With surviving Christmas and all the mess cleaned up the New Year approaches. Sitting in my chair and knowing the weekend is approaching 
I turn to my wife and ask what the plans are for the weekend were. I nearly fell out of the chair when I heard the answer. “I though you would be gone fishing”. “Yes I will be” I answered with a great big smile on my face. That very second I was on the phone calling the boys telling them I had a free pass for the weekend and it would be a 3 day since we were off on Monday from work. Everyone was in and so it was at 5:00pm on Friday we were all northern bound.
Arriving a little late it was time to brain storm. What would the game plan for the morning be? We wanted to hit big water, but soon we would see our spot would not be fishable. It was time to rethink. With Walleyes and Perch on our brain we would find a spot. To bed we went only to wake and realize that we had over slept. Getting to lake rather late we made it out to our spot and drilled out the area. Not marking fish I knew it would be a drill till we found um type of day. Not soon long after we would start to mark fish in multiple areas. With 20 FOW being our final spot that we would set the housed up on and drill around to hole hop. It would not be long and Nick said fish on. Soon there was one, and then two and, well you know how that story ends. We were on the perch but where were the walleyes that we wanted to catch also. Again it would not be long and Nick yelled out “Walleye!” It was game on. I grabbed his transducer out of the hole and the fight was on.
Being rigged up for perch he was at a disadvantage to the fish but his “mini bite” held on and did the job beautifully. Out would come a 25 inch walleye. A quick picture or two and we sent that pig back down the hole. After a few more hours of fishing and some perch and walleyes later we knew we had a long walk back. With the sun going down we made off to shore to end day one.
Getting back after a long day it was almost simultaneous, “where are we going tomorrow”. With some panfish on the brain we knew right where we would go. A lake that we had not yet seen this year. Once again waking up and finding that once more we had over slept we made out for a late start. Worried about the weather we started our once again long drag to our spot on the lake. With the wind in our face it was a long hard drag. Gusting up to 50 mph setting up the house would be fun. Thankfully on the way up we stopped by a bait shop and bought some ice anchors to tie the house off on. They came in great use. Getting set up in a spot I had marked on the gps, we drilled a few holes, marked fish, and set up the house. Soon we were on fish but not ones we wanted to catch. All very small perch. Looking at nick in disgust I told him we would have to make a move and reset up the fish house. With a course in mind I pulled out the gps and took our Strikemaster Solo and started to drill some holes. It came to end of the line where we would soon be running out of lake to find the fish we were after. First drop down would reveal a 9 inch bluegill. We set up the house in 23 FOW and the rest would be history. Nice perch and gills. No crappies to be found though. Not until 5pm and sundown that is. As soon as dark hit everything else would shut down and the crappies would come out. I remember someone once telling me that there was NO night bite what so ever on this lake. Ya right. Starting our long drag back we would call it a day at 9.
With the rest of the group arriving mid day two we made planes late that night for our last day. All I had to say was tulliee and everyone was in. Lake set and more than one alarm was armed. We would not be late this time. Moring would come and we were out the door on time. Picked out the spot on the GPS and off we went. Instantly drill out the are and marking fish right away. Houses set, we took to hole hopping and multiple people pulling up fish. Crappies and boy were they nice. It would not be long I you could hear, tullieeeeee. Now it was game on. Finally after the long summers wait we would have fish once again for the smoker.
After a long weekend of great fishing it is nice to be able to just site down and type out our story. It won’t be long though and the weekend will be here again and we already have it planned to be a four day weekend. Stay tuned because it is not that far away and there will be some more great stories to tell. Keep an eye open for the report. As always with the not so seasonal temps, be safe on the ice. Nothing in the lake is worth going in for. Stay safe and we will see you on the ice.
Chris Barlage