hit the ice

My 12V gel batteries are charged and ready to go. My Vexilar flasher is all set, and the Lowrance GPS unit is equipped with my Lakemaster MN lake maps card. The ice auger has been fueled up and a test run performed on the engine. I added another tied down loop to my portable. Portable heater, 1 lb propane canisters, and LED lantern, check. Tire pressures and axle grease checked on my trailer. Snowmobile ready to load. Rods are rigged up with new line, and my new ice jigs were added to my tackle box. I even picked up an underwater camera with a 7" monitor this afternoon, to help aid in my quest for roughfish through the ice. All I need is to pick up a few few dozen wax worms on the way to the lake tomorrow morning, and I'm all set to go.

Typically I have all this stuff done by the beginning of November. However, a new roughfisher and the desire to fight ice-up with my fly rod, allowed me to put off these tasks until late December. That's just not acceptable by Minnesotan standards. It's getting to be a bit late for the "early ice" action, as folks have been ice fishing here in town since before Thanksgiving. I'm not gonna let that stop me though; I'm ready now. I've got an agenda to find some roughfish, and I'm not gonna walk away empty handed. My goal for the season, is to catch at least one roughfish species through the ice. A buffalo, carp , redhorse, or other sucker, I don't care, as long as one of them makes their way up through an eight-inch hole through the ice.

I'm on a mission.


- the roughfisher