March Ice Fishing

March is undoubtedly one of the best times to ice fish as far as the weather goes, and last week that was clearly evidenced by our day on the ice.  I managed to get a sunburn in March!  We planned a long overdue fishing trip last week to coincide with my sister-in-law Amelia and her boyfriend Brent being home from college.  We were very fortunate that the weather was sunny and the wind was minimal.  To top it off we caught fish!  Brent and I arrived at the lake and there was not another person visible on the white expanse.  We quickly found what I think discouraged most of the would-be anglers when we stepped on the lake and went almost to our knees in a slush/snow mix.  Slogging out to our desired location proved to be no small feat, but we quickly got an area packed down and formed our "base camp".  From there we spread out and drilled our holes.  We hadn't waited long before a flag signaled that the fish were there!  My wife Heather and sister-in-law Amelia showed up a little later and braved the slush with us.  We had a great day landing 9 brook trout with two of them topping the 14" mark, the rest ranging from 9-12 inches.  We released most of them, but were able to catch our limit of two trout each for Brent and I.  This was the first day I have limited out this year ice fishing, and in quite a few years to be honest!

Lake Empty of Anglers

"Base Camp"

Tidy Cats Buckets Work Great for Bait

Baiting Up

Setting the "Flags"

Battling the Slush

Flag! - The Beloved Exclamation

Small Trout in the Hole

Brent Pulling in a Trout

Brent With His Limit

Heather Fighting Slush Back to Base Camp

A Nice 14 Inch "Brookie"

My Limit

Heather and I

Brent and Amelia

Both Limits