Sunset

I think it's finally time to hang up the long rods for the season, get out the shorties, and fire up the ice auger. Winter's arrival has the lakes pinging from the formation of new ice, sounds reminiscent of the Hunt For Red October. Fishing villages are starting to sprout up as each ice house fights to get set up on their honey hole. It's about that time to hit the ice and do a little harvesting.


While the 2011 fly fishing season included some memorable moments and fantastic adventures, most notably my excursion to Beaver Island, it was also matched with much regret. This past season has probably marked my fewest number of days on the water, which is not something that I am proud to report. High flows early on in the season, as well as domestic issues, kept me off the river for much of the year. While I will never be one to shirk my responsibilities as parent and denigrate the role, my priorities have recognizably focused on duties and activities other than fishing. I am hoping for resolve over the winter, in hopes that the situation will improve. I will will also make a better effort to get my kids involved in fly fishing this next year. At ages 3 and 7, hopefully, under my guidance and with a little help from dad, my kids will be able to land their first fish on a fly next season. In addition, they might be lacking the dexterity and maturity to master the skills needed behind the vise, but I will also strive to expose my kids more to the world of fly tying this winter, in efforts that they begin to embrace fly fishing culture. I've already got two great little helpers who are more than enthusiastic about fish and dad's interest in fly fishing. It's been long overdue to have them take the next step forward.

The sun sets on yet another season. I can't wait to get my boots wet in 2012.

The Other Whitefish

Nothing like a little roughfish action through the ice. Cisco, tullibee, lake herring, chub, northern cisco, whatever you call it in your region, Coregonus artedi are freaking tasty, especially when smoked.

walter on ice

A classic prairie winter day out on the ice: whiteout.


Fitting that it's the Winter Solstice and I'm putting up a post on ice fishing the frozen white north. When in Rome... After several nights of wrenching and speaking my finest German, I finally got the snowmobile repaired. A fishing venture out last winter in heavy powder resulted in my muffler getting a bit hot, melting the main wiring harness on my sled. Not a good situation. The fine folks at Arctic Cat went a little light on the heat shield tape and also thought that it was a great idea to lay the harness down in the belly pan first, and then install the motor, chaincase, clutches, and everything else in the sled on top of it. As I sat cutting apart the melted birds nest of wires and re-taping the bare wire, I was hoping that this was gonna do the trick, as I didn't want to pop the $150 bones for a new harness, nor the hours of labor to install it. While I was in their redoing the wiring, I also gutted the restrictive factory air box and put on a K&N oval filter right on the throttle body and a K&N breather filter on the valve cover. Once I finished taping everything up with heat foil, I turned the ignition on with success. Fixed. Now my sled is as tricked out as it's gonna get as well as turning a few more ponies under the hood. She's an ice fishing mo-chine!


I figured that it was about time my lazy ass got out from behind the vise and put my boots on. I sucked it up and loaded up trailer after topping off its tires with air and re-torquing the lug nuts. Of course, I decided to make the maiden voyage of the season in a gotdamn snowstorm. The wind was a sumbitch, blowing the snow sideways. Nothing says fun like frozen crystals of ice jabbing you in the cornea. I made it on to the highway and drove to a lake on the edge of town. I unloaded my gear and hooked up the portable ice house to the snowmobile. Time to hit the ice. Once I got on the lake I saw how much fun I was going to have; I couldn't see a thing. For those of you who've never ridden a snowmobile before, driving blind into a whiteout is not the ideal thing to do. Hitting a snowdrift my surprise at 40 mph towing a portable is more excitement than one shall be allowed to have. Catching air on a touring sled, especially by surprise, is enough to have to go change your shorts. Lucky for me, I actually learn from my past mistakes, and took it slow on my way out this time. Even with my GPS guiding me at 20 mph, it still sucked.



Ice fishing isn't for the faint of heart. A 20 mph wind on wet hands can make your outing go bad in a hurry. Tip number one is to face your back to the wind. Tip number two is to wear a coat with a hood. Keeping the wind of your face can go a long way to keeping you warm while out scouting. I'd also recommend a pair of warm boots. As a set out making some swiss cheese, I found a nice spot on a flat in 10 FOW adjacent to a few deep water breaks. I grabbed my search rod set up, a small tungsten teardrop jig tipped with a waxie. I set up at the hole and dropped it down, a foot off the bottom. I marked a fish fairly quickly and had an earnest strike. I was figuring that I set up on top a school of small perch, but when I set the hook there was resistance. At first I thought I had hooked a pike. Typically on these flats, a predator will lurk off in the weedbeds looking for an easy meal. Reeling in the fish, it gave me a few decent runs, pulling line from the reel while my drag screamed. When I got the fish to the hole I was expecting a snot rocket. To my surprise, I pulled a nice chunky 18" walleye out from the hole. Bonus! A totally unexpected surprise.


Now don't go sending me hate mail because I posted a photo of a walleye. I know I give the fish a fair amount of abuse and bashing here, but ice fishing is different. Pretty damn tough to fly fish through the ice, so winter is the only time I resort to using bait and soft plastics. In addition, the only time I harvest fish is during the cold water months. I know that I'm the "roughfisher", but walleye is fair game through the ice (even though it is still boring) as are most other gamefish species. I've also been known to pursue salmonids through the ice. Tasty salmonids. I love eating fish, and so does my family. Might as well get my money's worth for my license fees.

