Journal of a Minnesota Angler

I’ve been itching to get out on the ice since temps took a dive in early December. It got worse when I won a nice tip-up combo from Frabill and the Outdoor Blogger Network. With my brother home for the holidays, I hoped to get my chance. I finally did the day after Christmas.

I met my brother and his friend on White Bear Lake off Bellaire Beach. It seemed like the whole town had the same idea we did. There were probably two dozen ice shacks and another dozen or so groups with no shelters.

When I got there, I proceeded to set up my new tip-up. Anxious to get it in the water, I put a minnow on the hook before I realized I had no idea how deep to set it. I put the depth finder on the swivel and dropped it to the bottom. When I pulled it back up, it felt heavier than expected. The minnow also felt like it was jerking the line a little funny. When I got the minnow out of the whole, I laughed out loud because there was a little perch sucking on it.

I then got my rod and reel set up with another minnow. My brother and his friend hadn’t had much action before I got there. They jigged while I let my minnow sit with a bobber.

Some time later, my brother pointed to my tip-up as it had gone off. I ran over to it, pulled the tip-up off the hole, and set the hook. But nothing was at the end of the line. I set it back up and when back to chatting with my two compadres.

My tip-up went off again a few minutes later. This time when I pulled the tip-up off and pulled gently on the line until I felt some weight on the other end. I then set the hook and got him. It was a bigger perch. (How do you like the product placement in both my pictures? :-))

The tip-up went off one more time with nothing on the other end. Two other times I checked it without it going off, my minnow got picked. A few other times, I was pulling up weeds and my brother’s friend said I was too deep. Resetting shallower didn’t yield anything. My brother was hooking little sunnies with his jigging and got about five of them. His friend didn’t get anything.

  

It was a decent first ice outing of the season. It was fun to try out my new tip-up. I doubt I’ll get out again before the end of the year, but I’m looking forward to more outings in January and February.