Two Men Dead Ice Fishing

Tap Into Madison   It's a "file photo" used to illustrate the news story. It was nearly 60 degrees on Friday after very heavy rain. Not wise to go ice fish Split Rock. Very sad news, and I hate hearing of stories like it, though it is best to hear them when they happen. 

Big Brown Trout and Lakers at Round Valley

A week ago I began planning on today. I soon ruled out ice fishing, because I realized today might be my son Matt's only shot at the laker he'd never caught before. Come to think of it, I realized also, he had never caught a brown, either. So I daydreamed about what shiners can do. Two years ago or so, I saw a six-pound brown posted on Facebook. Caught from shore at Round Valley. I daydreamed of Matt catching one...not as big, but close. No reason to push my luck. I daydreamed as if it actually would happen. I'm like a child that way. Playing in the fields of my mind.

It's not six pounds. DSLR cameras are truth tellers. Mobile device cameras are magic. I believe there are people who think that brown is pushing eight pounds. I never said how big it is on Facebook. The laker--Matt's first and only--in the photo below is one inch shorter in length. True, it weighed a lot less. But the brown is only four pounds, 12 ounces on my Rapala electronic scale. And only 23 inches long.

We got to the Sporting Life around 9:20, and after we parked in Lot 2, some guy was walking out with a brown of about 20 or 21 inches. Said his buddy had a nice rainbow on Power Bait. Well, that fish wasn't much over 15 inches, but they had got there around 8:00 and enjoyed a bite. 

Matt and I waited hours. We fought the cold. Had a propane hand warmer that helped. Matt did miss a hit on Power Bait. Actually, the line broke on hookset. One rod was baited with the stuff. 

Then, around 2:00, I walked to the car to get a stringer, just in case. Take home some lakers for dinner. I ran into someone in orange weather overalls on the road who said I looked familiar, so I told him my first name.

"You knew me when I was a little kid," he said.

He looked to be about 21. "You were the kid who caught that two-foot-long rainbow," I said. This back around 2014 when I was a lunch hour regular.

"Yeah!" he said.

Nick seemed to bring the fish in, because once he was there fishing with us, action began. He fished a Binsky and did catch a laker before the park closed at 4:00. I caught a little one of about 15 inches, and another 20 1/2. Besides the two trout Matt caught, he missed yet another hit on Power Bait. He could have caught a "trifecta"! 

Why push one's luck? Ask for too much, and next time you'll be ignored. Why is a "trifecta" so special, anyhow? Especially after one's had a day as great as we enjoyed today.

I seem as if I'm a little superstitious about things, but basically, I notice patterns as they unfold. I didn't actually dream up Matt's brown, but why daydream unless to prepare for an event? You even keep it cool by not dreaming the unlikely, so you get just the amount that's reasonable without pushing your luck and making your daydream feel "off" instead of somehow spot on.

It's daydreaming but rational judgment. 

I stood next to one of my rods. I had got a really good cast with it back around 9:45. I stood there and went back and forth in my mind for three or four minutes over whether to reel in the shiner, make sure it's still there, and recast perhaps somewhere else. Don't I seem like a dingbat unable to make up my mind? Doesn't outdoor pursuit require swift and decisive action? But three or four minutes is how long it took me to arrive upon being sure what to do about that rod. From within. 

I was sure of leaving it be.

Five minutes later it leapt off the rock holding it off the gravel and sand. I hooked our first trout of the day. After all those frigid hours.

Imagine had I put that rod elsewhere. (It would have been "sensible" to do that.) That rod in the spot that caught all three lakers.

Matt's brown came not too long thereafter, but on the rod set furthest from our makeshift camp. Matt had gone and checked on it, finding all the line unraveled from the spool, but the anchor knot holding. It was a long, drawn out battle. Once the great fish broke surface wildly, far out from us. Once I netted it, the day's fulfillment was complete.  

Trout from Shore

 

Round Valley Options

I got my stuff down by the water ahead of Fred, and while I began sticking rod holders into mud submerged an inch or two (the ground frozen), I heard a whoop, looked, and saw one of the guys nearby with a rod doubled over. As I approached him, I feared I would see a laker in the net, which is just what I saw. Nineteen-incher.

Fred shuffled down with his stuff, and I told him about the fish. Then I asked if he had a bucket in his car.

"No, I just took it out."

Later on, Fred told me he didn't even think of them, but I had debated in my head a little over whether to bring shiners or not. I finally decided it isn't a laker day. Thirty-five degrees not cold enough. Deep down, though, I just didn't want the hassle. I've been busy. The least I could have done was think of putting a bucket in my trunk. I didn't think.

