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High, my name is Matt and I'm a Darkhouse Spear fisherman.... It's been 3days since I last sat in the Darkhouse.... I don't like traditional red/white decoys. In fact I hate them. I don't like using them. I don't like making them. I don't like when people walk up to my table and ask for them. Don't get me wrong. I don't have an issue selling them. But they are soooo boring .... (Feel free to join in the airing of grievances. Please only one per post)

That's the end of it. Season over. We wait 9months for it to start every year and it's over in the blink of an eye. Remember this: ??? Walking out on Third River fishing in 45degre weather. We didn't even have enough ice to take a group picture!!! The ice never really did firm up enough for vehicles to travel in most places. Despite the extended cold. Speaking of extended cold. If you ever wanted to have a cold snap just ask the East Central MDAA to host an event. It was a guarantee to have a below zero day. Think back to the Five Tine Challenge??? -10deg and wind blowing 20mph and we still got out there and fished. Only had 8" of ice and had to walk, but we went for it. Even the kids got involved. What's -21 to a kid?!?! Nothing!!! They were having fun!!! This season was a strange one to say the least. I didn't spear too many fish. The ones I did were either donated to others or eaten by the neighbors wandering dogs. I learned just how much fun it was to spear freeze out lakes. Saw the good in people helping others and introducing new people to the sport of fishing and spearing. As well as some of the more negative aspects, trash left behind etc. But when I look back I like to focus positive. Only 3-pike came out of my shack this year. Despite the number of times it was set up. Two of them from a frequent freeze out lake, both 18" or less. And a 24"er that I took with the BOW class we hosted a couple weekends ago, despite my protests. That's right, a spear fisherman who doesn't spear any fish, strange right?!? I just want to thank all of you who stopped here to read and share. Please get involved, share, and post pictures and adventures of your own. Just because the actual fishing season is over doesn't mean the forum gets shut down. We will still be here. Stop by and show off your decoys. Share a new spear or tongs you added to your collection. There are still several big decoy shows coming up too. I will have a booth at Alexandria, stop and say hi. Little Falls is this coming weekend, definately worth a visit. Then the granddaddy of them all up in Perham.

Well, how sad is it that it's come down to this... Please post up if you find spearable conditions on your favorite body of water. If you don't want to put specific lakes that's fine, but at the very least let us know what area of the state you find yourself in at the time. Maybe toss out a picture or two of what you found as well. We know that as of last week the Get-to-gator was on the 3rd River flowage on Winni. They are claiming to still have 5" of ice, but it's getting sketchy. I called up to LOW and they have no spear shacks out in the areas I normally go, zipple, Bostic, and 4mile are all open water at the moment. Here at home I have this... you can see the hole I pulled it from. 2" thick, 1" of cloudy junk and 1" of "good" ice. Or it was once, now it's all honeycombed. Didn't take much to chip through with the chisel and very soft. Based on the forecast not looking good for some time.

The East Central Chapter of the Minnesota Darkhouse Angling Association is officially canceling it's Sunday gathering at Fish Lake in Harris MN due to lack of ice. We remain hopeful that this winter will show up eventually and that our Five Tine event will still take place. Thanks for understanding

I am interested in how everyone transports their decoys for spearing. Please if you have photos attach them. I am building another sled to pull behind my snowmobile and need ideas on storage for my decoys. When I go out I take everything with including all my decoys, 20+/-.