My depth finder lit up with fish

Annual physicals for senior citizens are a great, good health practice. I recently completed mine and left the clinic feeling good. Weight was just fine and blood pressure was great; still waiting for my blood test. When the nurse took my height, I became amazed at how fast I'm shrinking. I played basketball at 6’ and now I'm standing tall at 5'10”; guess my dunking days are behind me.

My nurse was all about ice fishing and told me it had been a bad year fishing. She lives on French Lake and fishes on her lake and others in the area. She says the bite has been poor. Her family tries to eat fish once a week and that hasn't been happening this winter. I got back to my car feeling rejuvenated by the good news from my physical. I checked the weather forecast on my cell: highs in the 20s and little wind for three days. Time to go ice fishing! I walked into the house to a message from Denny Hofmeister inviting me to go fishing on Clear Lake–that's all it took for this old man to gather his gear and hit the ice. The bite was on!

Denny lives on the west side of Clear Lake and fishes it religiously four seasons a year. If you have any questions about the lake, Denny has the answers. I headed out from the south, Maplewood landing, and was a bit skeptical driving out with my Ford Edge. There was a freeway path plowed right out to Denny's portable, a bit bumpy but better than driving on Eighth Avenue.

Jerry Lewis, Denny's fishing partner, was camped right next to Denny in his own portable. They already had a hole down for me and all I had to do was unload my chair and fishing poles, put my depth finder in the hole, bait up, and start fishing. My preference is always to fish on the ice and enjoy winter weather. The chance to socialize while ice fishing truly completes my experience, so you can imagine how delighted I was when Jerry Johnson drove up, then, minutes later, Gary Seifert. I really enjoyed listening to the four fishermen share their treasury of information. All of them are experts who qualify for the ice fishing hall of fame. Jerry headed out to deeper water where he puts down thirty holes and locates suspended crappies. He began drilling holes with his six-inch Dewalt drill-powered auger about 50 yards away. Gary fishes crappies with only plastics and in the blink of an eye had caught a couple. He follows the crappies as they move. My technique is to sit with Denny and Jerry and fish in a hole for sunnies.

My depth finder lit up like a Christmas tree; my hole was filled with fish. For about two hours it was fish after fish, including a nice bass. The overall size was small, but I reeled in enough keepers for a meal. It appears Clear Lake will be healthy for years to come. The spot wasn't an accident; there were beds of green weeds below us in 14 feet of water.

Day two was a repeat, with many fish caught. The great thing about the bite was that fish were active during the day and we could exit the lake with daylight. On day three, Waldorf-area retired farmer Leroy Janike came over to fish with me. Leroy is in his 80s, but you'd never know it. We drove his pickup out into the same area as before. Since Leroy fishes from his front seat with the pickup door open, I put a hole down for him and he immediately caught a keeper crappie. I decided to let Leroy enjoy doing his thing while I went ahead and put down a series of holes for crappies; I kept one line  in each hole. Fishing was excellent. My drag began to zing, line raced off my spool, and I knew I had a big one. I fought the fish for ten minutes and had it under the hole, tired and played out. It was so big that I couldn't get its head started in the hole. It finally made a last run and busted off my 6 lb. test leader, swimming away. Probably a big pike. How big? At least ten pounds. I’m grateful; that lunker provided me with another great fish story to tell for years to come. Leroy caught ten keeper fish for a family meal and headed home–a good two hours of fishing.

Time to close with an area fishing report.

Fountain Lake – Albert Lea: Fishing has been slow. The lake has a good population of walleyes and crappies.

German Lake: Crappies biting after dark in deep water. Most of the fish are 9-10 inches.

Lake Washington: The lake has a nice population of larger bluegills. The limit is 10. Crappies are running on the small side. Bakers Bay has slowed down and bluegills are being caught in 17 feet on the north end of the lake. Third point and the sand flat are giving up some walleyes.

Madison Lake: Crappies and bluegills are biting off the east side landing. Head for the church bar or clusters of houses. Crappies are biting after dark near the narrows.

Duck Lake: Crappies and sunnies are biting shallow; 7 ft of water.

Have a great day on the ice! Until next time: May your bobber go down–way down.