It has been a while since I posted an article. Visitors, family obligations and fortunately a 3 day fishing trip to Mille Lacs has kept me away from the computer. More on the Mille Lacs trip in a later post.

A couple weeks ago I had my parents and a friend from Seattle out for a little ice fishing. I introduced my buddy Ray to ice fishing a couple years ago and he has loved it ever since. Ray has come out to fish three straight winters now. 20 degrees below zero is a little hard on an islander from Seattle (where it rarely dips below 35) but he still makes it out.

With weather in the 40s the day after everyone arrived in town, we figured a whole family adventure was in order. Even my 10 month old little girl Sarah came along. First order of business was getting licenses for every one. What a hassle. I guess the DNR computer doesn't like a 2008 date being entered on a 2007 fishing license. It took stops at a couple license retailers and a call to the DNR to finally get it straightened out. Finding sucker minnows for our tip ups was the next challenge. Many area bait shops were out since the season was wrapping up for Northern and Walleyes. We managed to find a few at the bait shop in Wayzata. Thanks Guys!

We hit Minnetonka and were happy to find lots of holes already drilled. With over two feet of ice drilling a couple dozen holes would have taken a while. It only took a few minutes to get onto a non stop Bluegill bite. My Mom, Andrea and Ray were catching fish as fast as they could keep there hooks baited with wax worms. My dad and I worked on getting 5 or 6 tip ups out. Sarah mostly played with the dog and watched grandma cull a pile of bluegills she had on the ice with bigger ones whenever she could.

We ended up keeping about a dozen bluegills for a pre-dinner snack. Deep fried Turkey was already on the menu for that night. Not a single flag on the tip ups although we did see one Northern on the camera. I didn't catch a single fish on tip ups this year. Not sure what I did wrong. I saw plenty of fish caught on other guys rigs and I caught plenty on a Swedish pimple. I guess there is always next year.
Here are some pictures of a great day on the ice!

  
 Mom has a nice pile started.                                   Sarah enjoying her first time ice fishing.


Ray with a bronco gill. (Camera phone doesn't do it justice)