My initial plan was to go and check on a place that I thought might be thawed, so I came prepared with my pontoon strapped to the rack.
If my plan A didn't work out, I had hopes of floating a lake that surely had some open water. First stop was plan A, with some photo detours along the way.
Talk about a beautiful place!
Plan A was still frozen, but I saw about 6 feet of recently opened shoreline, although still frozen with a thin sheet of ice. At that point, I was ready to accept plan B, but then I saw a few fish moving around in that band of clear ice.
So I made like the Romans and hurled a rock in to punch a hole. Luckily, my rock went through, where others hadn't.
Right away, I had curious patrons coming close to take a look at my jig, but they kept snubbing it. It happened just often enough to keep my interest for a couple of hours before finally connecting with a pretty cutthroat.
Finally, I had relieved my need to catch one through that hole and could move on to wherever the day took me next. Forget plans!
Next stop was a nice tail water that I've meant to spend more time on. My 2nd cast was smashed by a 19 inch brown that showed off some aerials. That made me smile.
Plenty to look at around there.
So after getting happily sidetracked for most of the day, I eventually got around to the plan B lake for a float on my pontoon. Unfortunately, the wind was blasting away and my experience would be one from shore again.
After many casts, I was able to hook into 1 rainbow, but called it quits after that. Even though I had only caught three fish on the day, I was still pretty satisfied, having caught three different species and getting out in the gorgeous weather was just what I needed anyway.
Happy Fishing, Humans.
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