CubanFisherman
02-19-2006, 08:30 PM
Just when you thought Gander Mountain was the most reliable sporting goods store on the face of the planet...they are out of bait. I suppose its not entirely their fault. Michigan weather is equally culpable. My dad and I went there to buy some minnows for tip-up fishing, but they had assumed that there would be no ice fishing anymore this year and failed to restock most forms of live bait. No waxworms, no shiners, no suckers, just two tubs of leaf worms...in the winter.
But we found some waxies at MC Sporting Goods, thank goodness. Between my dad and I, we iced about 10-15 good sized perch. Having no swimming bait for the ichthyophagus pike, I tried putting a perch under the tip-ups. No success. Not even a flag. The holes would ice over within 20 minutes, and one POS tip-up froze completely, rendering it useless.
The wind was traveling at high velocity. Several times, we chased empty buckets across the ice rink like surface of the lake. Skates would have come in handy. Watching the ice boats provided good entertainment.
I did feel very bad for one gentleman who, with his young daughter:sad:, had no way of securing his shanty to the ice. Every time it moved he would rattle off a string of high-volume expletives beginning with the letter F and ending in the letter K.
I apologize for this excessively verbose report. After being cooped up in the house for a while, anything is good enough to talk about.
But we found some waxies at MC Sporting Goods, thank goodness. Between my dad and I, we iced about 10-15 good sized perch. Having no swimming bait for the ichthyophagus pike, I tried putting a perch under the tip-ups. No success. Not even a flag. The holes would ice over within 20 minutes, and one POS tip-up froze completely, rendering it useless.
The wind was traveling at high velocity. Several times, we chased empty buckets across the ice rink like surface of the lake. Skates would have come in handy. Watching the ice boats provided good entertainment.
I did feel very bad for one gentleman who, with his young daughter:sad:, had no way of securing his shanty to the ice. Every time it moved he would rattle off a string of high-volume expletives beginning with the letter F and ending in the letter K.
I apologize for this excessively verbose report. After being cooped up in the house for a while, anything is good enough to talk about.