3-16-13 Sat

3-16-2013 Sat. 12:30 PM – 8:00 PM
Weather:
(1553) W 8 G 16, overcast, 25 ˚, 30.02 steady, 22” ice
Location:
Upper St Clair, Minnisueing and Cranberry Lakes
Caught:
(combined) Lots of bluegills, we kept approx. 50 bluegills between 7 and 8”, and one 9” crappie.
Partners: Scott, Jake and Jeremy

Comments:

It was the second day of our up north fishing trip and I was in the mood for exploring. I awoke to an early sunrise and very cold bare feet as I stood on the edge of the cabin deck urinating into the 15 – 20” of snow that lay some two feet below me. With the cold morning temperatures and the somewhat clouded heads from the past evenings beer that was drank nobody in the group was too anxious to head to the hard water.
We woke up late, took our time with breakfast and around noon headed to Upper St. Croix Lake for what we hoped would be some better than average bluegills and crappies. I had read many reports on this lake, and most of them said the size structure of the pan fish were better than average, but the fish were hard to find. We found the second part of the equation to hold the most truth, we never did catch a fish in the hour we fished it.
The next lake on the radar was a lake just a few miles to the north called Minnesuing. This lake held a reputation as being a very good crappie lake. As we were heading onto the lake, most of the fishermen that were on it, were heading off. We stopped and talked to some of the fishermen as they were leaving and they explained to us why there were so many on the lake; there was a local ice fishing tourney and we were arriving just as the derby was finishing up. The report we got was that some fish were being caught and that some of them were nice sized, but the quantity of fish caught were very small. We fished this lake for approximately one and one half hours with only a very small crappie and one little pike to show for the effort.
It was nearing three o’clock and we figured we had enough for one last spot. We attempted to get to Chicago Bay on the Gordon Flowage, but the road to the park was gated, so we opted to hit one of our past fishing spots, Cranberry Lake.
We have caught bluegills here in the past, but the size structure has mostly been small. We found the lake and drove down to the access and the open water that was within yards of where we had to drive on. Scott was the driver on this trip and he was not overly excited about driving his less than one year old pick within close proximity to open, steaming water. We got on the lake fine and managed to get about six holes drilled before the auger was no longer wet with gas.
We were catching a few fish here and there, but it was not fantastic. I really wanted to drill some more holes but I no longer had the device to complete the task. Almost on queue with me getting antsy and wanting to drill more holes, our savior showed up. I have never seen this guy before, but he comes driving up parks next to me and quickly proclaims he is not a warden. He strolls over and immediately sense he had been indulging in a little too much of the fine drinking spirits. He introduces himself as Zip and asks how the fishing is going. I told him not that great and that we ran out of gas for the auger and could not drill anymore holes. He advised me to sit tight, and right at sunset the fish would bite just as fast as you could drop your line down the hole. I was a little skeptical on account of his mental alertness being just slightly past the point of no return. He assured me the bite would happen and that if we wanted auger gas he had plenty and would fill us up. Zip filled the auger up for us, we thanked him and off he went.
I drilled a couple more holes out into a little deeper water and waited for the sun to sink below the skyline. Just as Zip had promised, once the sun was below the horizon it was non stop action on some rather impressive sized gills. We ended the night with about fifty bluegills. Jake contributed about twenty five to the pile, I added about twelve and Jeremy and Scott caught the rest.

Observations:

The first two lakes we fished were a total bust, and the snow conditions on them did not allow vehicle travel except on plowed trails. Cranberry Lake however did not have as much snow and we were able to drive onto it with little difficulty. The local lakes still have 20 – 24” of ice on them, and there has not been any melting that has taken place yet.
I must include our little after fishing social hour at one of the local bars before we made the trek back to the cabin. We were a rather dull and tired group tonight, so being a little cocky; I decided we needed a little pick me up in the form of a shot at the Moose Junction tavern. Being the type that does not like to follow the same old beaten path, I purchased us each a shot of Bacon vodka. It sounded good to me and the picture of bacon on the label made it appealing. I will admit that was one of the worst ideas I have had in a while; that shot was one of the most awful shots I have ever had. In fact, it sent me right out the door to the closest snow bank. Fortunately I did not throw up such fine top shelf swill, but it did take me quite some time to gain control of my stomach and reappear in the bar.