the summer

So I haven't posted all summer I don't know why just did not take the time. Been a good summer did a lot of camping. For the Forth of July I took a solo trip to Tangle Lakes. The dog and I had a great time, that was the last time that the sun shined around here as this has been the wettest year ever. Patience and I did some dip netting on the Kaseloff River. Joe met us at Johnson lake camp ground and we where able to dip 40 fish from the river in one day. While down there Patience, Joe and I went out on a friends boat to do some halibut fishing. Patience did not have such a great time as it was vary ruff and she got sea sick. We caught some nice fish. Ended the year with Heidi's uncle Wayne and aunt Beth coming up from New Hampshire and going on a trip to Kodiak with us. Had a great trip, took the ferry from Homer and lucked out with the seas and weather. Left Homer in the rain but it cleared up as we arrived to the island, then it stayed nice the whole time we where there. The kids had a great time Wayne and I did a lot of fishing. We saw all kinds of wild life. I will post the photos at some point but for now if you want to see theme go to my photo bucket.

Lake Louise, Rabbit Hunting and Back To Louise

It has been a few weeks since I posted. Here is whet I have done. Patrick and I went to Lake Louise. We fished a few spots and had some good hits but only caught one small lake trout each. The next week i went rabbit hunting. Rabbits are off there seven year cycle now but I did shoot five and missed five. I spent the next weekend at home then i headed to Louise to spend the night. I pulled all my fishing stuff out on the lake a mile and a half after work. I thought I was going to get cold but it was nice. I think it was around 0 at night but I took a heater and a 20 LBS propane can. The ice house was in the 80 for a while so I had to leave the heater on low so it was cool enough to sleep. I got up at five the next morning to fish this seemed to be the best time. I had several strikes then caught a BB about 8 LBS. Not to long after that I had a huge strike and some line was pulled off the reel for a wile then the line broke and I lost the fish. After that one I caught five small lakers. After 10 the fishing was dead. I pulled the Auger, tent, sleeping stuff heater and 20LBS of propane onto the ice and was surprised that it was not that hard. On the way back to the can it was warmer out and I got sweaty but it was nice. looks like I will be at mom and dads this weekend so I wont go fishing till April. I needed the extension on the auger at Louise so looks like there is still lots of winter left.
I think it is smiling at you!!!!

Lake Louise Feb 20 & 21

I headed to Lake Louise with some friends last weekend. The weather was great, kind of cold in the morning but it warmed up in the afternoon to 20s. It is amazing how warm that can feel when it reflects off of a lake in your face. At one point it felt so warm I had to take my coat and hat off. The down side is that when the sun set it became a lot colder. We had some snow machines and one of the guys rented one from the lodge. So once again I had to ride doubles. We started the day at the mouth of a bay off a point. We had some good bites first thing then it slowed till Max hooked a nice Lake Trout. After that things slowed way down. Patrick and Nick chose to go off and explore the other side of the bay. They where gone for a long time when Patrick called me to say that Nick had a monster on and had been fighting it for a while. We jumped on the machines to go look at what was going on the hook. (It is the fish by the rod in the dark). Since he caught that fish there we decided to drill some holes and stay for a while. Patrick got a huge hit that broke his line off. Then I had one on for a while but lost it. Right after that I hooked into a small Burbot. We kept getting small hits after that just enough to keep us going, any way. Then I got hit hard and set the hook into a big burbot it put up a good fight and soon I had a 14 lbs fish on the ice. Not long after one of the others landed a burbot about the same size. The action slowed after that and it was nine in the evening, we thought we should check into the lodge for the night. We woke up late the next day and ate breakfast. While we ate Patrick went out and caught a nice burbot longer then mine from the same spot as the night before. After we were through eating we headed out to meet him. Things where going great we had hits now in then but no hook ups. I had one on for a while that felt big but I lost it. The other guys looked down their holes and could see fish swim by now and then. I was sitting back in my chair soaking up the sunrise when I got hit hard. This thing was dogging me, as soon as I would get it near the hole it would pull hard back to the bottom of the lake and not move. I could tell that it was big because I could not move the thing; it never went for any long runs just pulled to the bottom of the lake and stopped. I had to tighten my drag so I could pull the fish up. I though I had a monster burbot but when it came through the hole it was a huge laker. We fished there for a while longer but did not have any more action so we headed to the other side of the lake. We caught a few more small lake trout before it was time to go.

