Getting back into the Outdoors

It’s already the middle of January, and this is my first ice fishing adventure of the season. The past year and a half, my future husband and I have been building our very first home together in Grand Rapids Minnesota.

With doing the work ourselves, all our time has been spent building. Which really if you ever have built a home before, you know there is nothing else you can commit to until it is finished. Every single minute of building our home was worth the long days and hard work.

Coming home to a finished house is the biggest accomplishment I have ever felt, along with relief that the big project has been completed and you can now enjoy what you worked so hard for.

Saturday morning, my Dad & I took to the ice in the Crosslake area. My Dad wanted to do a little spearing and I wanted to catch a few gills. Getting started was a little challenging, with the air temps being -18 below zero, the gear wanted to freeze up in a hurry.

To find just the right spot, I took my Vexilar Inc flasher with a jug of water and went exploring. I settled on 9 feet of water, with a few weeds dancing around.

With not knowing what to expect for the days bite, I started with a little jigging spoon garnished with a plump wax worm. Only receiving a couple of bumps, and a flasher full of gills, I knew I had to change up the game.

The Drop XL made by Clam Outdoors in the color of white is what I chose next for my presentation, once again with a wax worm. In no time at all, the results were exactly what I was looking for. The fish reacted well so I kept going with this presentation the rest of the day.

Overnight, the clouds moved in along with rising temperatures and snow moved in, we felt Sunday was going to be the better day for the “run” of Pike so the odds of my Dad spearing one looked pretty good. So, we hit the ice again!

Starting my day off with the same presentation as Saturday to see if the fish still like it, sure enough the fish were still satisfied. It was all going well and dandy until a Northern Pike decided to come and play.

I put up a good fight to save my successful jig, but at the end, the sharp teeth of the pike won the battle. Deciding what to present next to the hungry fish below was an easy one. The Clam Outdoors Drop-Kick in the White/Pink Glow color.

I did change up the bait with a wax worm and a Maki Polli made my Maki Plastics in the color of orange. Both the live bait and plastic bait had the same success in catching the fish.

Fishing these colder temperatures this past weekend was a little more work, but with the right warm clothing, fishing gear, and careful patience, the weekend was successful one. With temperatures warming up later this week, I look forward to hitting the ice again somewhere in Minnesota.