Sunday, December 19, 2010
The "eat"
It doesnt matter how old you are or how many Steelhead you have caught in your life, the moment of the "eat" or hookup just doesnt get old. The feeling of having a Steelhead grab your offering is just downright kick ass, it never gets old. This feeling is why I like to fish, it is a short little blast of adrenline-feels even better when it has been below 20 degrees for almost a month! Sure, its nice to get the fish to the net-but pretty much everything after the "eat" is rather gravy or just not as rad.
Monday, December 13, 2010
Road Tripping
Biblical proportions of snowfall & hurricane force winds. Yepper, an old school ass kicker of a yooper style storm has pummeled the crap out of the Upper Peninsula. I heard that just west of Central Marquette county 27 inches of snow already has been received from this storm. Storm reports out of Gitchee Gummee where reporting waves up to 20 feet & coastal flood warnings. No end is really in sight in the form of a warm up, temps look to be in the low 20's for at least the 10 day.
This snow isn't going to make the ice fishing crowd to happy, i have to imagine that the cold weather we have been receiving had some solid ice around. Whenever we get a big dumb of snow it compromises the ice conditions big time, the snow acts as insulation & melts away the good ice below it. 20 inches of snow on top of 5 inches of good ice will deteriorate conditions quite quickly. I heard a report last week of somebody breaking through in Iron Mountain while venturing out, this always puzzles me. Of all ways to die, I think breaking through a frozen body of water & drowning would most likely be the most miserable way to go. Is the possibility of maybe catching a fish worth swimming in ice cold water worth it? I highly doubt it. Hell, id rather drive myself to Thills Fish Market in Marquette & purchase some fresh whitefish verses freeze my ass off! People always use ice fishing as an excuse to go drink beer, why the hell would I wanna sit outside in subzero weather to drink a beer? Really, I enjoy consuming booze as much as anyone-but this is just stupid. A warm pub or my couch for that matter makes much more sense to guzzle down some ales.
On another note, I was lucky enuff to make my way down to Detroit this past weekend to attend the "Big Chill" game at the Big House & the Red Wings vs Canadians game. It was a damn fun weekend away from the U.P. to watch some hockey. It's nice to get to the big cities every so often to keep in touch with reality!
This snow isn't going to make the ice fishing crowd to happy, i have to imagine that the cold weather we have been receiving had some solid ice around. Whenever we get a big dumb of snow it compromises the ice conditions big time, the snow acts as insulation & melts away the good ice below it. 20 inches of snow on top of 5 inches of good ice will deteriorate conditions quite quickly. I heard a report last week of somebody breaking through in Iron Mountain while venturing out, this always puzzles me. Of all ways to die, I think breaking through a frozen body of water & drowning would most likely be the most miserable way to go. Is the possibility of maybe catching a fish worth swimming in ice cold water worth it? I highly doubt it. Hell, id rather drive myself to Thills Fish Market in Marquette & purchase some fresh whitefish verses freeze my ass off! People always use ice fishing as an excuse to go drink beer, why the hell would I wanna sit outside in subzero weather to drink a beer? Really, I enjoy consuming booze as much as anyone-but this is just stupid. A warm pub or my couch for that matter makes much more sense to guzzle down some ales.
On another note, I was lucky enuff to make my way down to Detroit this past weekend to attend the "Big Chill" game at the Big House & the Red Wings vs Canadians game. It was a damn fun weekend away from the U.P. to watch some hockey. It's nice to get to the big cities every so often to keep in touch with reality!
Monday, December 6, 2010
Off Season
As the snow is falling & temps are downright damn cold I am slowly realizing that the days of being able to fish daily are pretty much over. This is always a challenging time for me, going from being on the water pretty much everyday to having to pick & choose my days because of poor weather. This is really enuff to cause an early case of cabin fever, right now the forecast is terrible-everyday for the near future highs is the low 20's.
This shouldn't be happening this early in the Winter, but I guess we have had a very mild Fall-so this is kinda some pay back from the rotten lady (mother nature). Tasks & projects around the house that have taken the back burner since Spring are now being taken care of. I was kinda propelled to sit down at the fly tying bench today, but it is much to early to start that Winter routine. Instead I decided to take a walk through the woods in one of my Deer hunting areas to see what kind of activity was happening. I was actually surprised at the amount of tracks I saw in the snow, it is so nice from a hunters prospective once the snow is on the ground. It pretty much blows the cover of the deer movement, areas that didn't seem to have much for tracks now come alive once the ground is covered with snow. Today upon following a track I stumbled upon an extra large rub from earlier this Fall, probably the largest I have ever seen on a tree that had a diameter of around approx 20 inches. I'm not sure if this buck made it through the rifle season mayhem, but if so this is a magnum sized deer that should be a real trophy next season. That is what is the compelling aspect of hunting & fishing-the hope of the trophy of a lifetime :)
This shouldn't be happening this early in the Winter, but I guess we have had a very mild Fall-so this is kinda some pay back from the rotten lady (mother nature). Tasks & projects around the house that have taken the back burner since Spring are now being taken care of. I was kinda propelled to sit down at the fly tying bench today, but it is much to early to start that Winter routine. Instead I decided to take a walk through the woods in one of my Deer hunting areas to see what kind of activity was happening. I was actually surprised at the amount of tracks I saw in the snow, it is so nice from a hunters prospective once the snow is on the ground. It pretty much blows the cover of the deer movement, areas that didn't seem to have much for tracks now come alive once the ground is covered with snow. Today upon following a track I stumbled upon an extra large rub from earlier this Fall, probably the largest I have ever seen on a tree that had a diameter of around approx 20 inches. I'm not sure if this buck made it through the rifle season mayhem, but if so this is a magnum sized deer that should be a real trophy next season. That is what is the compelling aspect of hunting & fishing-the hope of the trophy of a lifetime :)
Friday, December 3, 2010
Welcome!
This is a new Blog I have created that isn't just based upon fishing here in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Sure there will be plenty of fishing based posts, but Id like to include hunting, environment & other facets that are important. This blog is going to be more about life in the U.P. and other interesting tidbits of Yooper happenings. Prolly a fair amount of bitching about the upcoming Winter & associated bullshit that accompanies it :)
Not much to report from the forest lately, low snows here in Marquette County. Some areas east of here along Lake Superior shoreline have received upwards of 12 inches. But overall low snowfalls for this time fo the year here in the U.P.. Fine by me!
Not much to report from the forest lately, low snows here in Marquette County. Some areas east of here along Lake Superior shoreline have received upwards of 12 inches. But overall low snowfalls for this time fo the year here in the U.P.. Fine by me!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)