And yes, that walleye was delicious.

damn roughfish

Nothing but the state fish, Sander vitreus, and their cousins, Perca flavescens. I was holding out for some delicious burbot but their ship never came in. Foiled again.

Don't take candy from strangers

Finally took to the ice for the first fishing expedition of 2010. A bit slacking behind years past, but the roughfisher has been plenty busy this winter. Got the tow rig set up, hooked up the portable, and hit the lake. Plenty of powder on the lake; I can't remember the last time there had been this much snow on the lakes at this time of year. Typically, the snows blow of the lake and drift along the edges, leaving only a hard pack on the open portion.


The first spot I stopped is a known tullibee spot. Drilled a bunch of holes and marked nothing. Typical, as it was already 1000. Those tullies, like many salmonids, seem to favor the sunrise period for high activity. I moved on. Got to the next spot and found some perch. The first fish of 2010 was a short little stubber. When I grabbed her from the hole she dropped some eggs; getting ready for the spawn.


Kept moving in search of some tullibees, crappies, anything that'd take a waxie. The slush was bad in some spots and the powder was almost knee deep. I've never seen the sled have to work so hard to get anywhere. She let me know too, the water temp light came on after a 20 mile ride across the lake. Between high powder, deep slush, and wide open throttle riding, the tunnel started to ice up and she was getting hot.



These little runts were everywhere. If only their mothers knew that they were having contact with strangers. They need a few more ice cream seasons before I'll consider getting serious. Until then, they'll make a mighty fine snack for any esocid or larger percid.

ice lines

Happy Winter Solstice! I recently picked up a few new ice fishing lines to test this season. I have fished the Berkley Trilene Micro Ice line for the past four seasons with much success. Most of those situations, however, were in shallow water (less than 20 feet) targeting panfish and salmonids. I found myself in a few circumstance where I was fishing in deep water, depths of 50 to 100 feet plus, targeting tullibees (ciscos), crappies, carp and buffalo, requiring a low stretch line. Monofilament line is notorious for stretching; sometimes this can be an advantage, preventing a fish from easily spitting the hook or breaking you off. Attempting to set the hook on a fish in 70 feet of water is a different story, however, and stretch can be your own worst enemy.


Anyone who has fished a superbraid knows that the lines are a double edged sword. Tough, low memory, abrasion resistant line is great against the toothy critters, but can be heel on rod guides and even tougher to cut tag ends. Trying to break off on a snag can be a nightmare; you'll likely break the rod before breaking the line. I have fished the first generation of Berkley's Fire Line Micro Ice and wasn't too impressed. The line was so limp it was tough to feed through a half frozen hole. What was worse, the line would eventually freeze stiff and it was a bitch peeling ice crystals off the line in order for it to pass through the guides and back on to the reel. Now, there is a new version of the line on the market, a fused version where the braid is completely covered and smooth, Berkley Fire Line fused Micro Ice Crystal. Hopefully this thermally fused line will eliminate water absorption and freeze up, as well as reducing guide wear. These lines are ultra sensitive and are unreal for detecting strikes.

Other entries on the market are the Gamma ESP Ice and Suffix Ice Magic lines. The Suffix Ice Magic is a monofilament line with an extremely low diameter. This is an excellent low memory line and the Neon Orange color is a great hi-vis line. My friend and fellow Pro Staffer at HotSpotOutdoors had great success fishing with it last season and highly recommends it. The Gamma ESP Ice comes with highly anticipated. In case you didn't know, Gamma are also the producers of Frog Hair tippet. It is a Copolymer line, much like the Gamma copoly line I have used when tossing gear or meat. I loved the way this line performed; it was tough on the rocks, and really played fish well. I never had a knot failure fishing this line and developed some bad habits along the way. The line and knots were so tough that I would neglect checking them. That's the beauty of modern engineering. Hopefully, this ESP Ice line will perform to the same standards as the regular copoly line.

Looks like I'll be busy re-rigging my ice rods. Hopefully we'll get a bit more ice and and a little more snow so that I can take my snowmobile out on the ice to pull my portable fish house. It's ice fishing season.

arctic cats

Putting off the inevitable, I finally got around to my much procrastinated final fall maintenance. The lawn tractor was serviced and the mower deck swapped out for the snow blower. I changed the oil in the T660 and greased up both snowmobiles. Enjoying a balmy November rife with 40 and 50 degree temperatures, it isn't hard to understand why I put off those chores. I took every opportunity I could get to fish the river; a rare Fall where I didn't fight iced over guides, fly lines or pools. It was only a matter of time before winter reared its ugly mug.


They say we will fall victim to El Niño this winter up in Northwestern Minnesota, warmer temperatures coupled with average to below average snowfall for the season. Southern Minnesota is getting pounded as we speak with a forecast 16+ inches of snow. I hope for the sake of my Cats we end up getting some snow here up north. But I can wait another couple weeks until the lakes get a good solid layer of driveable ice. The 7 day forecast looks solid for ice production.


Nothing left to do but get the ice fishing gear ready, load the sleds on the trailer, and pick a lake. When the cold winds of the north blow a little too harsh for the roughfisher, I can take comfort knowing that I can spend the evenings behind the vise nicely toasted, in the comforts of home. Until then, bring on the snow.


Looks like I'm over it.