Aside from running all over the city to get bait, everything was in order, the gear was packed, we were armed with dead and live shiners from Bowzog, worms from crappy tire, and Manotick Bait finally received their shipment of small minnows just in time. I set the alarm for 3:15 am and went to bed. Now what trip with Mike would be complete without something going wrong?? I woke to a vibrating cell phone at 3:55 am; a text message from Mike “Should I bring a thermos� Apparently I only set the alarm clock, I didn’t turn it on. Anyway after a long string of profanity spewed out of my mouth, I was on my way. The sled was loaded and we were off. Departing 49 minutes later than planned.
There’s nothing I hate more than missing the sunrise bite. So what to do?? The petal in the Chevy is to the floor and we’re making good time, but not good enough to make it for sunrise. So now the usual happens. We start playing with the idea of changing lakes. I said what the hell, so after nearly 30 minutes of coin tossing, and debating, we picked our new lake. One neither of us have been to, but the stocking numbers looked promising.
We still missed the early morning arrival, but the day was looking good. The temperature in the truck read -18, but the sun was blazing hot. We get onto out first spot, a long shallow point with a steep drop running out from shore, and off to the side of the underwater point. I start punching holes, and Mike started taking depth readings. 25 holes later, we’re happy with our spread of holes. Two lines are set, and we beginning jumping from hole to hole, jigging various baits. Three hours of this and no bites. “Nothing we’re not used to†I say to Mike.
At 10:00 am we decide to try and find a mid-water hump that appears on our map. After drilling another 31 holes, we can’t find it. Oh well, let’s get some lines in here and try it out until lunch time. Lines are set and we begin running and gunning with the jigging sticks. Around 11:30 I noticed my windlass tip-up is acting strange. Just as I grabbed the line to feel for a fish, I felt him rip the minnow off. After a couple jigs with no bait on I get a hit. OK, he’s still down there, pull the line up, tip it with a tiny tasty dace and send it back down. After one minute the fish was on. Hand over hand coming up from 17 feet of water. A heavy fish. I’m thinking sweet, finally a fish and a decent one at that. First lesson learned, don’t start thinking sweet until it’s on the ice. I didn’t even get a look at her, but she definitely had some weight to her.
At this point, Mike decides to head back to the first spot. I decided to stay here for another 15 minutes and see if she had any friends with her. Mike is too far away to see what exactly is going on, but I can see him doing circles around his hole. I immediately know what is going on. He’s trying to keep his line from cutting on the sides of the hole. After a short battle, I see him on his kness, and a fish come air-bourne out of the hole. I thought it had to be a good fish if I could see it at this distance. I start packing my stuff up and Mike comes to pick me up. Says’ it’s his second best splake. I’m just thinking good, the skunk is off, the weather is nice and it’s almost lunch time. The fish was around 3 lbs. After a couple quick pics, we’re jigging again, looking for another.
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After jumping a few more holes, Mike is into another one, and another good one at that. After a couple good runs, I can see the fish below the 3.5 feet of ice. And it is another beauty. Definitely bigger than the one already on the ice. After circling the whole about 7 times, the fish bumps the ice and away it goes. One fish on the ice, and two lost. Not good stats so far. We jumped holes for another 10 minutes and then decided it was time to spark up the fire and get the hot dogs going.
The afternoon rolls on, the early morning wake up, the hot afternoon sun, and the 4 hotdog lunch was taking it’s toll on me. Mike was going to bomb around the lake to look for blood from the day before, so I decided to have a lay down in the sled. I no sooner got comfortable and Mike says “do you have a minnow on your jigging rodâ€, I say “No Whyâ€, he says “I think your getting a biteâ€. I said “Mike don’t F**k with me, I need to rest for a bitâ€. He says “I’m seriousâ€. The thing with Mike is, I never know when he’s serious. So I look around to see my ultra light St. Croix bouncing like it’s being attacked by pan fish. After I picked up the rod and set the hook, I knew it wasn’t a pan fish. It was rock solid, and immediately started peeling line. And I mean peeling line. The ultra light was doubled over and I was afraid it was going to break. The 5 minute battle was a team effort. I was working the rod, the reel and the drag while Mike had his arm down the hole keeping my line from scraping the edges. The only words spoken during the battle (beside a whole pile “Holy $hit’s†and “Oh my god’s†was Mike stating “it’s a big maleâ€. I didn’t think I was going to be able to get the head started. We finally tired him out and when Mike pulled it out and onto the ice, I almost soiled myself. This would be my PB splake, and the colours were amazing. When I grabbed the fish to take the hook out, it was almost straightened. Here’s a couple pics of me and my PB. I kept the fish and I am considering getting a mount. Not necessarily for the size of it, but mainly for the colours. I will be buying my first house this summer and this Splake along with the 10 point buck (my first deer ever) will be a good start to my “game roomâ€.
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Needless to say after that fish, I no longered felt tired. We continued to fish until 6:00 pm, but didn’t get any other bites. The day ended with two decent fish landed, two decent fish lost, and two MAJOR sun burns. Mike has the full red face going, and I have the white forehead and coon eyes.
After a long winter of F’ed up outings with Mike, this trip justified all the BS we went through.
Will we get out one more time this weekend?? Who knows!!
