Perpetual Ruminations

Tuesday

Good afternoon; a very good afternoon, indeed. I am on my second day off, I slept in and wok rested and feeling good. The sun is shining and it's a beautiful day. It is a bit cold out yet, only eleven degrees, Fahrenheit. It should be three or four times warmer this time of year, but not much we can do about it. It is sunny, calm, and will warm to about thirty today.

It's suppose to hit forty by Friday, but we will see. I don't know if I work this weekend or not, but if not, it may be the last chance to get out on the ice for fishing this season. With temperatures in the upper thirties and forties the ice will go fast. That's why we will get out there for a while today.

I still have to call my brother to see what's up, but if he is not going, Rhonda and I will still go out. We can pull the shelter out and enjoy the afternoon. I doubt he will not be going, so we will likely load out stuff with his and drive out. This is the first time she has come with, and I'm kind of excited. I'm not sure how Len will feel about it, but I think he will be alright with her coming along out. I hope so, anyway.

So, for now, this is it for my entry. I will likely be back later with some more, but then again, if it's late when we come in off the lake, maybe not. I do have to do some other stuff too, for work. That should not take very long, and if worse comes to worse, I can also get that done tomorrow.

We are back from the lake, it is ten o'clock here, and we have been home about an hour. It was a pretty good day out on the lake, but not what I had hoped for. We got to my brother's a bit later than we had intended, and he was sitting out in the truck waiting. Not sure what was up with that, but we loaded our stuff into his pickup and headed out. We have been going to a lake on the edge of town, but going a couple miles out to the west end of the lake. Not far west end, but a bit west of middle. We found a good spot and have been doing pretty well there every time we go.

Well, the second to the last time, some guy kept coming over and bullshitting with us. He acted a bit strange, and sounded even more out of it. I'm not sure if it ws mind altering drugs, or maybe he was just intellectually challenged, but he was not right. He kept telling us he was catching all these fish just twenty yards south of us. He would make a lot of noise, hollering and such, then claim he had another big fish. We never seen the fish, but he claimed he had his limit already and had to release them.

After about a half hour, forty-five minutes, he went back to his vehicle and his own fishing holes. This was another twenty or thirty yards  away, but he told my brother that we should move over to the hot spot he had caught all these fish at. My brother seems easily  convinced, so we moved everything over to this spot, even though I had already caught a couple of nice Pike where we where fishing.

Of course, we didn't do anything at the new spot for most of the afternoon. Towards sunset, my brother finally caught one perch and one Pike, not anything big, but keepers. The buffoon, or what ever he was, took off, but stopped by to see if we had been catching any fish. I took the liberty to check out his vehicle, since he had done so well and had a limit of big perch and nice Pike. I seen the one perch that he had caught, or claimed to have, anyway. That was it. I think he takes that one damn fish around all over and tosses it on the ice, tells people he just caught it, then moves and does the same.

Seriously, the only fish I seen this nut catch, was a perch about a foot long. He was making a big to do over it, and yelling for us to come see his monster fish. We, my brother and I, walked over, and sure enough he had a nice jumbo perch. That was why my brother was convinced to move over there. I wasn't quite as impressed, seeing as how he had just caught the fish and we seen him drop it on the ice less than a minute after he said he caught it. Now, we did not actually see him pull the fish from the water, just heard him going off and seen him toss the fish onto the ice.

Right after he tossed the fish, we walked over. Maybe a minute, two max to cover the ground. There on the ice was the fish, but it was not flopping around at all. In fact, it did not even move. It was not even laying flat, it was kind of bowed, and froze solid. Like I said, he probably had caught this fish who knows where, and any chance he could get, would "re-catch" the same fish to impress people.

Now, I looked in his truck, he one perch and a small Pike, that was it. That was his limit. But he claimed different and my brother sucked it all in and moved. I point this out so that you will understand what took place today. But, before I do, I will also point out that the area we had been fishing, that had been giving us plenty of fish, was good from about noon to about five. back then, it would get dark about then, as well. A few other people fished right in that same area, so it was often difficult to get the right spot. But anywhere in the area seemed to do good, but that one spot was great.

Some of these people told my brother that this kid, who lived on the lake someplace, would come out after five and catch his limit of Walleyes. Every night, or at least almost every night. So, my brother started going out later and staying till after dark. We didn't do any good, but we had to try, because they said. Not only did we never catch anything after sunset, but we were almost always the last ones off that lake, no one else ever showed up. It was all a lie.

So back to today. I had my wife with, for the first time. She had ice fished a few times, but never had any fun, so she decided not to go anymore. This was pre-me. With her ex-husband it was always a disaster, and ice fishing was even worse. She was a little fearful of being on a frozen lake and he would make sure he had her scared senseless by the time they came in. So, she would not go out with me, she just didn't care to. I was fine with that, and we both kind of did our own thing instead of going fishing together, well ice fishing anyway.

