sunday afternoon tying

Matt and I actually had a productive tying session today, putting out some interesting and hopefully effective flies. I use the word "actually" because most of our tying sessions involve sitting around thinking about what would work (or look cool) rather than the flies coming to fruition, drinking beer and just simply trying too hard to be creative. Clockwise from the upper left; the Techno Popper, the Crafty Carp and a trio of No-Hackle Bombers, including one in Packers colors. Nothing all that spectacular or innovative, but it was impressive by our standards that something useful was actually produced. Good fun and pretty much the only way to spend a Sunday afternoon when football's over and it's zero degrees outside.

ice shelves and a lone eagle

I just got back from the local trib, which now more closely resembles a small creek. Shelf ice has crept farther and farther these last couple weeks, leaving just a trickle between the shelves in many areas. I noticed right away that there was a bald eagle perched over the run (upper right in the picture) I intended on fishing, which has to be a good sign. Eagles always know where the fish are, right? After several dozen casts and seven or eight de-icing projects, I called it quits. No grabs, no bumps, nothing. It was just nice to get out there before the bitter cold sets in again. I just saw the forecast and they're calling for single-digits again this weekend. I can't help but wonder what the spring steelhead run will be like in N.E. WI this year. We saw few if any this fall and winter, what will spring bring? I just hope I'm not spending all this time trying to tie Bombers for nothing. Fall-back browns are great, but we are all out there for a different animal.

logan's 1st icefishing trip

I took Logan out today for his first icefishing experience. Apparently an ice-scoop makes a very appealing toy to a 16 month-old kid. I don't think he put that thing down the whole time we were out there. He just waddled around, scooping snow and smacking buckets. We did get a fair number of fish though, mostly pike on tip-ups. Thursday is supposed to be in the low 30's for the first time in a long time and I'm really looking forward to getting out and casting a fly again. There may not be much open water, but there's enough to keep me busy for a few hours. Spring can't get here fast enough...man, I'm getting sick of saying that.

i've got the cold-as-hell blues (sung to a jazz tune)

-20 wind chills during the day, possibility of -40 wind chills at night...for the next three days. Awesome. Someone was just talking about some supposed "mid-winter warm-up" coming in the next week or two. I don't know if it was some kind of sick joke or if we may indeed be in for some alleviation. I'm hoping for the latter. I finally got a little tying done tonight, here's what came out.

1/8 report

A brief heat wave hit us today (25 degrees) so I decided to go swing some flies for the afternoon. Seeing as how there is very little open water, roughly 2 to 4 miles worth, my options were limited. I started off with Charlie's Winter Sculpin, which was apparently too heavy and ended up a permanent resident of the river bottom. I then switched to an intruder that I spent roughly 45 minutes tying last night only to have that bit off by a pike. Neat, but damn, that was a lot of work for two seconds of excitement. I then tied on one of my Low-Water Marauder tubes and actually got more than three swings out of it. I ended up with two grabs, both nippy little things that I'm guessing were the small trout that got stocked late this fall. Both came on the hang down and left little boils on the surface. That was enough to make my day. Hell, the pike alone would have sufficed. Just something to let me know that there's life in the river. The tough thing now is that the only open water in the river is the stretch that just hasn't fished that great all year. The lower sections of the river were rockin' before everything locked up, now the only option down there is a Beaver Dam and a shiner through a hole. But, as we do, we'll keep at it. Who's going to be the first to land a steelie this year on a N.E.W. trib? When that time comes, break out the party favors, it will be cause for celebration!

more meat in the freezer

I made it out last night and took this nice doe in the last minutes of daylight. The bow season ended today and it was a great way to end the season last night tracking two deer (Danny shot one as well), and having a couple beers afterwards. I'm just glad we had the help of Matt and Danny's dad...both were long drags through lots of snow. Thanks guys.