Spring has Sprung.......in December

On Lake Pulaski

After a hectic week in San Diego and spending some time with my Taiwanese friend Jeffery it was time to get back to work.  It looks like I had the flu for the last ten days as I really didn't feel very well until the weekend.  As stated last week the weather was predicted to be in the high 40's and low 50's and the weatherman was right this time!  It was sort of like a temperature inversion had settled over the area and by Monday all the snow was pretty much gone everywhere.  With a few hours available I called my friend Pete Mliner as we had talked earlier in the day about heading out to a local lake near Buffalo.  I used to do well at the lake but the last few years it's been a struggle and with Pelican Lake being my local go to lake, my other previous haunts were forgotten.  Now that Pelican has froze out last year and the DNR is lowering the levels (that's another topic!) it's time to re-explore these older lakes as well as new ones. After stopping by Cabela's in the morning my afternoon cleared and I picked up Pete around 2:00.  It was interesting because we were going to Lake Pulaski and he had a friend on the lake where we could park our truck and walk out.  Arriving at the house we were greeted by Mark Haskins, and old Team Walleye member.  I guess I was the only one surprised as everyone assumed I knew, funny.  So after catching up on things and unloading we headed out on the lake and drilled some holes with Pete's new drill adaptor/auger.  It actually worked pretty good as the ice was a solid 12 inches, it took a little to get used to but we drilled quite a few holes.  As you can see there was a lot of water on the ice and my first hole became a drain for the rest of the day.  Moving from hole to hole we managed to get 7 crappies, the biggest about 10 inches. Nothing to brag about it was still nice to get out and renew at least one of my old fishing holes. Once the sun went down the bite stopped so we headed back home.

Andy with a nice walleye

The balance of the week has been getting prepared for our next visit to Red Lake for the weekend. This trip is going to include my brother Steve, Nephew Kevin, and good friend Kevin Aiona as we plan on heading up on Thursday afternoon for 3 nights of what hoping to be a great weekend of ice fishing.  As stated a few weeks ago I have left my Salem Ice Cabin at JR's Resort on Red Lake so it's pretty easy to drive on up, hook onto the truck and take it out.  My friend Mark is heading up 6 hours earlier and with a little luck he'll have the spot ready for us, maybe even have some fish to eat for supper!  Last week my friend Andy Achman was at Red with his newly acquired Ice Castle and they did pretty well.  He sent me a report where him and his brother Pete, both Team Walleye veterans, had caught over 40 walleyes after a few nights out of JR's.  He stated they had to move once but caught all the fish they needed to eat and bring home.  Parking his rig next to mine, I tried to convince him to join us this week but he's too busy.  Here's hoping the walleye's are still hitting as the weather forecasts are quite stable for the next 5 days, which is perfect for the walleye bite.  With the near zero temperatures the last few days warming up to the high 20's for Thursday thru Sunday, it should be perfect.   There is absolutely no snow on the ice and it might be a good time to practice putting on my tire chains just in case we get stuck.

Christmas is just around the corner and as always, it's moving too fast.  Although all the snow is gone it looks like Sunday through Tuesday may just give us enough snow to have a White Christmas. With the 25th falling on a Thursday this year it really breaks up the week, and not necessarily in a good way.  With a little luck I'll do well this week and be back up the next.