But, after I bought the shelter and she helped me get it cleaned up and ready to go, she started showing some interest. I gave her an offer to go along and try it once, and see if she enjoyed it or not. She was willing, so today was the big day for us to go. We were both excited, and eager. I had been meeting my brother at the lake, so I thought this would work fine, we could do the dame and if she did not like it, we could head in and not ruin his day of fishing. Also, know we always catch some Pike there at that spot, I was sure Rhonda would get to catch a few. I had it planned to let her use the right tackle so that I would know she would catch something.

Instead, when I called, he was still at home. We met him at his house and rode out together. I knew this was not going to be the best because he drives like a nut on the lake, and Rhonda would be a bit nervous anyway. Still, I can not drive the van out, I would get stuck, so we took what we could get and it was alright. But, my brothers girl friend, who does not care to fish anyway, and refuses to ice fish at all, knew that the Walleyes were biting on the east side of the lake. Her friend told her that her husband Frank caught his limit of Walleye every night between five and six. Sound familiar? Only difference, Frank isn't a kid.

So, do we go to the spot we know is good? No, we have to go where Frank does and we have to fish for Walleye. Not that I mind, but we never catch any on this lake. One all winter, that was it. Also, most of the Walleye I have seen caught in this area, are all too small to even keep. Very few are a foot or more.

No mater, Frank gets his limit every night, so we go out to the east end, but he has no idea where on the east end. We had a few nice spots we could have set up in, but that isn't the way my brother fishes. No you drive around and look to see where other people have fished and set up there. Even when we did stop and set up, he walked around and seen a spot twenty feet away where two fish shelters had sat, but be a better spot, lets move over there.

So we did, and we got set up, again, and we got a couple of holes made for me and Rhonda, set our stuff up and started fishing. With us both in the shelter, there was only room for one hole each, so I told her I would put another hole just outside the door where I could keep an eye on it. Nope, my brother had to start out with a hole there, one on the other side of his shelter, and two inside. It did not matter, I was going to wait and see if we had any luck before I drilled another hole, but it's the idea.

He just has not independent thought, if his girlfriend tells him bass are no good, fish for Walleye, then he does. If Pike are no good, fish for Walleye, he does. She does not fish much, never in the winter, and does not even seem to like fish. But she always hears the guys at work talking about fishing, so she tell him where to go, when to go, and how to fish. He listens, and we end up skunked, each time. If we do go someplace else, he still will not fish anyplace unless someone else is fishing there. I do not understand it, but he cannot fish someplace unless someone else is there.

That was the case today. The east side has never had more than one or two people fish on it, and they never stay long. But now everyone was there, I would guess forty people fishing in the same general area. Not more than a couple actually caught anything that we seen, and the ones who did, had little Pike. Frank had spread the story, it seemed, and now everyone was fishing where Frank got his limit every night.

Well, not everyone. My brother knows who Frank is, and that he drives a jeep. Frank was not on the lake, at all. He called his girlfriend, she called her friend, Frank's wife, and sure enough, Frank had gone fishing, again, like every night. He had his jeep and was on the east side of the lake. Funny, we were there, but neither Frank or his Jeep was any place on the lake. Seems that he fooled everyone. He was fishing some secret spot, on a different lake, and to keep people away, tell them the wrong side of the wrong lake. That is, if Frank is even out fishing, and is even catching his limit every night.

As far as I know, Frank is sitting in South Fork watching the girls dance and strip, drinking beer, and bringing home Walleye fillets from HyVee's fish market. Sure, they would be froze, but then, if your out ice fishing, your fish are froze by the time you come in. I thought about stopping and looking at South Fork, but I don't know Frank, and besides, what difference would it make.

I tend not to listen to fish stories, I learned that years ago. There are a few I would trust, but very few. Besides that, I tend to do my own thing, in my own way. If there are a lot of people fishing in one area, I will more than likely go to the other end of the lake, where no one is fishing. I figure if there are that many people, it's over fished, too much competition for the fish, and it's always noisy.

I always figure that some one has to find the hot spot the rest flock to. The have to go there when no one else is even fishing there, and that is me, I will try here and there, away from the mobs, where it's peaceful, restful, and I can enjoy myself, even if I'm not catching fish.

We are hoping to get out again, if the weather permits. We will try someplace, and hopefully I can watch Rhonda land a two foot Pike on a little ice fishing rod with four pound test line. That's a rush and a half. We keep them, or at least a few of them, fillet them, cut out the "Y" bones, and enjoy a very good tasting fish. As good as any other.