I thought I would be smart and take Thursday off as the weather looked good. Fairly cold (for April) in the morning and with a good stiff breeze out of the south it was down right un-Aprilish. Dressed a little light, I started thinking of all the work I could be getting done at the office.
Well it started to warm up some and this 8.9 lbs came shooting up through the hole after a couple of runs. I mean shooting up, this thing came flying out of the hole!
Had some good teeth.
Have not seen too many of these guys as other reported but this one was laying on top of the ice as it melted.
The snow geese made an appearance.
With the dark rocks and this week's earlier rain and warm the edges really took a beating.
But I was able to find an area where it wasn't so bad and got set up.
With the warm afternoon sun it became very nice. I had one last flag and as I approached I could hear the reel just tinging. When I got over the hole the reel was still smoking and I was getting towards the end of the spool. I have only been spooled once, and that was on Eagle Lake in Maine with a Lake Trout on a -10 below day in March. Since it looked like he was not stopping anytime soon I applied a slow brake and just like that it was over. When I pulled the line back up my 40 Lb mono leader had been cut off. I have caught Pike in the high teens and I have never had a problem with that leader...not once...until today!
It turn out to be a good day - hell a great day since I didn't work. Hopefully there will be one more day on the ice before I start getting the boat ready!
