Thought that the Ice Shanty crew might want to read my Soft-Water story.Got up early in the morning and headed out to Keelers bay Saturday to try our luck at some Salmon fishing. When we arrived at the launch, the air temperature was a mere 28 degrees fahrenheit and the water was only 36. There's something about cold weather and open water that chills you right down to the bone, even with all your ice fishing clothing on. The old 20 Merc on our 14' Starcraft didn't like the cold any more than I did, as it took in excess of thirty pulls to get the old girl running. The purr of the motor was truly music to my ears, as I had spent a full two weeks cooped up at home and at school, completely deprived of fishing. We headed down to the South-Eastern Bay and quickly got some lines in the water. Upon arrival at the bay there was only one other boat, but as we made our pass through the bay and paralleling the ledges, more anglers came around the point, presumably from the Appletree launch. With two longlines and two Planer boards running a mixture of spoons and hard baits, I felt confident in our set up. After just a couple minutes, our lines were freezing up and the tattle flag on one of our boards had a skim of ice on it. It certainly wasn't a heat wave! It didn't take long before I was hooked up with a salmon. The fish made six or seven aggressive headshakes before popping off. Within the next hour or two, we had two more strikes on the same rod, but they were all just swiping at it and not really eating it. Later that morning the Clouds burned off and this seemed to get the fish into a little more aggressive mood, as the next fish that hit the lucky rod for the day completely engulfed the stickbait. While the battle only consisted of a short barrage of headshakes in the beginning and a couple runs at the boat, the 17 inch landlocked still got my heart racing! Of course, I don't blame the fish for not wanting to put up a fight in that frigid water. After the Salmon was netted, fist bumps and whoops of joy were exchanged as we broke out the stringer. We made a couple more passes through the area, hoping that another one would be hungry for the lucky lure, but nobody else was home. Running low on fuel, we decided to head back towards the launch and escape the breeze for a little bit. While it wasn't windy, per say, it was still enough to make your ears and cheeks red and your hands ache. Trolling large hard baits for pre-spawn pike, we used the downtime to devours a couple pieces of pizza. With no bites, we decided to see if the bluegills were in their traditional winter positions, and headed over towards the creek. With tiny tungstens and worms, we were able to boat a couple decent perch. Drifting and trying to verticle jig with 1/16th ounce jigs is more difficult than it sounds! Making small jigging movements, I felt a heavy thud. Upon setting the hook, the good sized fish immediately began to make a run for it, thrashing violently in the water. It wasn't long before I saw the cute little Northern zipping back and forth trying to escape. Yet another species to add to the list of fish that I have caught on my Clam Drop Jig! We returned to the launch at 3 PM with a fish in the cooler and smiles on our faces.
