We got on the ice at 9:30 and headed into shallow water (4') along the rocks to the south of the access where the fellow I mentioned last time was catching pails full of little ones. I got big bait, though, and so ours tended to be all good-sized; my girlfriend jigged and I ran the tip-ups which kept me busy 'cause the perch were taking the bait way out and dropping it until this big sow came along; 35 inches and 9.75 pounds, my biggest ever landed! I lost two more big ones; one straightened my hook out. We ran out of bait at 3:30 and came home to 2 hours of cleaning 'em. You probably noticed the bruise on her side. I'm wondering if that might have been an unsuccessful lamprey attack or did she just hurt herself while fighting; it was hard to get her to turn up the hole (still lots of ice) in only 4 feet of water and we fought at the hole for a while. Good fun on the last day of winter, despite the steady wind.
