So How is the Fishing?

Yesteday we had a cloudy and rainy day. People were surprised but it always rains a bit right around January 1st. THE FISH DON'T MIND THOUGH, so never cancel your trip due to a bit of rain. Here is what PISCES caught December 30th:
25 Striped Marlin
1 Sailfish
69 Dorado
8 Yellowfin Tuna
2 Skipjack
1 Yellow Tail
GREAT FISHING! All Billfish released as well as some of the dorado.

Wishing You A . . . .

2012 all wrapped up

So 2012 isnt quite officially in the books yet....still got one more Herman Christmas to attend this afternoon, a couple football games to be played, gotta stay up till midnight one last time and BAM the year is OVER....

Has it ever been a year to remember....or forget....I guess it depends on if your a glass all the way full or glass overfull and spilling over type of guy....The main theme to sum up this year 2012 is that I am simply tired cause my glass was always spilling over...

From Jan 1 2012 to Dec 29 2012 I put in 2,352 hrs at work, spent 1358 hrs working on my house and other similar family projects, I slept for 2190 hrs, I spent 49 hrs watching TV, 104 hrs blogging, 207 hrs on facebook and the pond boss forum, 263 hrs fishing, 42 hrs hunting and the remaining 2000 hrs in the year I spent playing with my kids at the lake, or on vacation!! We worked hard, but we also played hard..... every minute of 2012 was productive.....

So for those who dont know, I work at Herman Brothers Lake and Land Management. That there is perhaps one of the most exciting companies on the planet. 2013 is shaping up to be incredible already, we got alot of unbelievable opportunities that lie ahead for the upcoming year that pretty much leave me shaking my head in Awe of how God is using a small disfunctional fish company!

Oh yeah, and it wasnt just me who put in the extra time....Jared, Allen, Justin, and Andi all put in the hours (somewhat behind the scenes) to make it all happen....they are the glue that holds it all together and gets it all done....also Phil and Tate this summer were absolutely invaluable!

So now Ice Fishing season is upon us and I am pretty much giddy with excitement....I will spend all night on New Years Eve dusting off the cobwebs from all my ice fishing gear and organizing everything......Every reel will get new line (22 of them)....all the vexilars will be gettin tuned up and charged up (12 of them).....the rusty jigs will be discarded, the augers tuned up, the sleds cleaned out, the heaters propaned up, the ice scoopers will get a pep talk, and the wax worms will all get wound up and ready to wiggle.....

So anyhow this is probably the longest post of 2012 that doesnt have a picture in it....I got just a couple I would like to share to finish off the year....

This is Drake...He is a little man after my own heart...when he got this gift on Christmas morning he was in heaven for the first 2 hours of the morning....there was nothing else going on in the world once he got his little toolbelt taped on....


He has the best work ethic out of any kid I have ever seen... period. While building our house this year the other kids were off playin, but he was right by my side every night building our house....I can say this literally for hours day in and day out he would just follow me around and copy as much as he possibly could.....he was always in the way, but not only did I tolerate it, I encouraged it and nurtured it.....his eyes would light up when he could put his hand on the real drill, or help pull the trigger on the real nail gun, or climb up the real ladder....and Brook got to fill in lots of extra holes and scratches when he would pound on the real wall or floors with the real hammer or screw driver......

So not only is Drake gonna be the best lil worker on the planet, his passion for fish and deer is way stronger than my other 2 kids as well......he will carry live (semi live) fish around for hours and he talks about and pretends to be deer or deer hunting every single day.....every night at the dinner table we always say the best and worst of our day....Drakes does alot of rambling and mumbling, but his last word is always DEER!!!!

Also one more thing about Drake that stands out is he is just downright TOUGH...he gets hurt alot more than the others, but he cries from pain waaaay less....he will fight back tears at all costs and say repeatedly "I TUFF, I TUFF".....I am often amazed at how tough that little boy is. He takes pride in not crying when he has every right too!!

Oh yeah I have two other kids....just kidding all you moms still reading....While Drake is clearly my favorite, I love the other two kids more than words on a fishing blog can describe.....what were their names again?......

Lets start with Noah....He has grown up leaps and bounds this his 5th year of life....


Noah also strongly displays many of his fathers attributes...just differently than Drake. Noah's emotions and thoughts are right out on the forefront for the whole word to see...However he is VERY confident and his ego is as large as any 5 year old you will ever meet....He is the fastest, strongest, smartest, and best at everything he does.....(in his own mind at least).....

