These cold temperatures we've been experiencing have been the talk wherever you go. At Cadillac this week, anglers from around the state attending Mark Martin's ice fishing school were well prepared for cold weather.
Or so they thought. When 7a.m. rolled around Monday morning, the first day of fishing, snowmobiles, ATV's ice augers and other related ice fishing equipment just wouldn't start.
Some machines took a lot of coaxing before finally turning over then starting. It became such a concern that many anglers left machine running while they fished.
Other equipment that was affected by the weather were heaters, reels, rod guides, tip ups and zippers on ice shacks. Whatever could go wrong did go wrong.
Fishing with Casey Miller and Mike Russell our breakdowns were ice shanty related in the form of support poles freezing up.
Then there was the fish, the reason we were gathered on Lake Mitchell to begin with. Action was spotty. Some caught one legal-size fish while others caught a pile of really small panfish and perch.
I fished from 7:30a.m.-6p.m., without even having so much as a bump. I changed lures several times, different jigging methods were tried and even the use of live bait wouldn't bring them in.
We changed locations thinking we might do better on another part of the lake that had been productive on previous outings. The result was the same-zero.
That make for a long, cold day. So long that you run out of stories to tell. The onset of sub zero weather definitely put a crimp on the fishing action for a few days around Cadillac.
I loved ice fishing when you could leave your shanty out on the lake till spring and nobody would harm it. It was nice to walk out to it and start the kerosene stove while you cleared the spearing hole. We hardly used spears and just fished for those jumbo Bluegills.
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