Byers lake

Heidi and I spent last weekend at Byers Lake. We had a great time skiing around the trails and on the lake. I rented cabin three witch is lest rented cabin since it is the farthest from the road. It took two sled loads to transport all the comfort items to the cabin, that included four bundles of fire wood, five gallons of water and a 20 lbs of propane for the lantern and stove. Heidi became all domesticated when arrived there and cleaned the whole place. By the time we left it looked like a new place. After we skied and hiked all day we played cards and ate dinner, been a long time since we could play games with out getting interrupted. It had been along time since ether one of us had skied and we took some video that is funny

Lake Louise

Patrick and I went to Lake Louise one more. these day trips to Louise are always an adventure. They start by getting out of bed at 430 AM. This trip like the last was full of problems. This time the jiffy ice auger would not start. I have been having problems with it since a bought it from Jiffy, I called the company and was told that if I turned some nobs on the carb that it would work butter. Unfortunately, it was -20 and by the time that I got it running the fuel in the bowl of the carb had congealed and it would not run. I put some heat in the tank than it worked fine. Now the problem was that the auger blades where so dual that I could not get it to cut. good thing that Patrick took his Eskimo Ice Auger with us. After we had the holes drilled I got the fishing pulls out to find that trip to Crosswinds was more ruff than I thought on them. one reel was broke when I got it out of the bucket and one more broke wile I was using it. This left me with only two rods one with heavy line and one with light line around 8 lbs test. We both decided to use the doc spoon since that is what I caught the two big Lakers on. Patrick caught a 30 inch Burbot right a way. Then we drilled hole and fished till we where in a bout 50 feet of water. I was a little down since my equipment would not work and I had not got a bite. Just then smack fish on. Since I had light line on the reel I let the fish run. It took line for five minuets strait before it turned a round and came back. I got it close to the hole only to have it do it once more. The long runs wore it out and it was ready to be landed. I had the drag vary loose and the battle lasted 10 minuets. I could not believe the size of the fish when I picked it up. It was a bit cool out so after fighting a fish for ten minuets with out gloves on then picking the thing up my hands where a bit cold so i took a break to warm them up. After a wile I saw Patrick's Automatic fisherman go up he ran over and it did not look like the fish was there but he was able to finessed it into taking the bait. soon he had a laker on the ice as well.
I went back to fishing and after thirty minuets the line started zinging of my reel super fast. I tightened the drag but this time there was no stopping it the line kept going. i tightened the drag down more but it did not stop. I looked down at the spool of line and was surprised to see that there was not muck line left on it, In a matter of fact I could see the manufactures name on the inside of the spoon. I cranked the drag down more and the fish came to a stop but i could not move it. Man this fish must be twice as big as the first fish. The thing pulled a few more time but it was completely wore out, as would be expected after it swam at top speed for at 300 feet. Although it was wore out, I still had a hard time getting it in. I had to move the rod up and down like I fighting a giant halibut. When I got it near the hole and watched it swim by i saw why, some how I had snagged the fish in the back fin. It was not nearly as big as we through but it was still a nice fish. this is where it get funny. I think the fish relay wanted to get caught because as i was trying to pull it through the hole back words it some how got the hook caught on the ice at the bottom of the hole. I tried to to put my hand down the hole to dislodge the hook as I did not want to loos it but I could not reach. Patrick had the idea to put the rod tip in the hole to remove the hook from the ice witch it did but at the same time the fish got off. For a while we thought i had lost it but then it was there once more only the hook was in a different part of the fish. After I let that fish go I commented that if I catch another one I think that I know whet I'm doing. Apparently that was the wrong thing to say as I did not catch another fish. I did have one on for a wile and I had a good strike but I lost them.