My whole childhood I would always here my parents telling other adults how I am a "Legend in my own Mind"....I probably heard that 1000 times and never ever knew what they were talking about or what that meant until I started raising Noah and heard that blast from the past just recently...It all makes sense.....The boy is a legend in his own mind just like his Dad.....

He has a passion for fishing like me, but his attention span or determination isnt borderline obsessive like Drake's and mine....basically he is more normal.....Noahs work ethic is absolutely pathetic....where did I go wrong? He just is as lazy as can be and simply not capable of picking up after himself or doing chores.....

Just yesterday he had to get socks on, put on his shoes, and get a coat...all in a timely manner as we were leaving...he counted that was 3 things he had to do...ughhh....then when his Grandma asked him to shut the door going out to the garage as she headed out he said in a loud whiny voice....."No, that means I would have 4 things to do and that is waay to much"....... I was mad, but did laugh on the inside.....

So I only say these things to remember em...Noah really is a kindhearted, amazing 5 year old...He is smart, too smart for his own good, or let me rephrase too smart for what his 5 year old emotions can handle...He knows too much, but yet that makes it harder for him to comprehend certain things....he doesnt just say the darndest things, he flat out says things that will truly amaze you and leave you in awe of his little mind....He is a ladies man through and through and will always complement Brook out of the blue how nice she looks etc etc....

While Noah is into hunting and fishing, I can see his true outdoor passion is leaning more towards dirt bikes and 4 wheelers.....He lives to ride....Im ok with letting him follow his dreams as long as they dont involve skate boards, soccer, video games, musical instruments other than the guitar, or computer stuff....everything else like hunting, fishing, camping, basketball, football, 4 wheelers, etc and he has my blessing to pursue and live his dream.....

So now its time to talk about Mae.....she is 7....she is in charge and in control since the moment she was born....She will be the perfect wife for a man out there who wants to hand over the reins....She is in control at all times and she looks just like her mother (drop dead gorgeous). However unlike her mother, she is scarily similar to her father's strong will, stubborness, and manipulativeness....



Most of you dont know, but I was a terrible child...I got literally more spankings than all my brothers, sisters, neighbors, and cousins all combined.....I was stubborn, mischevious, and my rear end was numb....the hardest spankins just didnt phase me or change the course I had in my mind...As a child I was determined to do what I wanted, when I wanted and a spankin was just a little speed bump in my road....My parents did eventually beat the tar out of me and broke me into submission, I was 15 years old when I finally got my last whoopin and started changin my ways.....

......now dont get me wrong, Mae is completely Daddy's little girl, but she is fighting a battle within on a daily basis.....a battle I am all too familiar with.....Mae and I get along great! We are wired almost identically! She is actually leaning over my shoulder right now trying to read and getting oh so close to being able to read as fast as I can type......she just hit me in the back cause she saw her name and I wouldnt tell her about what Im writing....

She was born to be a mother! She loves babies and already dreams of the day when she will be a real live mother with her own child....


She is smart. A different kind of smart than Noah, the kind of smart that does alot better in school than Noah will....She will go to great lengths to please her teachers and pretty much everyone else in the world....


Ok so exactly 10 years ago Brook and I got married at the age of 19....The best catch of my entire life....our marriage is kind of like a cane pole bluegill fisherman realing in the world record largemouth bass....People to this day are still amazed at how I married so good and how she settled being so young....

Behind every great man is an even greater woman, well in my case only half of the old saying is true: there is simply just an amazing, patient, great woman stuck with raising 4 children on her own.


So 2012 is just about over and I am really excited for 2013! We are now all moved into our house and are absolutely lovin it! We actually had guests over last night, 2012 was definitely not the year for entertaining or social activities......it was the year of nonstop working, but that nonstop working is already paying off!!!! Here are just a couple fun pics of my favorite child....hehe....to finish off the year...

