Freeze up

Winter  has gotten its foot in the door.  Deer season is over and Lake Manitoba has been freezing up.  My brother and I are always eager with caution to be the first to start setting nets.  Our family has been fishing here for 3 generations.  The wind this fall has been relentless.  There are piles of ice out on the horizon of the lake that look like mountains and yet there are places that are as smooth as glass like this.

We have tried many new store bought ways to keep grip on the ice, but the best way is the old way.  A section from a hay mower blade riveted to a piece of leather or rubber, the corners bent over and sharpened and then tied to your boot.  Your legs get sore by the end of the day using these walking flat footed and having a hump under your boot all day but without them you are useless out there.

Here is the Jigger that runns our line out so we can pull the net from one hole to the other.  Under 2 inches of ice!

Dustee has been out on the lake this week with us.  She is in heaven.  Running 2 miles out onto the lake, she doesn’t even breath hard when she gets there and glare ice doesn’t slow her down.

We have had some stormy days also where she prefers to ride on the sleigh with me.  Here we both have iced up eye lashes.

Setting right up against the ice piles.

The higher dollar walleye we are searching for are out numbered by pike.  Since our lake was flooded in 2011 there has been an infestation of northerns in our lake.  We are able to sell all the fish we catch but if you are going to work hard it is nicer to make more $.  We have been catching 1000 pounds of fish per day.  Thats a lot of picking.