Wednesday, March 16, 2005

Only Two Minnows Needed

I ventured out onto the ice on Saturday afternoon, March 12 in hopes of landing just enough perch for a tasty fish dinner. I found a likely spot for perch -- in about 8 to 10 feet of water near a weed edge -- drilled several holes and got down to work.

Because I was fishing solo, I was traveling light. I don't have one of those slick ice shelters that fit onto an Otter sled, so instead, I set up shop in the open, with my back to the wind.

It was a cold day on Leech Lake, no more than 10 or 12 degrees. The wind was blowing at about 15 mph, so with no shelter, I was cold even with my insulated fishing bibs and heavy jacket. Nonetheless, I was on the lake, and enjoying the quiet.

After moving between holes along the weed edge for about an hour -- still no bites -- I decided to resort to "power jigging." This is my attempt to draw fish to an area where they have clearly decided to avoid. Up went my rod tip -- 8 inches or more -- and then drop and hold. Repeat, repeat, repeat. After 10 minutes power jigging I thought I felt a "bump." I slowed my jigging down and waited. When I didn't feel anything I brought my jig to the surface and found my minnow gone. Did I really have a bite? Or, more likely, had my crazy jigging jarred the minnow from the hook? Since there was no way of telling, I'm going with the "bite" theory.

I put a new minnow on jig and set about fishing again. I went another 15 minutes without a bite and decided to move to another location. But once I loaded all my gear back onto the ATV, I decided that a warm fire and a cold beer sounded better at the moment then running to another spot; so I called it a day. An hour and a half on the ice and nothing.

I didn't wander onto the lake on Sunday, but plan to hit the hard water again this coming weekend. Until then, may you have better luck at fishing than I did on Saturday.

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