Fish Report

December 15TH TO 28TH, 2012

Overall Catch Success Rate All Species Combined 97%

Numbers at a glance:
Billfish 62%, Dorado 68%, Tuna 8%

 

BILLFISH: This will be our last fish report of the year so next week look for one started out 2013. The striped marlin have not shown up “en masse “ at Golden Gate yet but we are still getting some good catches, however, the fishing has tended to be a bit up and down. One day the marlin bite was fast and furious off of the Old Lighthouse, the next day the same location was dead and boats had to move on in search of more productive seas. One boat that did exceptionally well this period was Pisces Falcon, with TWO blue marlin, in what is considered off season for this species. The first one was approximately 180 lbs and was caught by Tim Koll from Appleton, WI on December 23rd, at Migrino. This group also went on to release two striped marlin and catch three dorado on the same day. Next blue for Captain Manuel was on December 28th , a similar size fish off of the sand hills this time for David Jones, who also got a dorado and ten sierra. Pisces Andrea, a 28 ft boat, released four striped marlin near the Old Lighthouse for David & Barbara Fiocca from Ardamone, Pa on December 15th on live mackerel & lures. A few days later Pisces “Tracy Ann” went to a spot known as “Herradura” or horseshoe and also released four marlin and caught a dorado for Jared Gorden from Boston, Ma. We had a couple of boat with triple marlin days worthy of mention, such as Pisces “Rebecca” on the 23rd for Brian Monroe & Kellen McCormick. Brian Driscoe from Durango, Co also released three marlin and boated ten dorado with friends, aboard Pisces “Cabolero” at San Jaime, on the 27th.  Sixty-two percent of our boats caught billfish this week consisting of 60 striped marlin, 2 blue marlin & 1 sailfish.

 

OTHERS SPECIES: Dorado catches remained pretty steady and ended up being the number one catch in Cabo this week with sixty eight percent of boats catching between one and ten fish up to 30 lbs.  The fish were quite scattered and were usually picked up in ones and two. The boat that did the best was Pisces “Rebecca”, when they found a floating chair 30 miles south of Cabo and where angler Curtis Sander from Tucson, AZ, along with friends, loaded up on ten dorado, 8 tuna, 1 skipjack and released a marlin too. What was surprising this week were the tuna catches, although only a few were caught some were of a remarkable size. Rick Walsh from Cleveland, Ohio caught a beautiful 200 lb tuna aboard Pisces “Tracy Ann”, then Pisces “Valerie” had a great day for Andrew Boston and Andy Ziskind from Chicago; they caught a 30 lb, 175 lb & 240 lb’er sixteen miles from Land’s End on December 26th. The only other fish caught were a few small wahoo, some sierra and skipjacks.

LOCATION: Mostly Pacific, though 95 spot was good a couple of days, marlin and dorado Lighthouse to San Jaime, tuna were south of Cabo 13 to 30 miles.
WEATHER CONDITIONS: Partly cloudy, seas calm.
AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 75 F

Based on the catches of Pisces by Tracy Ehrenberg

home is where the... crappie are?

I lived here going on a decade and with the abundance of waters surrounding my home there is always somewhere new to pioneer. This is Lake County Illinois after all, and home to the Fox Chain of Lakes. It makes it sometimes so easy to bypass some of those small waters right outside your front door.

My neighborhood, just like many others, is speckled with many flood bearing retention ponds. Most of them are tiny but a couple have both the size and depth to support some healthy populations of fish. I've always known that some of the local kids and adults alike have had success with some pretty nice largemouth here. What I never knew that there was such a robust population of crappies. Even more surprising is that those ponds I thought to have no more then a maximum depth of 5 feet were actually closer to 10. Hmm?

This morning I snuck out for 30 mins to test the waters. Two holes were drilled in the basin area of this little pond. The reality is I couldn't get the bait down half way before a flash mob of fish were rising up after it. Half a dozen crappies and nearly a dozen gills came through the ice before deciding to call it quits. Not bad for a short morning. Since there is a solid 3 inches and growing, I plan on taking my son back out here in the next day or so. It will be good to get him on some fish and give some of these larger bodies of water a little extra time to solidify.

ice fishing my subdivision ponds

Sometimes its easy to overlook somethings so obvious.

21 Weeks & Counting

NOT TO RUSH THINGS - BUT

Plan To Include Reservations

off the road is good for the soul

EARLY CATCHING SEASON ON THE FIREHOLE RIVER - A SOCIAL EVENT

 

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.. Just a thought. There are some spectacular places to fish in Yellowstone National Park that are less than a mile from a paved road. Most fisher folks don't even think about them. That's fine with us.
.. Some of the absolute best catching of trout in Yellowstone National Park is not on the Firehole River, or the Madison River, or the Gibbon River, or the Gallatin River.

How many can you catch?

