Slow Start To The Ice Season

I slipped out in the early morning the day after Christmas intending to meet up with George and chase some trout on the ice.  I was finally going to get a bit of time to take that first ice fishing trip of the winter now that work and life responsibilities had let up enough to sneak away and drill a few holes.

Arriving at the lake we were supposed to meet on and fish was a bit of a shock.  I was in a full strength ground blizzard and couldn't even see the two track in the darkness and snow that I was supposed to head down to find George.  Looking at the road there seemed to be no disturbance at all in the deep snow, so I figured they had moved on to a different lake.  Heading back out of the blizzard the rest of the valley was in fine shape and had perfect visibility.  It was amazing how localized that severe weather ended up being.

I set up elsewhere on the plains lakes and drilled my first holes of the season.  The system for the day consisted of an active marabou jig on one set up with a pair of flies deadsticked on the other rod.  I couldn't even muster a strike.  I sat out on the ice and had a nice lunch and a microbrew and watched the clouds go by until the obvious time came to call it a day.

My modest ice setup for the day

Talking to George later in the day, I found out they had arrived right as the storm came in and were just out on the ice setting up in the ground blizzard.  They were questioning their sanity but did manage to hunker down and ride out the storm and fish the morning. They had a couple bites at least but it sounded equally slow all over the valley.