09/01/11 - Fishponds

Weight – 101lb 13oz
Catch – 14 Carp
Weather – Frosty start. Sunny all day, cold breeze

My clubs Christmas match at Ivy House was postponed again, until next Sunday. To be honest I wasn’t too disappointed particularly after seeing the state of the lakes on Thursday.

Apparently our club water had been fishing OK and with no where else to go decided to give it a try. It had obviously been a bit wet overnight, before freezing, because the country roads leading to the lake were very slippery. 2mins from the lake I met a tractor complete with a fully laden shovel coming the other way. Although I was only doing 25/30mph I had no traction, despite the ABS and decided the grass verge was a better place to be than the front of the tractor. Fortunately no damage, except for a few bits of grass hanging from the undercarriage of the car, but I don’t mind saying it was a change of underpants moment.

There was still ice over ¼ of the lake, although it looked to be reasonably thin. Decided to fish peg 22 which was 1 of the pegs furthest away from the ice and provided plenty of open water. My intention was to chuck out the lead (which was already made up), whilst setting up the pole.

After 2 hours the pole was still in the bag, because I had bagged 9 carp already, mainly on double corn, but I also had fish on (meat) punched bread and quadruple maggot. Initially hadn’t fed anything, but as I had to wait longer for bites, switching to the pellet cone produced a couple of quick fish before the bites dried up.

Co-incidentally the breeze had changed from SW to a NW and it certainly felt colder as a large sheet of ice drifted my peg, which fortunately melted away after 30mins.

Another 1hr on the tip only produced a few liners, but it provided me with time to set a pole rig to fish pellet or corn. Action on the pole was slow, but I started to see more activity by pinging 4-6 4mm pellets every 5mins.

Biggest fish on the day was 12-2 on bread, plus 3 more doubles certainly helped push the weight up, proving a better day than expected.

a great new blog

Deadfisher from Toronto is a great new blog that I just recently started to follow. John has done a great job of getting on some great pike and perch through the ice and has a great way of making me feel like I was actually there. His blog has only been around for 4 months and could use some more blogger followers. Please stop by his blog and give it read and if you enjoy his writing as much as I do please become a fan by following! Click here to link to his site. Here is one of his most recent videos, go ahead and watch it, you know you want to.

A "reel" turn up for the books

I recently got a mention from online fishing tackle people Fishtec.  They reviewed a load of fishing blogs they liked and mine was in amongst them. - it's always good to be appreciated, i do write as i feel and have met some fantastic people in the sport, and have had some oportunities to fish some exellent water due to my blog..

They've been in touch with me and this year, I'll occasionally be doing some honest reviews of kit for them and they've even invited me to do a guest post on their blog.  Here's the link to it -

http://www.fishtec.co.uk/blog/

As you can see I'll be along side some pretty good fishing writers.
What can I say?  I'd better get some fishing in and some good crack to get the boys buzzin..

Nice one Fishtec
Glen
  

in a nutshell

Happy New Year! The beginning of the year always brings an exciting new outlook for the months to come. The AF Crew has been diligently working on the 2011 game plan and emerged from behind closed doors with a list of items that looked more like demands from a hostage scene. Air travel, far away destinations, supplies… everything they need for a quick getaway.

Looking over the shooting schedule for 2011, there is going to be a lot of new ideas thrown in the mix. How does the Pacific Northwest grab ya? Another show in the Northeast is being talked about. There is a trip to the Bahamas with our sponsor, Star brite, on the list. AF will also be returning to some of our favorite locations including Key West, Louisiana and many locations between SW Florida to NE Florida.

Traveling to new waters means bringing different species in front of the cameras. On the menu this season we can expect to see more bonefish, redfish, snook, snapper, tuna and tarpon. But these new locations expand the possibilities of bringing sturgeon, halibut, more stripers and bass to the boat. Bass? Yes, I said it… bass! The ultimate showdown between Blair Wiggins & Skeet Reese. Blue vs. yellow. Redfish and bass fishing. What side are you on? There is even talk about getting the Mogan Man to put on a pair of real shoes to fish for lake trout through a hole in the ice. I’ll believe it when I see it!

Aside from globetrotting for all of the important stuff like fishing & filming, Capt. Blair will be on the road for appearances & seminars. The Dick’s Sporting Goods Mogan Tour will crisscross the state once again. Capt. Blair will also attend all of the Florida Sportsman Shows and the Tampa Tribune Outdoors Expo. AF will once again be rubbing elbows with all the big wigs and other celebrities at the big industry expos, ICAST and Big Rock East Show.

If that's not enough to get pumped about… Addictive Fishing will be increasing their internet presence with a hot new web site. The new interactive site format will be like a huge fishing magnet. Every time you think about fishing, you’ll be drawn to the site to watch videos, check fellow Addicts fishing reports, post pictures of your Mogans and a whole lot more! Stay tuned for news about the possibility of watching the 2011 season online… full length episodes during the 2011 season! It all revolves around the number of people subscribed to the Addictive Fishing YouTube page so get all of your friends signed up now!