.. It might be on Slough Creek, but not where the elbows are. It might be near the Lamar River, but not within sight of the road. It could even be in the mosquito ridden Bechler Region of the park.
.. Most fly fishers are of a gregarious sort. Yet, they whine about too many folks on their water. They sob about the fact that there are even other folks on their water. They bemoan the fact that someone found their secret spot. Go figure.
.. Then they return to the same holes on the same rivers and wonder why things have not changed.
.. Most of the glory waters in Yellowstone National Park are about comfortable fishing. Do it the way you have read about it. Do it the way the counter help at a feather merchant's shop tells you to do it. Listen to the guides as they extoll the virtues of their successful outings and the grins on their client's face. It's comfortable. Go where you've been before - it's comfortable. Go where someone told you to go - it's comfortable.
.. Most fly fishers measure their fishing experience in terms of the fish that were caught. A few in terms of the bugs or the rivers. Very few, (we plead guilty,) in terms of the place, the time, the surroundings, or the weather - fish be caught or not.

RUNNERS IN THE FALL - UNFISHED PARADISE

.. We encourage all fishers that come to Yellowstone National Park to engage in comfortable fishing.
.. Measure your experience in terms of the size of the fish, the number of fish, the various species of fish, the beauty of the fish, the strength of the fish - enjoy the fish.
.. You will have the memories of having fished and caught fish where millions of other fishers have fished and caught fish.
.. You will be able to tell stories of the same parking places, rocks, runs and riffles and pools that others have experienced. It's fullfilling to be part of the club.
.. We do not suggest that you spend any time in the winter looking at maps. We do not suggest that you plan to walk too far or explore the thousands of miles of streams and rivers in Yellowstone National Park. We do not, for an instant, suggest that the local, professional, experts are not omniscient or omnipotent - heaven forbid! After all, they make a good living by being the way that they are. It's comfortable.
.. We, silly us, are spending many hours this winter looking at maps. We're looking at Google Earth. We, at the moment, are comfortable. But it's not fishing. We are planning a summer of distinctly uncomfortable fishing. Catching may accompany it: may not too.
.. Resources for the uncomfortable fisher folks are wide and varied. Google Earth is good. Digital-Topo-Maps[dot]Com is exceptional and lets you print the maps you need - it's free! Searching the various "YELLOWSTONE FISHING" web sites gives many insights that even the local experts have not yet discovered. Most of this "research" is butt-time, in front of a computer, we hope it pays off.
.. Last year, Many of the wader friendly lodgings in town were booked well in advance of the fishing season in the park. The owners of these establishments have developed a following of repeat customers and suggest that it's never too early to grab your place. Of course there are over 3,000 motel rooms in town - BUT - not many have facilities for drying waders, tying flies, and other things that gregarious fishers enjoy.
.. Right now, by gum, the sun has made an appearance, so we're getting off our butt - for the moment.

PRINTABLE TOPO MAPS FOR FREE

..

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HOW BIG OF A BROWN TROUT DO YOU WANT?

Strange Dorado

Was this Dorado Attacked and if so by what?
One of the pangas we sent today showed up with this dorado with strange markings on it.....what do you think? The tears are gaff marks, but we have not seen such strange markings before.

Tonight's Beautiful Sunset

bass through glass

Early ice over a clear northern Illinois lake is almost like looking through a window into the fishes world. A few more inches of thickness and these images will slowly fade to a muted grey. But for now, they offer an almost fish tank perspective into our quarries underwater world. Marked very few today but every one that did come up off bottom ultimately hit. All the ice we found today was in the 1.5 to 2.5 inch range. I'm gonna give it another cold night or two before I try again. Ice isn't being produced at any great rate but at least I got that initial trip in and a few slime-backs on the board.

the fish fighting under the ice

a nice largemouth through the ice

Everyone respect the ice and travel with soft feet. Good luck on the hardwater. Maybe if I get a bit froggy I'll try and punch a hole or two early one morning but my next trip most likely will be an afternoon evening crappie bite.

a wonderful  mixed bag

Do What You Do

As most of you all know Hays and I took a pretty incredible trip this summer out west. We had Dave Hymel a friend of Hays  Family and professional editor chop together our less than average footage and he made what I think is a pretty sweet video. If you are wanting to get your western adventure on this year. Email me about the Western Waters Dream Trip I am hosting! Until then I hope you enjoy this video!
Do What You Do from Hays Doan on Vimeo.

Z Fish Report (12/27/12)

The blue water is still within a mile of the shoreline, but it appears a cooling trend is starting. With a surface temperature of an average of 82 degrees, it is about 2 degrees cooler than last week. This is normal seasonal occurrence.

