Veterans on Ice

[usa1vet]

Just wanted to post a thanks to all of you that contribute to this site. I Returned lastnight from our "Veterans on Ice" trip to LOW. The St Francis American Legion Post took a group of 18 Veterans from the Korea, Vietnam, Panama/Granda,and Desert Storm eras up for some fun on the big lake. We went out of Ballards and they took wonderful care of us. Very few of the group had ever fished LOW before so what we learned prior to the trip on this site was very helpfull. we quickly learned that the general rule was if they strech accross the top of the bucket they go in the bucket...Ballards had us all spread out from 15 to 28 feet of water. On Sat. the 20th the group in my house of 4 fishermen we put 10 in the bucket. It was a real light bite and had to change up often to trigger them. As it ended up we hade the best results of our entire group for that day. Sunday was even harder...we opted to saty in 27 deeft were we had been the day before but those in shallower requested to come out deeper for the second day. By midway thru that second day, we were joking eachother on the radios that we may have to start keeping those that streched across the top of the coffee can that held the minnows instead of the 5 Gal. bucket. We did manage to keep 11 the second day in our house of 4 but the others did not do as well. The big fish of the trip were a pair of 17" Saugers the first day and three 14" sauger the second day out of the 18 fishermen..Lessons learned... 1) Change presentation often, going smaller each time, 2) one dead stick and one jigging. If you missed em on the jigger you usualy picked up a bite on the dead stick. 3)Gold, or Glow 4) next time stop and fish URL for some crappies on the way up, and or on the way home...All in all we had a great time, shared some good stories and made some new memories.

[bturck]

USA: Nice to hear that you had a good expierance to the big pond. It has definitley been a tougher bite as of late and the downsizing you did was the way to go. We found the same thing last week. HOpe you plan another trip next year and enjoy it even more. There is no place like it. Bill

[SD Fisher]

USA,<BR>Glad you enjoyed the fishing ! <BR>Thank you from all of us for serving your country and for serving us.