Our fishing spot was a considerable distance out, and even though we travel light, the snow made pulling a shanty difficult.
Lucky for us, a fellow competitor, Jon, gave us a ride. Jon hitched up the shanty, plus, all our equipment, and we got a ride out to our spot.
The girls were in charge of making all the decisions, such as where to fish, since they were the competitors. However, before we left the house, I made sure to show them how to interpret a zoomed in aerial view of Lake Wawasee on Google Earth.
Mainly, what I wanted them to see was the change in water depth. Now they know how to detect underwater structure from looking at a satellite view.
Snow was falling during the ride out. The ride out was very bumpy due to the ice-crusted, wind streaked, blanket of snow on the lake.
Jean and I drilled the holes. I was really missing my buddy Garrett, after about the tenth hole! The ice was thick, and solid-- very thick.
Gladys and I set up the shanty. It's good to know that it is somewhat flame resistant! (Otherwise, the fire/explosion from last night would have took it up in flames.)
The weather out was gorgeous! The newly fallen snow sparkled in the sunshine and there was very little wind. I believe the high was 23 degrees F.
The girls set out three tip ups, two homemade and one plastic kind. Small perch is what they had as tip up bait.
We changed locations chasing after the fish. That statement is not as easy as it sounds. The ice was very thick and solid. Jean and I drilled several holes at each location we went to. The big truck in the picture below is driving on the lake! Did I mention the ice was very thick? :)
Mark, AKA High Flags, (appropriate alias), had flags going off every time we turned around. He admired our tip ups, but apparently the pike didn't think much of them because they never ate the minnows from them. Perhaps, it was because Mark was used a different bait fish.
For lunch, Jean went to an All-You-Can-Eat snow buffet. :)
JK-- I brought some goodies for em.
The girls found perch and stayed on em the best they could.
Suddenly, out of the blue, the bite would shut off and we were off to find more fish.
Ice fishing Wawasee; well-- imagine ice fishing lake Michigan-- it just feels massive when there is so much surface area.
The good news is, as the day went on, people would abandoned holes, so as the girls chased the fish, and occasionally they were able to use already drilled holes.
No drones flew overhead this time, that we were aware of anyways. However, we did spot a classic antique flying overhead.
I should have took photos of Gladys fishing. She was so into catching fish.
As Mark ran to tend to another flag, the girls checked and relocated there tip ups.
Jean and Gladys tried their best to locate the fish and get em to bite.
I got to experience what it would be like to float on Wawasee in mid-February. Actually, I was just that tired. Hehe.
After fishing, it was time to head to the weigh-in on the heated patio of the Oakwood.
Perch was the first to be weighed-in. Also, I believe it was the most common fish caught during the tourney. Here are a couple of the biggest tourney perch:
Here are the prize winning crappie:
This was Mark's biggest pike:
The girls proudly took the perch they caught up to be weighed-in.
These were Gladdy's five biggest perch:
Only the five biggest fish were to be weighed.
The guys calculated the winners and got the prizes ready.
Everyone patiently waited for the winners to be announced.
My good friend Rich stopped in to say hello. He frequently fishes Wawawsee and offered us plenty of advise beforehand.
Gladys nor Jean did not have the biggest perch. However, they did get each get a prize of ice jigs for being the youngest competitors. Also, Gladys won a custom made ice rod from the raffle.
Afterward, Jean and I both had a mug of hot chocolate, as we waited for supper at Maria's Pancake House.
Gladys order herself a root beer and a waffle.
We all had a fun Valentine weekend. :)
NIce!
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