One of Tony's 6 sailfish released in one day aboard the Huntress

The offshore fishing was still very good this last week with the boats averaging about 2 to 3 sailfish a day each, and several more dorado have been showing up in the counts. John Neudorf, and his son Jonathan, of Calgary spent a day with Adolfo Jr. and me down at Puerto Vicente Guerrero. We did well. We hooked 4 sailfish and one nice dorado, with a total of 7 sailfish strikes.

John with his first sailfish of the day

John and Jonathan with another sailfish

John and Jonathan with
a 20 pound dorado

To prove how every day on the water is a different day, the next day Cheva and I went down to Vicente with Les Gado of Alberta, Canada and fished the exact same areas. The water temperature and current had changed a bit over night, and we only had two sailfish strikes, and caught 2 nice dorado.

Les with a 30 pound Bull

Anthony (Tony) Rynders from Oregon caught 6 sailfish early last week with Capt. Francisco on the super panga Huntress. The Huntress raised a total of 9 Sailfish on the trip. With the full moon, the Sail fishing has declined but the Huntress is still raising 5 or more sails per day. On Wednesday, the first Striped Marlin was caught.

Francisco on the Huntress is about to release
Tony Rynder's 1st ever sailfish.

Les with the leaping female dorado shown in the 1st photo

The inshore sierras are still showing up in numbers up north at the Ranch, but it is a long gas consuming run. Adolfo, on the panga Dos Hermanos has switched tactics this week and is going south to Valentine and Petatlan. He has been getting huge jack crevalle and good numbers of sierras there, and at half the distance. He told me there are mucho jurel (jack crevalle).

Kens gave my new leaning post a real workout

Adolfo Jr. and I also fished with fly fishing client Kensington Moore of New York down at Puerto Vicente Guerrero. We had a tough day and could not find any off colored water to effectively tease a rooster or jack crevalle back to the boat. Adolfo Jr. made hundreds of casts with the popper, and we still struck out. This was also the very first day we were using my new leaning post on the bow. Kensington gave it a good work out and two thumbs up.

The only scientific reason I can figure out as to why we never even saw a rooster, and only got 1 small jack crevalle, is because we made it too easy to catch fish with such a stable casting platform on the bow…So, the Fish Gods were angry and shut the bite off.

But, we still wrapped up the day at Vicente with a dozen huge oysters and a few beers at a local palapa restaurant next to the water and inside the bay. The dozen oysters are still only 100 pesos (less than $8.00). Were the oysters fresh? When we were done fishing (vs. catching), I had watched the divers unload a large mesh bag with 12 dozen oysters from the panga as we pulled into the bay between the rock jetty walls. The oysters were only about 2 hours from the ocean to the table. That is fresh!

Ed Kunze (IGFA Representative)

For a better understanding of our seasons and species of fish here in Ixtapa /Zihuatanejo, please click on this link: http://calendarforfishing.blogspot.mx/

Red Fish

Over the Christmas holiday I went with my family and my buddy Hays down to New Orleans for some good food, some great red fish and some great family time. The conditions were less than perfect but we stuck it out and fished anyways and landed some great fish. Here are just a few pics of some of the great fish we landed!

Wait There's More...

Wait, there's more.....Dr. Rick Walsh from Ohio caught this 200 lb beauty aboard Pisces Tracy Ann with Capt. Julio Castro 29 miles south of Cabo on a tiger color lure - he also released a striped marlin and a small 20 lb tuna. Way to go Rick and what a beautiful photo thanks to Mario. The tuna still looks fresh!

Surprise Huge Tunas Today

Pisces Valerie surprised us all today when she backed into the dock, we thought she had a few skipjacks....boy were we wrong. Look at these huge tunas! They were caught 16 miles out from Lands End one on a green and black lure the other on a green and yellow lure. Angler was Andrew Boston with the 240 lb fish and Andy Ziskind got the 130 lb, both guys are from Chicago

January Sale

We will be having our January Sale on the 4th and 5th, so make sure to call in as there will be some outstanding offers on all gear.

Merry Christmas

THE REEL SANTA

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! Hope everyone finishes off the year great by celebrating the birth of our Saviour Jesus Christ!

The wise men from the East traveled from afar and asked: “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”
³ When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. Matthew chapter 2...

23/12/12 - Lands End - Match

Weight - 36lb 1oz (12lb 4oz - silvers)
Catch - 4 Carp, 10 Skimmers, 9 Roach, 1 Tench, 1 F1, 1 Crucian, 1 Rudd
Weather - Cloudy & mild
Match - Loyalty Open - 9th out of 19 (5th out of 10 - lake)

Having paid my 15 £1 I qualified for todays match. With £331 in the kitty (not everyone who paid turned up or paid the full £15, hence the odd amount), plus normal pools on the day, there was plenty to go for.