What would a new season be without new products? FINS has some new specialty lines out that we will be telling you about in the near future. Rumors are circulating about a new addition to the "Flats Blue" family in the shape of a fly rod. We still have one huge announcement about a new sponsor product that we are still keeping under wraps this week but we will stick it out there very soon. This product I hold near and dear to my foot!

And what New Year meeting would be complete without discussion of Mogan Mania details?

Oops! My space runneth over,
BillBird 

Blog2print.

This Blog is now a book thanks to Blog2print and no it won't be available in all good bookshops!

There is a little bit of work and a few choices to be made when using this service but I have to say I'm very pleased with the result. Its all well and good to put time and effort into something that's out there in cyberspace but there's nothing like getting a hard copy that you'll have forever. I ordered two copies and I chose the hard back & colour option which cost around 30 Dollars each plus express shipping in order to get them before christmas.

They arrived in about ten days with quality packaging and I have to say I'm delighted with the result.
Well worth the effort.

About That Snowpack

ABOVE AVERAGE

Way Above Last Year

growing and growing and growing

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.. Soon after the black eyed peas have been eaten and shortly after the first mess of fish have been smoked and shared, conversation in the grocery stores and post office turns to the accumulation of snow.

.. Right now the conversation is mildly optimistic and the hope is for continued and increased snow fall, and a not too warm spring.
.. This year's rapid accumulation and frigid temperatures have some of the old-timers worried about ice jams, fluctuating stream flows and flooding. The conditions are ripe.
.. As we speak the Montana snowpack is 46% above last year and a healthy 12% above average, (see Great Falls Tribune.)
.. On January 1, 2011 mountain snow-water content was 112% of average and 146% of last year.
.. **West of the Continental Divide mountain snow-water content was 106% of average and 142% of last year.
.. **East of the continental divide mountain snow-water content was 112% of average and 139% of last year, (see KBZK dot com.)
.. The Madison River Drainage Basin is at 121% of average and 168% above last year. The Yellowstone River Drainage Basin is 114% of average and 145% above last year. The Gallatin River Drainage is 116% of average and 151% of last year.
.. As of January 1, all Montana streamflows are forecast to average 101 percent, for the period April 1 through July 31.
.. **West of the Continental Divide, January 1 streamflows were forecast to average 104%  for that period.

.. **East of the Continental Divide, January 1 streamflows are forecast to average 99% during that time, (see Clark Fork Chronicle.)
.. These are promising figures -- BUT, about 1/2 of the snow season remains and anything, (good or bad,) could happen. The near term forecast is for good. We'll keep you posted.
.. There's an additional 4" to 14" of snow forecast for the next 5 days and the temperatures are beginning to look like winter, (-20's to -30's.) Happily the daytime highs will be about + 3 to +5.
.. It's getting deep in West Yellowstone and the sledheads are enjoying the snow and frequent fresh powder. Cross country skiers and biathlon teams from around the world are also having a grand time.
.. The Madison River in Yellowstone National Park is running with occasional frozen slush. It takes about 10 days of -40° for lows and 0° or less for highs to put a skin of ice on the river. This could happen anytime between now and mid February. It's unusual but not that rare.

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A Great Saturday Ice Fishing Illinois

Well, it was 8 degrees and 20 mph wind out at Norris this morning as we were loading up all our ice fishing gear! With my lake being perched up 40 feet in the air and no trees around, I knew it was going to be way too windy to fish there today, so we headed over to Otter Creek to get out of the wind. The move paid off pretty good I would say! Here is a pic of a nice walleye we caught today on a small bluegill jig tipped with 2 spikes:

I fished with 2 groups of guys today. Justin, Patrick, and Will made the trip over from Lincoln, IL and Jim's group of guys were mainly from the Quad Cities area. With the bright sun, high pressure, and frigid windy temps I knew the bite was going to be pretty tough. Its just a good thing we were fishing in some of the most productive fish water in the state! We marked a bunch of fish, but had to work pretty hard to get them to bite. Without Vexilars we really wouldn't have caught many fish at all. Here are some really big and fat bass on super light tackle!

A bunch of Boone and Crocket Bluegills!

Crappie Time!

Oh yeah, my mom, dad, Justin, and Jonn Graham were along today to help me out. Mom and Dad help tremendously getting everything together and Justin and Jonn help find active fish. Jonn found several great holes for the guys to fish in!

Also while we were taking some photos last week, a fish pulled one of the guys St. Croix ice fishing rods into the lake! Well, we actually somehow caught that rod today about 30 feet from where it fell in! How cool is that!!!

Dennis was the multi species king today

Here are the Lincoln fellas posing with their main course for Super Bowl Sunday! (Hey Justin, watch out for small town cops)

We fished from noon till dark. The crappies were 6-10 feet below the ice in 15 feet deep of water and were mainly caught on live minnows. The bass were isolated and mainly caught right off the bottom with small jigging spoons tipped with waxies or minnows. Occasionally when a bass wouldn't bite near the bottom we would entice him up a couple feet before he would finally nibble. The bluegills were in 9-12 feet of water mainly on the bottom with small jigs and waxworms. The fish actually were more active at noon today than in the evening. The bite got progressively worse as the day went on. For some reason the coldest days the fish are biting better in the mornings and on warmer days they are biting better in the evenings. I will be paying very close attention to this pattern to see if it continues???