Crappy Weather Is Crappie Weather

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Had an absolute blast on the lake last weekend ice fishing. I left work around noon on Friday, picked up Mike and hit the road before the snow started. It wasn't bad driving at all until about Danbury, when it started to snow pretty good. We made it to the cabin just fine and geared up and headed out to the lake to fish with Jeff around sunset. The crappies were lighting up the screen on our Marcums and biting pretty good. I think we ended up with around 12-15 keepers the first night.

The second night Don, Jeff, Rick and myself all had a great time during primetime again. I think we had around 25 keepers. Jeff ended up with the biggest crappie of the weekend that night, but we all caught numbers and the action was steady.

Sunday morning I got up early and went out by myself before sunrise. It was a little chilly at first, but after I saw all the fish on the screen I warmed up pretty quickly. I caught 24 small crappies and 1 keeper, but the action was fast and furious. Just about the time Don came down to the lake and I was about to go in for breakfast, I reeled in a large Northern Pike. I didn't have my camera with to take a picture, but it was definitely the largest fish of the weekend. I decided then it was a good place to stop and call it a day.

Despite the 24 inches of snow at the cabin and below zero temps, we loaded three ziploc bags full of crappie filets. Jeff mentioned it was one of the most successful ice fishing weekends ever. The trip home was a little scary at times, due to the high winds and blowing snow. I figured the best way to unwind was to have a fish fry and a cold beer, a great way to end a great weekend!

Ready, Set, Freeze, Fish!

The Cabin Forecast

In just over 24 hours I'll be picking up Mike and heading up to Loon Lake for ice fishing weekend. Despite the forecast of frigid temps, I'm really excited to get up there and do some fishin'. I even picked up a new Marcum VX-1 flasher yesterday on craigslist, using some of my birthday cash.

Marcum VX-1

A flasher is cool little device that uses different color led lights to indicate the bottom of the lake, the location of your lure, and alert you to fish, when and where they appear. With this valuable information, you can adjust your fishing presentation (bait), style, speed, depth, location etc. allowing you the best chance to land fish. In addition to helping you ice more fish, they are just plain fun to watch when the fishing gets slow.

Whether fishing on ice or water, summer or winter, it's not all about catching fish, though. I really look forward to spending the time outside, slowing down and enjoying the great company.

In a way, ice fishing for guys is a lot like girls talking on the phone, neither one seems to understand why the other enjoys it so much.

Another Year Older

Had a really great time at my 35th birthday party last Sunday. It was great to have a house full of friends and family, playing games and throwing back a few drinks. I even got a few nifty gifts, including a french press coffee maker from Ang, a bottle of rum from Brenton and some choice gift cards and handmade wash cloths. Plus, the weather was 40º F, you can't beat that for mid January.

The weather looks like it won't be so nice for the annual ice fishing trip to Wisconsin next weekend. I don't know how much I trust 10-day forecasts, but right now it's saying it won't get above zero for the high, with -20º for a low. At least we won't have any trouble keeping beverages cold. Yikes.

We had our first official daycare conference this morning, and the teachers confirmed what we already know... Cal is a "spirited" child. He is ahead of the curve with cognitive development for his age, and continues to amaze us with his facial expressions, range of emotions and awareness. His strengths in these areas also make it considerably more stressful for him to spend downtime by himself, as he most certainly prefers being with a group a people rather than a group of toys. Cal's temperament also makes sleep independence more difficult to achieve, as the methods most find successful may not work entirely the same for him. Regardless, he is one-of-a-kind and one cool dude.

Cold Snap

The news around these parts is how cold it is, with temps reaching -25 below (without factoring the windchill). Despite the cold, Ang and I are still working and Cal is still at daycare. Since the last time I wrote, he's really turned a corner with food. I wish I could say the same thing for sleep. Speaking of sleep, we are going to a sleep class tonight at the Amma Parenting center in hopes improving the situation. His problem isn't going to sleep, it's staying asleep. Most nights he gets up anywhere from 20 to 40 mins after he goes down, then anywhere from every 1-3 hours for the rest of the night.

Work has been slow since after xmas, so I've made some good progress in web training. I've finished the HTML Dog book and now I'm working through CSS3 The Missing Manual. Once I complete that, I'm going to start building out my portfolio/resume website.

Looking forward to my birthday this Sunday, and going ice fishing for the weekend later in the month. I really hope it isn't this cold when we're out on the lake, that would not be ideal. The Wild are once again falling out of the playoff picture and now both Koivu and Parise are hurt. Since we don't have cable, I've been watching and enjoying the NFL playoffs instead.