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.

Pimp My Sled

Before & After: For an improved riding experience.



Ripped out all the two-up components and turned my sled into a single seater since I only ride solo. Ditched a few unnecessary pounds, reduced clutter, and improved rider room to maneuver. Slapped on a roughfisher.com sticker to boot. The increased storage area on the rear of the tunnel will come in handy when hauling cargo on expeditionary fishing excursions. May even ditch the molded plastic side rails for a more spartan look. Any pounds that can be shed from this tank is a bonus. Looks like I got myself a custom long track trail machine.

holding pattern

The fly tying is currently on hiatus. Pretty hard to get motivated for anything really, during the doldrums of a long dark spell; a funk. New snow and freshly groomed trails trump the fly tying card in the dead of winter. Maybe later. For now, I've got some pow to ride. Get 'em started young.

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.

The Cats are loose

After having to endure a winter of constant bombardment of snowmobilers taking the trail that goes right outside my office window, I took the day off to ride. Temperatures were unseasonably mild and broke the freezing mark. Mrs. Roughfisher accompanied me today and we ventured out onto the trails of Becker and Clearwater Counties.

We broke trail at Itasca State Park, home of the headwaters of the Mississippi River. If you've ever wondered what the headwaters look like in the dead of winter, here's your opportunity.


With the warm weather, the trails inside the park were starting to get beat down and were full of moguls; a mark of wannabes and discourteous riders. Once we got out of the Park and in to the White Earth State Forest, the riding improved dramatically. Thanks go out to the Naytahwaush Nightriders for keeping their trails groomed and in tip top shape, despite the weather conditions.


It was a great day for riding. We may not have put on a ton of miles today, but the views were fantastic. The weather was perfect; not too cold, not too hot. The fact that we only met two groups on the trails for the entire day was outstanding. The roughfisher clan had a great time.

Can't wait to get back on the trails again. Cheers!


- the roughfisher

Happy Birthday?

The roughfisher celebrates another birthday today. I'm old enough to be able feel the aches and pains associated with getting up in the morning that I didn't notice in my 20's, even after a bout of socially fueled binge drinking, but still young enough where I don't need to hear the snap of the glove during a physical examination. The present waiting for me when I awoke this morning? Over 6" of fresh snow.

The region has officially had the snowiest December on record, logging over 30" of snow this month. Typically the our region will average between 40-45" inches of snow for the season. That may not seem like much to you mountain folks, but you also need to remember that the snow here doesn't melt. With an annual mean temp of 39.7°F in Detroit Lakes, the average January high temp is 15.8°F and the average low temp -6.3°F. That is an average of 180 days of the year below 32°F, and 58 days below 0°F.

Cold. Damn cold.

Who knows what the rest of the winter will bring us, but what I do know, as I was freezing my ass off snow blowing the driveway this afternoon, is that all this snow has made for some excellent snowmobiling conditions. I'll leave you with a few photos from my ride at Maplewood State Park yesterday.






Cheers!

- the roughfisher