Back to Warmer Weather

I got a picture attached of our first Spanish Makerel of the day. Dad probably caught about 6-10 in the couple hours we were out. The photo and video are both of the first one. The ones to follow were bigger, but I never got a chance to get more video. Grandpa got a couple Mackerel and a flounder. I was out of luck until the very end and got a Mackerel and a Whiting. Bait of the day was a jig head with live shrimp.




Andrew Kraker

Swan Lake



Sunday January 30, 2011 – We had been talking about doing some ice fishing for a couple of weeks now.  The original plan was to go to Silver Lake on Saturday, but I had to work and dad had an unexpected funeral he had to go to.  So we decided that we would hit up some where a little closer and go on Sunday.  I got the idea to try Swan Lake in Allegan from Boner who is a friend of mine.  He told me to go straight off the boat launch about a quarter mile and that is where we would find the gills. 

We arrived at the lake right by the boat launch with no problems at about 8:30 am.  We were all shocked to see how many people were already on the lake.  We followed Boners instructions and walked a quarter mile straight off from the launch where there was one of two good sized crowds of fishermen already on the ice. 

We drilled our first hole in the ice and realized our auger was more than dull.  After the first hole was drilled and one line was down, we decided to use some existing holes in order to avoid cardiac arrest from drilling with the dull auger.  It seemed pretty slow at first.  Chad had taken in the only fish in probably the first hour.  Other fishermen around us seemed to be catching a little more than us, but not much. 

I decided to move holes, and it was the best decision of the day.  In no time I had 5 fish on the ice.  Dad and Chad made holes in the area, and soon all of the poles were bringing fish in.  While our poles from 1970 with 1 inch of dust on them might not have been very coveted, our spot was the envy of the ice.  By the end of that beautiful Sunday afternoon we had 47 bluegills, and we seen one guy get a 29” pike on his tip-up. 

Not bad for being the first time on the ice with a pole in more than a decade.