2-3-13 Sun

2-3-2013 Sun 10:30 AM – 11:30 AM / 2:30 PM – 5:00 PM
Weather:
W 10, overcast, 15 ˚, 30.01 steady
Water:
4.96 falling, 18.7 kcfs, clear
Location:
Black Deer’s AM / Half Way Creek PM
Caught:
Small blue gills and crappies
Partners:
Autumn in AM
Comments

Autumn was home from college for the weekend and she wanted to go ice fishing and see what it was all about. As much as I have ice fished as Autumn was growing up I don’t recall a time when I had taken her out. She may have expressed an interest in going a time or two, but she was never overly serious about it.
It was not going to be an all day excursion; she just wanted to get an idea of what it was all about. I decided we would stay close to home and fish in Black Deer’s Channel. I had heard reports of lots of fish in there, but the size of the fish were small.
We picked a spot right below the Black Deer’s old house and commenced to set up. I drilled the first hole with the power auger and Autumn wanted to drill the second, she was a little apprehensive, but together we got it done. We set up the shack and flipped over the top and we were now in our own little ice fishing world obscured from the outside world. A pole was baited and the camera was lowered down into the shallow depths. Immediately the camera screen was filled with both bluegills and perch. There were hundreds of them, although the majority of them were small, it was still quite a sight. The fish were on a constant march, first moving in unison in one direction and then another, with no known destination.
I quickly caught some small bluegills and Autumn was more than eager to remove them from the hook. I was rather surprised by that, but hey if she wanted to un - hook them what the heck, let here have it.
After about a half hour of seeing constant fish on the camera, in just and instant they were all gone. They were not far I am sure, but Autumn had gotten here taste of ice fishing. She was ready to go spend here last couple of hours at home surrounded by her dogs before she had to board the bus to take her back to the big city and school.
In the afternoon I decided to go do a little exploring on the lake in the deeper dredge holes for some slab crappies. I found quite a mess of crappies, but the size was very dismal. I caught one fish after another but the average size was in the four inch range.

Observations:

We are now seeing the winter pattern: snow cover, cold temps, ice depths around fifteen inches and lethargic fish.