I could have taken a quick ride to the Sporting Life for a dozen-and-a-half. 

Fred and I fished about three-and-a-half hours. Something took a piece of one of his marshmallow and mealworms, but I think that was a sunfish. Unless a trout would actually bite a piece off a little marshmallow. His rod tip did jiggle a couple of times. 

The guys next to us had caught four lakers and lost another at the net when we packed to go. The biggest 23 inches. Smallest 18. Two other guys near us had two lakers from where I fished with my family in November. One on Power Bait. One on a shiner. They appeared to be about 18 and 20 inches. I had fished orange Power Bait the whole time. No takers.

Fred and had sat on foldout chairs, talking constantly. He's lived down the shore two years as of tomorrow. Talking never ended until we each drove off in separate vehicles. In the parking lot, I told him about my dream of creating a book of Lake Hopatcong photos, in addition to Round Valley, but that I'll probably have to self-publish. I added that I might have to self-publish the trout book, too, but that there are many more options today for doing that. I made some comment or other about having options of all sorts once I retire in two years and some. He told me as much from experience, since he's been retired for more than two years. You have options. 

Had options today, too. So maybe next time.

Nice Rainbow Round Valley

 

So Far I'm Behind Last Year's Score

Got the urge to get out and fish. Otherwise, I'd have stayed home and continued my long quest to understand WordPress before I build a site. That one's going to be my author site, my main hub, eventually hosting galleries of photos, too, but not nearly as many as I have on Windows and on hard drives. One of my friends suggested I sell my book through a website, because he's seen how hard it is to make a go of being sponsored by a tackle company. I acknowledge it's possible my book on microlight spinning for trout won't get published by a small traditional publisher. If I do run out of all possibilities in that respect, I'll turn my attention to self-publishing. Either way, a website where I might be able to promote my book better than I can on Blogger is important to have.

I stayed out in the rain--using my Honda as shelter for most of the time--going on two hours. I never got a hit. Used orange Power Bait by the Main Boat Launch. So far this cold weather season I'm behind last year's score. Will be back. I might fish a river next Tuesday, but Fred and I intend to fish Round Valley on the 20th.   

 

Family Round Valley Fishing

Me, Matt, and his Mom set up foldout chairs and enjoyed the mild weather at the Valley for some three hours. Cloudless sky overhead, I told Matt the rainbows might be 50 feet deep. Maybe they just weren't passing by our Powerbait, but in any case, we never got a hit. Six lines out, varying depths.

I had taken an inviting attitude. I vaguely felt I might enjoy the afternoon. That we would. I get so involved in all else I'm busy with...it's not like I'm a technical genius, not at all, but I'm deep in research on how to build a Wordpress website...so busy that I forget how interesting and fulfilling a fishing trip is. 

Even when it's just throw Powerbait and wait. That wait loses all anxiety and little things become intensely interesting. They say an acid trip is the same way. I was sitting on the dry, dusty dirt--because, thankfully, we had only two foldout chairs--pulling clams from under the surface of the soil. Clams I couldn't open. Little ones. But just large enough to throw in the water, as if maybe I saved more than a dozen lives.  

 

Tried for Round Valley Trout

My son's over from Costa Mesa, CA. We went to Round Valley yesterday, his mother along. I felt astonished at how steeply the main launch drops off, there to the right of where boats go in. Looks like the water level is eight feet lower than this time last year.

We fished. Got six lines out. It began raining the moment we got there. Rain volume increased while we waited on the take that never came. (Trish sat in the car. We joined her.)

Orange Powerbait. It worked last year. And you'd think that with a steady rainstorm just coming on, trout would hit. But trout don't think. And besides, nature is more complex than any thinking we do. 

Rainbow Caught

Rainbow struck in about three feet of water. Fish was about 14 inches, chunky. 

I thought a couple of times that I could've done better fly fishing. Four or five rainbows in little more than two feet of water followed the jig while creating big pushes on the surface like big pickerel do. I hooked one of them for a moment, a trout at least 16 inches long. It's so warm out they're up top. Using a weightless Muddler Minnow, I could've created a little V-wake, like I used to do on Fiddler's Elbow stockers successfully, and maybe got these trout to fully commit. I also saw a few rises, so I could have tried dry flies, too.

I did tie on a little jointed floating Rapala and played with that, but the trout wanted the jigs. A couple of them went after the jig after I had fished the Rapala, too. Repeat offenders that had rushed the jig before.

I'm happy I caught the one rainbow. For that matter, it was fun getting the attention of all those other fish, too. 

It's beautiful back there. Had the fishing all to myself and it felt wild. 

Was wild.