Lake John is a small L shaped body of water just west of Annandale MN. I was introduced to the lake over 30 years ago by Tim Guzek, a good friend of mine. At the time our quarry was northerns fished with a bobber and medium sucker minnows. After a successful day of catching pike and crappies, the lake became on of my favorites. Over the years there has been many successful trip bagging mostly crappies and sunfish along with the occasional northern and largemouth bass. It was such a good lake that one year we decided to put a permanent ice house on the ice. Fishing was great and we had a wonderful time. That year was exceptional and the snow piled deep on the lake. Our house was not very sturdy and built on a simple 2 x 4 frame. It got to the point where the weight on the ice was heavy enough to cause the water to gush up through the holes drilled in the floor. Towards the end there was about 3 inches of solid ice covering the entire inside of the house. In Minnesota one needs to remove their ice houses by March 1st. The house was definitely stuck to the ice. Our first strategy was to pour rock salt on the ice covering the floor in hopes to melt it away. That actually worked pretty good as we came back the next day and the ice was gone, melted and drained away. Hoping that it did the same for the ice below the floor, no such luck, it was still frozen solid to the lake. As we were chipping away a young man came by and asked if we wanted some help and claimed he could get it free. You just need to buy me a box of 30-06 shells and he would take care of it! Chipping in we bought the shells and returned to the lake where he proceeded to shoot rounds through the floor claiming the bullets would shatter the ice and voila. Well 20 rounds later and severe ringing in our ears proved unsuccessful. We ended up tearing the house down side by side and dismantled the floor. Totally ruined but off the ice, that ended our experiment with permanent ice houses.
Today I still enjoy a yearly trip to Lake John, hoping for some nice crappies and sunfish. Last Sunday night my neighbor Lory Brasel and I did just that. Lory was interested in getting some northerns as I was looking for anything that bit. Although we did not slay the fish, we did accomplish our goals. Taking his lund it was nice to have someone else take the controls. Lory got a couple of small northerns as this one he is holding while I nailed a few crappies, sunfish, a number of small bass and a larger one which I am holding. Nothing too large it was nice to get out for a few hours. It was a peaceful way to spend last Saturday night. I will have a report on my annual trip to Mille Lacs with Mr. Teasley in a few days.
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