It Doesn’t Get Any Better Than This
One of the things that I truly love and cherish about the place I choose to live, have lived for 41 years, and will live until the day I take my last gasp, is that there is NO OFF SEASON!
Our gaps between outdoors activities are zero, in fact, they often times overlap. We have had fall days where we are in the Barley stubble in the morning shooting Canadas and in the boat on a point trolling for Walleyes and Perch in the afternoon.
We set up on a Snow goose feed on an icy morning in March and then drilled holes for Perch and Crappie in the evening.
The Marathon and The Sprint
It feels, at times, some of the activities in our lives are a mad dash, a sprint. Get in as much as you can in as little time allotted. Get this done, get that done, hurry up, times almost up.
Open Water Fishing, Waterfowl Hunting, and Ice Fishing are nothing like this, nothing at all.
They are marathons.
Our Open Water Fishing season goes from Late March/Early April most years to the dwindling days of Late November/Early December.
We start chasing the 52’s, Resident Canada Geese, in the middle of August and usually don’t stow away our shotguns until the end of November.
The same goes for Ice Fishing. We tip toe out on the thinnest skim of ice in Late November/Early December and try to not tip toe off until Late March/Early April. I have Ice Fished in May once.
Oh what a glorious year that was.
The only outdoors activity I choose to partake in that can be classified a sprint is our Conservation Spring Light Goose season, sometimes it is over before it began depending on the migration.
Cherish The Moment, You Can Never Get It Back
I overhead a table of guides last evening grousing about the season getting long and them being ready for it to be over.
I would never wish away days on the ice. I cherish every minute, for a couple reasons.
First and foremost, it is my second favorite time of the year here on the Northern Tier, right behind Waterfowling.
Second, I know that the best is yet to come. The wonderful days of Late Ice are almost always the best days. Eight feet of Perch and every one of them trying to pack on Pre-Spawn weight. Longer hours and no snow on the ice.
I think everyone that participates in an activity gets tired of that activity at some point in time. Even the most passionate hobbiest will get sick of that hobby, if not for a little while.
I try to fight those feelings, time is that one thing we can never get back. Once we have spent it, it is gone.
History!
I don’t want to live my life with regrets.
I should have done this, I wish I would have done that.
As this Ice Fishing season gets long in the tooth, I remind myself, the best is yet to come.
The LEGENDARY days of Devils Lake are right on the horizon, time to refocus, rejuvenate, and regroup.
In too short of time, the White Devils will be arriving and the short rods will be an after thought, I’m not done with that Perch Tap Fever yet and the only cure is buckets of Gold from the icy depths.
Good Luck out there!
I have some family coming to town this weekend I haven’t had much time this year to track the fish just would like to know where to start to put them on some fish this weekend
The magic depth for us has been in that 30-34 foot range. North and South 6 mile, Black Tiger, and East Devils Lake have all been Perch producers lately as has Creel Bay thought that has slowed as of late.
Is truck travel still good to go? Our group is coming that way on Tuesday
Truck travel on most parts of the lake is good to go, stay away from the bridges though. Had a fatality last night. Prayers to the man’s family.
If we purchase some of the locations .. how new are they? From this year?
The weekly reports waypoints are from that week. The other waypoints in our catalogs are traditional year to year spots that hold fish year after year. If you are looking for real time info, its the weekly reports waypoints you want. If you are looking for a starting point to begin your search, the start points or fringe points are what you are looking for.
We will becoming up march 3 tell march 9
Interested in some reports
Thanks cliff
Look for todays fish report around 4/430, we will also be commenting in fish movements in Tuesday’s Fish Activity post as well. Some Prime Time waypoints available today also as we had a really good day Satruday and a run of the mill cold front/high pressure day Sunday.