Winter Bass

I was looking for northerns, but look what I found this afternoon. Largemouth bass aren't unheard of in winter, but it's uncommon. It was a nice surprise. As you can see from the photo, it was bigger than my truck. But I was able to stuff it back down the hole. (I never keep fish)

How The Other Half Fishes

Here's a picture of a tipup that belongs to one of my brother's friends. My brother says he's gotta get one. I think it's too much.
Inside the box is a small kerosene heater that keeps the hole in the ice from freezing over, a motorized jigging arm to keep the bait moving, and a transmitter that sends a signal to the receiver in his pocket when he has a bite. I guess when you have everything you need, then you start buying stuff like this.

We actually did give one of the transmitter-receiver sets to my brother-in-law Dean for his birthday recently, but only because without using way too much electronic gadgetry he'd probably never catch a fish!

Two-Part Plan For Fishing

This coming Thursday, Part One of my plan is to get out fishing and spend some time relaxing on the water with my dad, my brother, hopefully our boys, and probably my brand-new brother-in-law, Dean. Part Two of my plan is to catch more and bigger fish than Dean does. See, I like to catch largemouth bass and northerns, maybe a muskie now and then, and I like to give the fish a sporting chance. No electronics, that is. Artificial bait. Texas Tea. All right forget Texas Tea. Who knows where that came from. Texas probably.

But Dean is one of these guys that I think will go after anything with fins, and use everything short of dynamite to catch it. I'll concede that he probably does catch more fish than I do, and if you ask him, he'll say that makes him the better fisherman. I say he's the better fisherman the way Barry Bonds is [will be] a better home-run hitter than Hank Aaron. There's always gunna be that asterisk.

Bonds*
Dean*

Does that even count?