Ice Fishing '09-'10

The past three winters ('08-'09, '09-'10, and '10-'11) have seen snowfall of epic proportions. So much, in fact, that it has been nearly impossible to get onto the lakes because of snow drifts at the access points as well as the amount of snow on top of the lakes makes driving impossible. Each year I have been able to go out early in the season (as soon as the ice is thick enough) and start what I think and hope will be a full season of ice fishing. This picture is my first or second trip to Cottonwood Lake in December, 2009. The ice was close to three feet thick already and the conditions for getting around on it were excellent. I thought that I was in for a great ice fishing season!

The fishing is always good on Cottonwood and I usually catch my limit of Northerns right away. The Game and Fish Department has been working at building up the perch and walleye population as well. Even though it is more fun to reel in a huge 32 inch long northern, the perch are worth it too, especially when they hit the frying pan.

On this particular fishing trip my intention was to spend at least several days, if not a week, in my fish house and take advantage of the quiet and solitude of being out on the ice and having the lake all to myself. I spent one night out there and the next day the weather report started talking about a blizzard coming in. The afternoon of the second day it hit. It certainly was a good thing that I decided to come back home because if I had stayed out there, I would never have been able to get off the lake. Snow drifts started swirling around my rig so I packed up and headed home. That was the last of the fishing for the whole winter since the snow kept coming and kept coming. I parked my Jeep on the driveway when I got home that evening and the next day the snow had drifted around it. The reports had more snow coming over the course of the next several days and weeks, so I finally got it parked inside the garage. I couldn't go any place anyway.