Option #2 pays off

[CaptSpike]

So we headed out this am knowing Option #1 was going to be hit or miss. We really just wanted to know where it stood at this point with the weather we had been having. We were met by a Police officer at the unloading spot and let him know we were fishermen. He said be safe and we told him that wasn't going to be a problem.

We traveled light today. Only one auger (yup my gator that didn't work last week) and chisel with our gear in one sled. We reached the waters edge and saw a small deer had been on just prior to our arrival (fresh tracks). Mark chipped his way out a bit and it looked/sounded OK. We went to drill a hole to check depth and the auger didn't work again. :? :?

I thought I had the problem narrowed down to the charger and I got a new one yesterday and charged up the battery until the light was green. After this morning it was obvious it wasn't the charger.

This was OK for now as we knew the ice was thin enough to chip thru if it was safe enough to fish. Mark opened the hole up a bit and we measured 3". A little further out another hole 3". Even though it looked like dump we had decent thickness so far. Next check the ice was cracking on Mark and the spud went thru fairly easily. We turned back, it wasn't good. At least we knew where we stood.

Now where to go. We had an option north and an option south. The North option is where we were last week and we knew it had 5" of ice. What we didn't know is if it had open holes for us to jump in as the auger was down and 5" is a lot of chipping. We opted for option #2 south as we knew Jiffy had holes there and if they were taken we just keep going south and go home. Not a big deal.

We arrived at the pond around 8 and headed out in the slop. It really wasn't that bad. We fished our way out to the hole and found some huge Gil's along the way. Jiffy you really need to thin those schools out more. The place is loaded with them. We did notice some other holes, 10", that I knew wasn't Jiffy so someone must have been there Friday. We ended up keeping a bunch of fish for Mark as his in-laws from Wisconsin are out and he wanted to give them a fish fry. They love pan-fish as any mid-western folk would.

We hit the road around 11:30. All in all a decent trip that was salvaged by option#2. It's great to have a plan isn't it.

[Dylan8351]

Sounds like a good trip! Glad you played it safe! Hopefully this ice starts growing better!

[CaptSpike]

Sounds like a good trip! Glad you played it safe! Hopefully this ice starts growing better!

It made up for last week that is sure.

X2 on the making ice. Looks like it is back to cold this next week.

Laker fishing on the first is gonna be tough though. I'm not sure tje lake I fish will be safe.....

Seemed like a nice early season and that dumping of snow and this warm weather/rain has reset the season on the lakes with little or no ice. My local hotspot still had a couple pockets of open water yesterday. It could be birds keeping it open. That happens every now and then, though I didn't see any. Could be a sign of a spring so it might be a good area to target when it does freeze up.

Spike