First casts of 2012

[keithdog]

Well, it was only about a 45 minute outting but felt good, despite the strong 30mph winds blowing dirrectly into my face. As you can see there is still plenty of ice out there yet. The vast majority of the lake is actually still covered in ice, but it's thinning fast. I would bet by next weekend the lake will be ice free. Would you believe a couple days ago there was a guy walking around on the ice with an auger about 40 yards out from shore? IDIOT! In fact, 5 guys in the past week locally have gone through the ice, with one fatality. Natures way of thinning oout the dumb ones I guess. Anyways, back to my brief outting. The wind was blowing so hard I could barely cast the jerk baits without backlash issues. Got a few nice casts when the wind would let up for a few seconds, but no takers today. Not a big suprise there. The bass don't really start to heat up here untill mid march. But I have caught bass durring brief mid winter partial thaws. It's always worth a try. And after several months of waitting, it felt wonderful to actually make a few casts. I was actually using the edges of the ice cover where it met open water as a breakline. Hopefully, in a couple weeks I'll have to boat on the water and be able to get to some of my favorite areas on the lake. Oddly enough, this area where the tree lays down near the pier looks good but has never yielded a single fish for me. However, the opposite shore from this pier is my go to area after ice out. It's also where I go just before it freezes in the fall, and where I caught that 8 pound walleye last november. It's a shallow muddy bay on the west end of the lake, and it really attracts fish when the water temps are bitter cold.