After stocking up with shiners (since JCB Bait in Cheshire is open now), my younger son and I spent the day icefishing.
We went to K of C Pond in the Dubuque State Forest on the Plainfield/Hawley line, arriving around 11 AM.
Sunny, blue skies, intermittently breezy and temps around 20 degrees.
There was about 5 inches of compacted snow on shore, and about half an inch on most spots of the Pond, which was covered with 6" to 7" of good hard ice.
We set up six tip ups, a dead stick and a jig, all baited with shiners (mediums on the tip ups and pinheads on the dead stick and jig).
About 20 minutes or so after we arrived, we had our one and only flag of the day - - and my son proceeded to reel in a 21" pickerel.
Over the course of the rest of the day, we caught four more pickerel (one 8", one 14" and two 19") and three perch (8" - 9").
However, none of the fish that we caught tripped the flags on our tip ups - - instead we either caught them on the jig/dead stick or while checking on our tip ups.
To pass the time in between the relatively desultory fishing, we brought out the chuck wagon and cooked and ate lunch.
We had pork chops sauteed with mushrooms and green chiliis, a side of kimchi, a saucepan of poutine, another of chestnut soup with Lairds applejack, a small bottle (for me) of home-made black raspberry wine, a pot of coffee with cream and sugar, and a couple tangelos.
Afterwards, we listened to a little after dinner music on the radio while making the rounds to clear our holes (of skim ice, as well as snow blown in by the wind) and check on our tip-ups.
We finally picked up and headed home around 4 PM.
