Pike, rootbeer and my best friend.

After an absolutely horrible day on the ice yesterday (see previous post), Timmy decided that he wanted to stay overnight to fish the morning in order to get revenge on some of those feisty pike. We hit the bait shop early to pick up shiners and got out on the lake by 7:15 am. Equipped with many cans of root beer (our ice fishing tradition) and chocolate chip cookies, we were well prepared to stay as long as it took to get a fish. However, it didn't take very long. Within the first ten minutes we had a flag and Timmy iced a nice 20+ inch pike.

When we got our next flag, something pretty exciting happened. Something that's never happened to me before while ice fishing. We got a flag a while after the initial one and I ran over and set the hook on the fish. I pulled in the line quickly, feeling no weight or fight on the end of the line. The shiner came up through the hole and I immediately threw the shiner back in. When I finished winding up the line on the tip up, I tried pulling the line up and felt some tension. It turns out that the small 14 inch pike had chased the shiner back in after I missed the hook set, and had eaten it when I threw it back in. This time I was ready and the pike didn't get away.

We landed 2 more pike on the day, a 16 incher by Timmy and a 28 incher by me. The 28" was the second biggest fish I've iced this year and it was in the exact same place as the 36" pike I landed last week. It was a good fish.

Overall we were 4 for 5 on flags. I'll take a day like that any day on the ice. It was good seeing my friend Timmy and I was happy to fish and chill with him a few times over this winter break.

GOOD NEWS FROM IDAHO:

Tom called me today with some good news. Even with the icy conditions on the Salmon River, Tom managed to land his first steelie of the season. He said it was pretty tough to get his flies down with the ice flows, but with the help of some split shot he was able to find some faster moving water to swing his fly in and get his fly down to the fish. It was a nice steelie of about 28 inches and the fish took his fly towards the end of the swing. I'm excited to get out with Tom when I get back out west, for I will have 4 or 5 days to do whatever I want before classes start. So what will I do every day?..... FISH!!!!