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Enjoying alone time - with a lot of fish
Outdoors Columnist If you are a fisherman or fisherwoman, you probably have your special fishing spots.
One of my favorite places to be this time of year is fresh in my mind because I was just there the other day. I first learned about this lake from my dad many moons ago and I still have the Polaroid pictures of his catches back in the '70s etched in my mind. Oh, those huge crappies on the cleaning board, and some huge sunnies, too. Catch and release wasn't heard of back then.
If I flash forward to today, in this age of the Internet, global positioning, lake mapping systems and educated anglers, those special, secret spots are extremely hard to come by.
As I was kneeling out on the lake the other day, with not a soul around, my mind started to wander (something it does quite often). I looked at the landscape to the west and thought to myself just how awesome it was. Here I was, quite a few miles from home on a lake that I knew supported a good population of larger-than-average panfish, and best of all, the sun was starting to fall to that magical position when the fish become most active (a lot of the times). The wind had settled and there wasn't even a whisper.
A lot of times this time of year, I lie on the ice and watch the fish, but on this day, the ice was still more than 3 feet thick, and I resorted to my Marcum sonar, which tells me when there is a fish in the vicinity.
I had drilled a dozen or so holes, but the best action came from a few holes that had been drilled by someone before me (so as you can tell, it's not that much of a secret). As I hopped from hole to hole, I came across a hole that had some action. I caught a sunny, but it didn't really matter - it was a fish and I was excited.
I caught a few before hopping over to the next open hole, and I soon found out where the fish seemed to be gathering.
As the clock struck 7:15 p.m. or so, the fish really became active, and then the crappies started in. Between 7:15 and 8:15 (when I left), I had nonstop action, and I felt like a little kid in the Chocolate Ox. I had cold, wet hands from taking fish off, but it really didn't matter because I was having a blast.
There is definitely something to be said about having some alone time on a lake, especially when the fish are biting. It's about as good as it gets.
WALLEYEDAN Eigen may be reached at (218) 839-5598, walleyedan@brainerd.com or www.walleyedan.com
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