Thursday I had the rare opportunity to ice fish with my good friend Shifty Outdoors. We usually fish the soft water season every Thursday and he fishes with his long time ice fishing friends during the winter season. This week however his friends were out of town and he asked if I wanted to join him. I said did you really have to ask...LOL.
We met up at his house at 6 knowing we weren't going very far due to the weather. We decided that we were going to try Charleston Bay of Deer Creek the only section of the lake that froze this season. When I say froze I mean it has barely enough to walk on. We headed up the canyon, Shifty said it looked like the sun was coming up but I pointed out it was only the reflection of all the lights off the ceiling of clouds, as we approached and entered the canyon it was visible that was the case and it got dark fast. The snow-covered roads made for a little slower drive up the canyon. We made it to our breakfast stop and sat down and ate. We loaded up and headed to the ramp in Charleston. We got there and found a tent on the water so we felt better about our prospects of not falling through. We asked how thick the ice was and was told 3-4 inches we smiled and moved forward. We asked how deep the water was and he was in 10 feet so we knew we were in a good spot. We moved out about 50-60 yards and decided to set camp. Shifty took out his auger and cut the first hole. It took four turns of the blade to go through! We looked at one another and moved away from each other. He measured the ice and it was 3 inches?? We decided to stay and set the tent and cut three more holes.
Shifty was on the lakeside of the tent and I was on the bank side of the tent. With holes cut we put lines down and got the heater going. Yep, we dared to use the heater. I put my camera down the hole and Shifty got the first fish of the day hooked up. It wasn't but a few minutes and he decked the first of many rainbow trout. I saw a couple swim in and out of my bait and tried a couple other baits but still got nothing but turned up noses. Shifty, on the other hand, landed his second a pretty rainbow trout and we thought we were going to be landing fish all day long.
That wasn't the case, I finally got one to take my lure and landed it after Shifty had decked four rainbow trout. Mine, a rainbow trout as well with good silversides. After this though our holes dried up and went dead. We contemplated moving to a different spot but decided to hang tight.
The day was a winter day for sure. Gray and wet, the sleet and snow pelted the tent most of the day. We were happy we had the heater to keep us warm. We looked out the windows of the tent to watch other anglers enter the ice and move right next to us. We questioned their choices knowing the thickness of the ice but they set camps right near us anyways. The snow kept coming down we listened to it spray across the tent and load up the top panels. Shifty kept busy buy clearing the snow off by punching the roof and listening to the snow cascade off the sides. However, when he did that he got a hit and then hooked up a fish! Hmm, he thought okay that was interesting. So we sat for a few minutes and he stood up with his pole in hand and cleared the roof again and sure enough, he got another hit and hook up. He did this several times and landed fish almost every time. By now we had 7 fish decked and released them. He remembered his cousin wanted some fish for dinner, so we started keeping the bigger ones.
It was now around noon. Getting hungry we thought, we'll give another 30 minutes and if it doesn't get better we'll call it. The fish came to life! We, meaning Shifty, started catching fish every few minutes. I got on the board a couple more times but his hole was on fire. It's weird how you can be 4-6 feet apart in a tent and one hole goes crazy and the other is just slow, that was mine. I did, however, catch the big fish of the day, at least Shifty let me say that.
We fished until we landed 20 fish total and had a good limit of rainbow trout. The camps around kept inching closer to us as we were the only ones catching fish. At 1:00 I had number 20 on the line and it was a good-sized rainbow. I saw it through the ice and in the holes. I let it play, I loosened my drag I gave it my pole and thought I was doing everything right. Only to watch it make a spin move and pop off my hook! I couldn't believe it, even Shifty sat silent for a moment, but just for a moment...... He turned and focused on his line and he hooked up number 20 and landed it. We had our limit.
I had a great day in the ice shack with Shifty we (he) caught a bunch of fish and we have good stories to talk about.
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