Crosswinds lake

Patrick, Nick and I had the chance to snow machine into Crosswinds Lake to fish for lake Trout. I have to thank Uncle Jim for this one. He was nice enough to let me use his snow machine and trailer. It a was vary interesting trip. We rented a cabin from Club Crosswinds. The owner met us at the trail head to explain how to get there and get the money. He said that it might be foggy when we get to the lake but head down the right shore of the lake looking for two ice shanty's then go between then to the other side of the lake. We loaded the sleds and machines up and headed down the trail. The snow machines worked great but we kept stopping to tighten down the stapes and move things around in the sleds we where towing. It ended up taking several hours to make to the lake. Things looked good when we got there and we started moving down the right hand shore just as he said. Then just like that the ice fog moved in and we could not see more than 30 feet. I no 30 feet of visibility doesn't sound bad but I did not tell you that Crosswinds Lake in ten miles long and five miles wide. Once that fog came in and we could not see the shore we where as disoriented as you can get. Good thing that I took the G.P.S, I turned it on and found that we where right next to the shore, could not see a tree but they where there. I Marked a way point where we thought the cabin was and headed that way. We then shot across the lake as fast as we could. I was afraid there might be over flow on the lake and did not want to get stuck. When there is that much open space, low visibility it does not take long to completely loose each other in the fog. You could be right next to each other and not know the other person was having problems. After a long time and lots of wasted gas we found the cabin. We set our things up then went out to drill holes for ice fishing. That day we did not get a bite. we tried in front of the cabin. The cabin was nice. It had a drip oil heater in it to keep us warm witch worked good. The next day it snowed and there was no fog so we where able to fish away from the cabin. We each caught lakers around 5 lbs and caught a pair of BB that where around 8 LBS. We fished hard but it was not great. The next day we cleaned the cabin up and packed the sleds for the trip back. We stopped at the spot we caught fish the day before but did not get a bite so we headed to point on the lake that was closer to the trail head. We drilled several hole and started fishing. I was getting super small nibbles. I thought it was a fish under a foot. I tried putting a small hook on with a salmon egg but this fish did not seem to want it so after a few minuets I traded back to the Doc spoon. The other guys left to drill holes farther out in the lake. I was Jigging the spoon when I got another small bite. I did not think much of it till my little Ice fishing pull almost got yanked out of my hand. The line started coming off the reel and it was like I had a whale it just pulled and pulled. I tightened the drag sown then the fish started head shaking and I new this was the big one. I pulled up on the pull a bit this seemed to make the fish mad because it started pulling out even more line. I started thinking that I might run out of line but then the fish turned and came back. Now I got Pat and Nick's attention from the hole they where drilling and they came over to see. I slowly recovered recovered more line then it turned and started running the other direction. The little ice fishing pull bent so far over it looked more like a black spaghetti noodle It did not stop till all the line that I had recovered was off the reel. He then started coming back to the hole once more. When I saw the size I could not believe it.

Lake Louise

Patrick and I went to lake Louise. It twas a trip rot with problems. First it was cold -44. We borrowed Uncle Jim's trailer so we could take a Snow machine but when we arrived there we couldn't start the snow machine. We tried every thing we could think of but it would not start. I don't know if it was due to the cold but I think it was a good thing that we did not go across the lake at that temp then not have the snow machine start and have to walk back to the car at -44. After wasting the first hour on the sled we decided to go to the state park and drill some holes to fish. the road to the park wasn't plowed and we nearly got stuck. We stopped half way then walked a long way down hill to the lake. We new it was going to be cold so we took the shanty and a careasean heater with us but had a hard time lighting the heater. We drilled several holes but the more we drilled the less the auger wanted to work. after 5 holes we had to hold the primer button down to keep it from stalling but it would not turn the blade fast enough to drill. I think the gas in the line or the carb was freezing. We put up the ice shanty and lit the heater got our lines ready than started fishing. We waited and waited jigged and jigged. It was starting to become dark when I checked one of my rods only to find all the line on the real gone. We where talking of calling it quits and walking back to the car when I saw my fishing rod almost get pulled into the lake. I rushed over and set the hook to land a nice Laker about 5 lbs, I guess the fish gods felt bad for us because as I was releasing that fish I heard the faint sound of line being pulled from a real. I told Patrick whet I head but as we looked around all the pulls looked fine. He had two automatic fisherman down but they looked fine, or we thought they did. when he checked the farthest one it was so bent over that you could not tell that he had a fish on it. unfortunately, when he went to set the hook he ended up with a birds nest in his line. He ended up fighting the fish by pulling the line up hand over hand. He set the rod on the ice behind him then turned to find the line. the fish tried to pull the rod through the hole but I caught it while Patrick got control of the line. He fought that fish for a long time than landed a nice 15 lb laker. right after he landed that one it was starting to get to dark to see the rods. I heard a tang sound that sounded like line being pulled on the ice so I ran over to check my rod and found what looked like the bite of a burbot so I set the hook and soon landed a 25 inch burbot. Right after I landed that one Patrick hoked another laker on his Automatic Fisherman. Now it was to dark to see so we thougt that we should leave. It was a lot of work pulling a ice shanty, Power auger and all the fishing stuff back up the hill. We nearly got stuck trying to make it out to the road but we did and we made it back to Anchorage with out frost bite. if you want to see an Automatic ice fisherman look at the link http://www.automaticicefisherman.com/