BERRY COLD, BUT BERRY FUN

Four in my family hit the Berry on Tues with Kentofnsl as our guide. My alarm went off at “why am I doing this to myself o’clock…“ I left my sanity with my pillow knowing the sun wouldn’t be up for hours... but reports were pretty consistent that catching was better early. So I counted on the hope that it would be worth it. We went in and out of some pretty serious fog on the way, fortunately the roads were good - and that we didn’t hit any of the pot holes we heard about, cuz we wouldn’t have seen them coming!
When we arrived just after dawn the visibility was 20 yards, maybe. On the way, I told my brother that it was his responsibility to get rid of the fog, and it was Kent’s responsibility to get us on fish. My brother failed, but Kent felt no pressure as we headed out to the ice at the Soldier Creek area. The weatherman said it would be 34 degrees, and he was off by about 30… Kent suggested it was about 5 degrees. I’d open my container of wax worms and watch them freeze in just the time it took to pick one up... Very cold fingers delayed getting the poles in the water, as I had to switch to some heavier lures. It was so cold the line just didn’t want to straighten out!
It wasn’t long at all before we were on fish. I struck first with a small bow, maybe 12”. I asked Kent if I should keep it just in case I didn’t have anything else to take home. “I don’t like your attitude” he said. So I put it back hoping for better. Good choice.

A few fish later and I brought this chunky cutt to the surface, but the line broke off at the hole and in my excitement I stuck my hands in the water to shovel it out because I didn’t want to lose the fish! (Note, to self – “don’t do that,” and bring spare gloves next time...) However, he was juuuust a fraction of an inch shy of being a keeper. (Note the visibility due to the fog.)

Soon my brother and his son had some tight lines also, we even had a couple doubles. The temps rose as the fog cleared.


Kent had the longest catch of the day. It was very thin and had strange fins. I’ve never seen anyone catch this species before!


But he liked this one better.

The water was still very open toward the main body of water, and it created an eerie mist that called out to us... “beeee gratefuuuuul that the slush is frozen and the ice is 12” thiiiiick." (One man fished on the bank at the edge in the afternoon, but I only saw him bring in one small fish that I suspect was a bow.)


Lest anyone doubt me on how cold and how foggy, this unused pole ought suffice as proof of non exaggeration.


I heard my brother shout “Kent, I caught some of your bait.” “I don’t let fish that small bite my lure,” Kent replied.


The catching was indeed the best the first couple of hours in the day. We started out in about 25' of water if memory serves. As the fishing slowed significantly, we moved around quite a bit to catch singles here and there on into the afternoon. Kent remarked that he would have been lost without his sonar. I observed the same thing, with fish suspended at various levels later in the day.
As we were leaving I cheerfully asked another group that said they arrived in the afternoon, and "The fishing was "lousy." They didn't ask how we did... My brother ended up with 6 or seven-ish, his young son a couple more than that, my son ended up with about a dozen. Kent complained that he got stuck on "13" for a while, but made it to 15 I think. Modesty forbids me to gloat that I - who had never caught more than 7 fish in the previous 4 years trying at the Berry - got top honors that day. My son and I both came home with our limits of rainbows, the smallest was 14”, and the largest was just over 18”. We’d had a fun day and headed back to the car.

I’ve always wondered what would happen if the fish was too big to get out of the hole. Maybe it would be something like this. Of course I would expect my bro would retain the presence of mind to not drop his licorice stogie.

It was a good day. Happy New Year everyone!!! Go easy on the eggnog!