February 28th, it's here already!

Sunset on Lake of the Woods

 February 28th marks one of the more interesting days of my fishing past.  In  the state of Minnesota all permanent ice houses located south of Highway 2 (which runs from Duluth to East Grand Forks) must be off the lake, period.  My CRS does not allow me the exact year however it was probably in the late 1970's or early 1980's.  My good friend Mark Taylor introduced me to his brother-in-law Tim Guzek.  He had introduced us to fishing Lake John, just west of Annandale.  I would say that it was my go to lake for many years.  Well one year Mark, Tim, Mark's brother Jack, and I decided that we would build a relatively inexpensive "permanent" ice fishing house out of simple chip board, it was pretty simple.  We all pooled our money and bought 12 pcs of 4' x 8' x 1/2 inch panels plus a few 2 x 4's and 2 x 2's for strength and build a crude but effective fish house. I don't remember who got the small barrel stove for heating it with wood but either way we were in ice fish heaven at the time, as there were no portables at the time.  We had somehow befriended a home owner on the lake who let us access the lake through his land which was very nice as our fish house was straight off his shore.  That year we had a ton of snow.  Not being smart enough to lift the house up out of the slush, it was around February 14, just 2 weeks before we needed to remove the house from the lake, when we decided to start getting ready for this event.  The rumors of what would happen if you didn't get the house off the ice ranged from revoking your fishing license to huge fines that young guys like us couldn't pay, even prison sentencing!  Upon arriving at the fish house to our horror, the entire floor had about 4 inches of ice on top of it and was frozen solid.  Now what.  Well it didn't take too long before 4 of us had the perfect solution,  went into town and bought 2 bags of water softener salt pellets.   We dumped both bags on the floor and spread them evenly thinking that the salt would eventually melt the ice and free the ice house from the lake's grip.  Of course it needed time to work so we left, coming back on the 28th to see where we were.  Opening the door we were pleasantly surprised that the ice was completely gone from the top of the floor.  this was going to be a piece of cake!  Well after chipping ice for an hour it was apparent that the ice had gripped the bottom of the floor and wasn't going to yield to our wishes.  There were a few guys in our situation, trying to get their houses off, when one walked up to us, took a look and said that he could set our house free.....just go into town and buy a box of 30-06 shells.  While we continued to chip away one of us went into town and bought the shells.  Upon returning the guy had his hunting rifle in hand as we gave him the shells.  I don't even remember if he had hearing protection, never the less went inside and proceeded to shoot the bullets through the floor, all 20 of them.  Came out and said "There you go, good luck".  The purpose made sense, the bullets would hit the ice and shatter it causing it to release it's grip on our house.  Unfortunately it didn't work as planned and with only a few hours of light left we decided to simply take apart the house piece by piece.  Having an old snowmobile trailer we piled the pieces on the trailer as we disassembled it.  At last all we had was the stuck floor.  Using ice chisels and pry bars we finally got the floor off the ice however it was not recognizable after our efforts.  Ready to go we secured our now defunct ice house, stopping in Monticello where a friend had a house an 5 acres of field, he let us drop it off as none of use really had a place to put the pile of wood.  That was our last effort in having a permanent ice house as flip over portables became readily available.  It still was pretty funny as this date brings back those struggles as young and inexperienced guys often have.  Thanks Mark, Jack, and Tim for the memories! My first picture is sunset on Lake of the Woods from 2 weeks ago.  It had to be -25F however the moon and the colors were simply stunning!

Jared's Trophy Hogfish

So the plan was to go to Lake of the Woods this weekend but a few calls about the current bite status and I decided to wait till March 12th.  Mistakenly assumed that Ben Aiona would be back from Florida by now but I was off a week and he is still there absorbing the last of the beautiful sunshine.  Ben will be back in time for our mid March trip, assuming he needs to pull his shack home, as well my wheel house.  In our talks about Florida, the idea of going out on a charter was discussed.  Ben, his wife Heather, and son Jared were scheduled for earlier this week however the weather proved to force them to move it on Friday.  I was really excited to see how Jared did as he is one dedicated fisherman!  Well to my surprise I received a number of pictures of the trip including this one of the nice Hogfish he caught.  I can just imagine the craziness on the boat when he pull this fish in sight.  Pictures say a thousand words but in this case and knowing Jared, it doesn't even come close, and the picture says a lot!!!  Apparently the captain claims this is a pretty nice sized trophy hogfish, telling Ben he should get a graphite reproduction!  In another picture Jared pulled up an octopus that he hooked.  I just can't imagine!  It looks like they got a few nice grouper, some small snappers and a number of rockfish type fish that sometimes you just never know what you'll catch.  Like a lot of gulf charters I have been on they were out 30 miles and it's still relatively shallow.  It appears to be a nice day and the waves look tame enough, it makes me want to fly down.  Anyway I am looking forward to our next trip and discussing this adventure.  Ben is planning on going to Lake Erie at the end of April and has invited us with.  It's a dream trip for me and at this time am planning to go.  We are now about 10 1/2 weeks from Fishing Opener, I am already starting to get ready.   More on that next week!