I just needed a decent draw and I couldnt believe it when I saw 19 staring back me. Only the 3rd time in 8yrs, so it was about time. For company I had Allan Oram on 17 and Adrain Jeffrey on 21.

What was noticeable was the amount of water in the lake, which after yesterday rain was hardly a surprise, but at least it was mild, although there was mixed views about how it would fish and as it turned out it didnt fish quite as well as expected, although the silvers certainly seemed to fed better than wednesday.

Since I was on a noted peg I decided to focus on catching carp and rigs were similar to wednesdays, feeding pellet down the track, caster across just in case and even meat to my left by the tree.

A pinch of 3s & 4s were dopisted at 14m to my right, whilst I searched the rest of the swim with soft pellet to my left. With only 1 bites after 15mins, a switch to the right hand swim resulted in a 7-8lb carp almost straight away. After an hour I had another, losing a 3rd which was foul hooked in the midrift, but none the less I was quite happy with my start, becasue I had also managed a few silvers from my left hand swim  where I had toss potted a pinch of 3s.

Today however I was struggling to get the expected reaction and in the end decided to abandon the left hand swim, creating another by feeding 4s via a toss pot at 13m in front.

I hadnt planed to fish tight to the island, but a further deposit of caster produced an F1 straighaway, plus a few roach, then a small carp. Other than Tom on p13 no-one was really running away with it and I decided to stay positive, feeding 4s to my right  by catpult, which has worked in the past, confident the carp would turn up, because 3 or 4 carp would put me in the frame.

So far the 13m line hardly produced, neither had the short meat line. The only swim that continued to produce was the right swim, with a few 6-8oz skimmers and a tench. With 2 hours to go I was really expecting the carp to feed eventually and I did hook a decent 7-8lber, but the hook pulled at the net and the same thing happen agaon 30mins later. Needless to say I wasnt happy and as it turned out it was also costly. We have all lost fish, but when you get them within netting range, thats when it hurts.

My last 2 put ins produced a 2lb skimmers and a 5lb carp, but it was a little too late. After the good start I was disappointed not to catch a few more carp. In hindsight would have changed anything? Feeding meat over my short line was probably a bit ambitous, when feeding caster would have been the better option. However I was surprised not to get a better response over my pellet line.
 

1^st94- 2 – Tom Mangnoll – p33

2^nd65-12 – Tom Thick – p13

3^rd50-11 – Adrian Jeffrey – p21

4^th48- 3 – Kev Molton – p32

5^th47-14 – Craig Edmunds – p40

6^th44- 3 – Allan Oram – p17

 

Silvers

1^st19-10 – Martin Pettifer – p11

2^nd18- 6 – Paul Elmes – p5

3rd 18- 0 - Tony Rixon - p29

. . . SEASON

honey, i think the ice machine is broken?

After a lackluster 2011-2012 ice season last year, many hardwater enthusiasts have been left anticipating this season more then others of the past. The unseasonably warm winter last year, wreaked havoc on developing any significant amounts of ice for any significant amount of time. Just when you would think that the ice was solid a new warm front would push through and take it away faster then it had come. This scenario replayed enough times to actually make me ill when thinking about it. Thank God for the Green bay trip we took to fish whites, that trip salvaged the entire season.

The 2012-2013 had started in almost the exact same fashion. An unseasonably warm early December plagued local ice addicts again, and the feeling of deja vu was in the back of the minds of many. Well, I'm ecstatic to report that the cold weather is here and looks like it is sticking around for a little. Local lakes really have just capped over for the first time and some of the ponds have up to 1.5 inches on them, at least in my area. While I won't test the local lakes for thickness just yet, I drove past Fox Lake this morning just to see how it looked. The entire lake was capped and the only thing open was the current area right under the Route 12 bridge. A few more days of this weather and I'll venture out a tad further to get some idea of thickness.

a nice cap on fox chain of lakes

Ice anglers, please exercise extreme caution this year when venturing out on early ice. It's hard to forget the angler who lost his life last year on Pistakee Lake, one of my favorite early season haunts. Failing to plan is planning to fail.

Don't forget these tips for early season-

• Give it until 3 inches solid
• Fish in a group, save those more remote spots for later season
• wear creepers
• bring ice picks
• pack a length of rope in your sled
• avoid springs and current areas