Wanna start with BIG THANKS to John and Mary at Canalside Cabins!!!!! I had no idea that had shut down mostly due to lack bait. I figiured I wouldn’t call them back since they had closed everything up. The next day, Mary called to tell me John got a cabin ready for me!!! Thank you John and Mary!!!
Yesterday/Saturday
Started off wicked slow. Lake was covered with water and melting snow. By the end of the day there were several inches of water on the ice. Hardly read any actively for the first two hours. I put out three tipups. All but one of the fish was caught on traps. Lots of flags besides but not may hookups. Caught the two lakers and two whitefish in the first spot after drilling lots of holes and moving around. Went down the lake toward evening and came up with two more whites. One on a tip-up and one jigging.
Today was MUCH better but started off pretty grim. Lake was froze up, like 3/4”, but had substantial water under the ice it in places. I left the wheeler on the trailer and walked out. This is the first fish about about 11:00 into it.
At least I was reading fish! When I first got there I dropped a small glow and white tube to see if anybody was home. Yep! Three marks came right up. NO takers. Switched jigs and colors a few times. They were there but not buying what I was selling... Yep, I put traps out again. Happily they stayed down except for one small white I cut off. Don’t know what turned them on, but about 1:00, they got active! Got six whites between 1 and 2:30 with lots of near misses and lookers in between. Keep 3 cookie cutter 18ishers and a small togue. The bite was still very active when i left. Figured to get home with some daylight left and some good memories and catches from WG! NO SKUNKS!
Tomorrow I’ll be cutting them, having a couple meals off the stove. the rest are going into some wine sauce pickling variations, like these:
