Yearly Quotas

I met my yearly quota on two items over the past month and a half: I made two ice fishing trips and caught a Burbot (Eel Pout).

I have pointed out in previous blog posts that Eel Pout are my favorite fish to catch on the ice. To me Lake of the Woods is the best place to target these misunderstood fish, so I always try to get there at least once during the ice fishing season. Long Point and Chad Skeim's fish house was home for the first long weekend fishing trip of the year. On the last morning of the expedition a Burbot beauty finally read the script and latched onto a line. By rights, the hefty lady actually swallowed two lines...

Most of the credit of the catch should go to my brother Mike. He was still awake at 4:30 am was kind enough to wake me up with a comforting "Jeremy, Get the gaff!!". Firing off a Roman Candle in the fish house would have probably elicited the same reaction from me.
But Team Swanson was able to wrestle her out of the hole. To date it is the biggest Pout I have been involved in catching. We did not have a scale but I would guess she was right around 8 pounds and right about 30" long. A great fish to end the long weekend on.
Besides that Burbot, we also caught and released probably 50-60 fish throughout the weekend, so overall it was a steady weekend of fishing and laughs with my brother and great friend Skeimer.

My second trip of the year actually allowed me to cross something off my bucket list.Yes, stop the presses, Eel Pout Festival in Walker, MN was something I wanted to do before I kicked the can.
A good friend of mine Chuck Hasse, who currently guides on Leech Lake through Leisure Outdoor Adventures, had been asking me to come down ice fishing for a few years. So I sweet talked my best friend Big Dave into tagging along and we hit the road like kids busting out of the door summer vacation. Chuck set us up in The Green Hornet, one of his favorite skid houses that sits on an elevated sand bar in Walker Bay. Arriving at about 9:30pm on Thursday night, we had 3 fish through the holes by midnight. I thought it was going to be another busy fish catching weekend, but that is when the holes figuratively froze over.

Hasse holding the 2013 Eel Pout Champ

We caught less that double digit numbers in fish, and zero of my beloved Pout. It certainly wasn't for lack of fish under the ice, or effort. We graphed fish all weekend and had a lot of house time. But no matter what presentation or lure combination we tried, nothing triggered a bite. That's the way ice fishing goes though.
Dave and I were able to take a few breaks throughout the weekend to check out the circus that is Eel Pout Fest. The easiest way to describe this event is 'WeFest on Ice'. We weren't in all out party mode so we did not spend a ton of time away from the fish house. Although we did go check out the 13.3lb Pout that was the biggest fish of the weekend. It was a spectacular fish that I would have been doing back-flips if I would have caught. It would have ended up on my wall for sure!

Bad luck aside, it was a good trip with a great friend and I am happy to have it crossed off my bucket list.

Somehow I did negotiate out one more ice fishing trip for next weekend. I plan on fishing a small lake not too from Fargo. It will be my first ND trip so who knows, anything could happen! Be sure to check back for an update post, it could be the trip I reel in the elusive 30" Walleye or 20 lb. Northern that swim in my dreams.