fishfinder, and that was seamless in security.

In an hour or so I fly to MSP. Third leg is from Minneapolis to the Bemidji, Minn. regional airport, and then I drive another 45 minutes or so.

Travel is a bit of a task, but I do like traveling to Minnesota. I was born there, so maybe it's in my blood, but admit to being somewhat of a Northwoodsman wannabe. I can't travel north during the winter without at least starting the Viking beard and sporting the Duluth Trading Company plaid flannel.

Obviously I like the fishing itself in Minnesota. It goes well beyond that, though. I like the whole fishing culture that saturates northern Minnesota. If seems like most people there fish some, and even if they don't, they can talk fishing,.and they seem to appreciate the traveling anglers who feed the economy.

I also like cool little bait shops, woodland lakes, snow and ice.

I even like the cold, but I suppose that's easier to say when you can get on a plane and return to Georgia at the end of the week!

Ice: Love It or Hate It

Like most things, fishing has it's subgroups, and many anglers I spend time with are very specialized in their interests. Some dedicated bass fishermen would just as well go grocery shopping as wade a trout stream, and the same concept applies equally in the other direction. Others, like me, enjoy a little bit of everything, while still others fall somewhere in-between.

For all the preferences of species and fishing styles that can exist, though, I don't think anything polarizes fishermen quite like ice fishing. I'd say more dedicated anglers than not want nothing to do with walking on ice in 8-degree weather and trying to pull fish through little holes. I hear that perspective a lot, especially from fisherman friends from this part of the country, when I talk about my ice fishing plans.

Those folks who like ice fishing tend to love ice fishing. Few fishermen I've met just like it OK. Even in the heart of ice country, there are basically two camps. Either you quit fishing or venture south when the lakes freeze or you spend as many days as possible ice fishing while the opportunity exists.

If you glance at this blog even occasionally, you know I fall in the "love ice fishing" school. I'm Minnesota bound on Monday and am more than a little eager to get back on the ice!