I hate cabin fever, and I usually start coming down with it about December, this year was no exception. Of course there is always whitefishing and steelhead, and I've caught a few, but at heart I'm a warmwater guy. This has been a drawback until I watched an In-Fisherman video on ice fishing. I started on some of the local ponds a couple of years ago. At first my gear was fairly simple. I tried using a pruning saw to cut holes. This worked, but had the side effect of wearing you out pretty darn quick. The next year I found an ice auger in a local sportsman's store. It was tucked in the corner, somewhat covered with dust. I inquired about it and soon purchased it. I believe the clerk thought I was nuts, but I'm sure he was glad to get rid of it. I was becoming more sophisticated, soon it was ice fishing poles/reels, and more videos. I invested in a fishing buddy. It proved much better than a sounding device on a line. This year I purchased a flasher, just like the big boys. After a few trials I started having success with it. It works so well that you can see a maggot settling to the bottom. What happens though is you can see your jig jumping up and down as you manipulate it. before long you'll note a heavy red indication appear and if you work it right it'll move toward your bait, and boom: Strike=fish. For whatever reason the lower (southerly) pond is the only one with safe ice. While most lakes have little or almost none this little body of water has around 10" of fairly good ice. So far I've caught a good number of crappie, perch, bluegill and bass the biggest bass this year was around 16". Of course he went back quickly, maybe we'll meet this summer, when I hit these farm ponds to get away from the water-skiers, jet skiers, and other assorted pests that inhabit the big water. GOOD FISHING TO YOU ALL!!

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