Rambling Through Winter

No time for me to hit the water with a fly rod lately, but some good tying time in the evenings, and a nice time on a local pond - well frozen - to do some Ice fishing with friends.  The cast was my wife and kids, and our buddy and his 3 kids.  The kiddo's age difference is big - about 10 years - but they get on great.

We only had a few "flags" and no takes on jigs... but of the flag's we had, the best was a largemouth bass in the 5-6# range.  The kid's all had so much fun!

 

I'm fairly skittish on the ice.  Ive actually ice fished in a life jacket when there was only 4 inches of black ice early in the year.  But despite amazing pressure cracking yesterday (when the sun came out and the air warmed into the 40's, the pond popped and crackled like mad) I felt very safe... 24" of ice will do that to you!

The day's are getting longer and that feels really really good.  Even on a very cold day like today, the sun is warm... You can feel spring coming.  It's comforting to know that the earth will in fact keep shifting angles and expose us to more sun - bringing spring and summer to the fore.  Yep - like many northern north americans, I'm ready for spring this year.  It's been a LONG winter... with a LOT of snow, ice and cold... Knowing consistent open water... and snow / ice free mountain bike trails are at most 4-5 weeks away... Ahhhhhhh!

Here are a few mini muddlers - both dark and bright (I like em heavily dressed - becuase I tend to fish them in fast water either dry or wet on the swing - and it feels like that heavy dress just works better in those conditions) in and a few hot spot midge larva (yellow is an oddly good base color for these) and a small (#24) buzzer... Cmon spring!