Cabin fever. I haz it.

Much as I love my dear wife we have been holed up inside while the ice storm was hanging around for four days solid. We are both retired. The pavement was like an ice rink and not a single car came down our street until yesterday. Yesterday was meant to be a decent day, but those nice weather men changed the forecast at the last minute and another day stuck inside.

Today was due to get up to a balmy 43F, but down to 27F last night with a thick frost. I'm going fishing, but rather than leave at o-dark-thirty I instead have breakfast with some church buddies, and then head on out at 10am hoping it must warm up a bit.

This should probably be in the off topic forum, but I get to the boat storage and the door is frozen. As I attempted to free it, a big old chuck of ice came down and hit me right on my noggin. Ouch! I had a beanie on which thank goodness saved the day.

I was thinking I must be crazy going out in this cold (my wife had already told me this lol), but by golly I had to get some air in my lungs. My neighbor at the boat storage showed up with his son, and they too were heading to the lake. We poked fun at each other both being idiots before setting out.

It was pretty darn cold!



I got to the lake and launched and discovered the temperature of the water had dropped big time right down to 46F, and the fish were down DEEP. Winter pattern (at last).



The bite was slow, but patience paid off.



A beautiful and feisty 34 pound blue. Yay!

The wind dropped completely so time to deploy the trolling motor. I really hate doing that but no choice.



Another BIG take down and the fish is taking drag from the get go. It comes unbuttoned before I could get it to the b. Darn it!

Just about to pull up and another good bite, and a 22 pound blue into the boat.



A very good day and some much needed air.



Counting my blessings!

I love this lake.

A cautionary tale.

I should mention I almost killed the smaller of the two fish I caught. I tried to burp him but clearly wasn't successful. I put him back (CPR) and he just couldn't get down, so I started the motor up and went to get him in my landing next. I tried again, but couldn't get the air out. In desperation I used my rear light pole and carefully put it down into his belly. It worked, and he burped big time and swam back down.

I realize the light pole was too big and far from ideal. I need to purchase some plastic tubing (I had been using my homemade slinky's, but they are not long enough).

Great pictures. Great report.

Well done BCB. Going to give it a go this morning. Wishing everyone a good day on the water. I know we have all been off longer than we like!

FYI I always track the conditions when I fish, here are yesterdays data points for anyone interested.

Lavon 02/03/23

Air temp started at 34F
Midday @ 39F
Water temp 46F
Wind N veering to NNE @ 7mph
All fish deep
Drifting N - S in 35 - 40 feet
Fish stacked up on the graph
4 lines, 2 planer boards and 2 long lines
All fish caught on white perch (head pieces)
On the water 11am to 4pm

Bob, a 2 to 3 foot piece of 1/2" pvc pipe makes a great burping tool. Just be sure to grind the edges down to protect the fishes innerds. Great post by the way!