First my weekend trip and then a nice surprise for you. Since the ice fishing season does not last long in my neck of the woods I try to make the best of it and hit the water hard when the lakes reach 3" since it might be gone soon. My friend and I had been planning a trip for weeks trying to decide what direction to head (all in northerly directions) and what lake to try. We decided on a 100 acre gem that offered panfish, Saugeye, Musky, stocked Trout and other surprises. After a 3 1/2 hour drive we holed up for the night at the luxurious Super 8 Motel
. At first light we wheeled into this lake with high expectations.
We found 6" of ice and had the lake to ourselves on Friday. After pounding the drop offs, flats and banks we found the fish to be holding tight to cover and concentrated on catching Trout and whatever else would cruise by.
Caught many medium Bluegill, Crappie and a few big Red Ears for the weekend, but the big bonus was the Channel Cats that would hit regularly. I landed six and lost three at the hole. Here's one of the smaller ones:
Overall a fine trip, but I'm exhausted from three straight days of punching way too holes, lugging gear, long hours and pretty cold temps...but it's a good exhaustion as all ice nuts will attest to
.Now on to the other promised story. As I was pulling off the ice Saturday night after a futile attempt for night time Crappie my friend from Florida calls me and tells me of the trip he had just finished to Venice, LA. Another friend told him he had to come and try fishing the Gulf of Mexico during this month. My friend couldn't resist thinking of how bad the Gulf looked for months as the BP oil rig spewed crude oil into this region for over three months. What he found was that the Gulf was not only alive, but teeming with sport fish. He was so excited in relaying the story I could hardly understand him at times. Here's my friend Brian with part of the haul on the way back in:
I think those are King Mackerel, Grouper, at least a couple species of Snapper and one I can't identify. As you'll see in the accompanying series of pics they were fishing around some of the oil rigs and were catching live Blue Runners to use for bait for big fish. As they were catching the bait some huge fish became excited and started thrashing the surface and baitfish; so they backed off and cast into the fray. The fight begins:
Hang on Brian!
Don't get pulled into the water!
An hour and a half later they are finally able to gaff his personal best Yellowfin Tuna (around 150 lbs):
I don't think I could hold let alone pick up a fish that size, but I'd sure like to try, eh
!Here's a few extra shots of the adventure:
In closing he mentioned that the fishing and some of the scenery was some of the best he's ever experienced. The Mississippi Delta area was just amazing; and this coming from someone who has fished years in Florida, Belize, Costa Rica and other Central American haunts.
So he wants me to fish with him here in April...think I should take him up on the offer
!?Enjoy the long ice fishing season and keep posting reports like not-so-Fat Luke's, 24/7's and Mike P's!
Tight Lines,
ratsotail
