Better late than never. The Pentoga Road ice fishing season officially began on Wednesday

January 7, 2015 - Thursday

25 degrees/cloudy/calm

Pentoga Road

I'm having a hard time getting going this morning. I'd set the coffee pot to automatically come on at 5 AM. Come to find out, it wasn't going to begin perking until 5 PM. Who wants to wait another twelve hours for a cup of coffee?

Then I had a difficult time getting the fire going. Being too lazy to step outside to gather kindling from a box kept just for that purpose, I tried to start a fire using whole pieces of wood, almost logs. I might as well tried rubbing two sticks of wet wood together.

I began typing an email. I must have had my eyes closed because when I opened them after writing a paragraph, I saw that my fingers had been positioned one whole row too high making everything look like a foreign code. 

To add insult to injury, after checking online this morning, we discovered we didn't win the huge Power Ball lottery last night. I felt certain that the 645 million dollars would be ours and Sargie wouldn't have to go to work today. Darn it.

Thankfully, Wednesday was much smoother. I sneaked outside at first light and saw that the heated seat in the Blazer had been unplugged the day before and the battery was fully charged.

The conditions are right, the equipment ready; time to go fishing!

I needed to use epoxy to glue the tips of the skis on which the ice fishing tent/sled sits. The tips had cracked last season when I got in a hurry and had yanked the thing from the back of the Blazer. By the time I returned from my usual three mile walk, the epoxy was dry and the skis were good to go.

I really hadn't intended to go fishing until after lunch, but it had been a full year and my rod and reel hand was itchy. 

Not knowing what kind of ice conditions I might encounter, I wore a life preserver under my winter coat, something I'd learned while traveling over questionable rivers in Alaska on snowmobile. At least if I went crashing through the ice, I'd only go in waist deep.

As it turned out, I had nothing to fear. Walking a quarter mile around the shore, I turned towards the middle of the lake and began test-drilling holes over 25 feet of water. There was a minimum of four inches, a maximum of six. The ice was safe and thick enough.

I sat out in the open for most the afternoon. The temperatures were in the lower 30's with little wind.

A quick flag on a tip up started my day. I soon landed a small northern, the type we use for canning.

The first flag of the season

Our local lake is full of small northerns and with a limit of five (normally two) the DNR has encouraged anglers to keep the smaller ones. We like canned fish. I clean, then cut my northern into chunks, bones and all, and pressure cook them, a process that dissolves all the bones and seals the meat in canning jars. We prepare the canned fish the same as tuna salad.

Six hours of fishing saw me catching my limit of northerns along with a huge bluegill. I lost several other fish, something I seem adept at doing as I get older, but I had a lot of fun and something to show for my effort. I never did find any crappies, my target fish, but I'll move around, especially next week, when there's enough ice to support the four-wheeler. They can run, but they can't hide. 

It was dark by the time I got home last night. After a quick shower, I prepared winter squash, green beans, (both from last summer's garden) and grilled hamburgers outside.

I went ahead and ate my supper as Sargie wasn't due to arrive home until much later.

The pickles are from the garden also. The squash is so sweet that no brown sugar is needed.

Our evening together was short last night as Sargie had to close. We talked as she ate supper and bedtime came soon after.

I think I'll forgo walking this morning and be out on the ice shortly after first light with a goal of being back home by noon. There is laundry to do and I want to work in the shop this afternoon. 

Sargie opens today so she should be home fairly early tonight.

It's time to look at yesterday's pictures and get those uploaded.

Some last minute tweaks to the Clam (ice fishing sled/tent) were made Tuesday morning before going fishing.

After all, a man's work is never done.

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...