Winter

It has been a long time since I posted anything so I thought it was time to do so.  Winter may be starting to be in the rear view mirror.  It still is only 8 F this morning but it is supposed to be in the 30's by Thursday.  On Thursday February 20th when we got the 10 inches of snow I actually saw my first robin.  There was about 15 robins actually in on of the hackberry trees on our yard.  This was right about the time it was switching from rain to snow.  After a couple minutes they were gone. We will probably see them once it gets back to the 30's.

Sue and I have gotten out a couple times cross country skiing.  The snow has been fantastic, only the temps have been too cold at times.  I am hoping to get out a couple more times before all the snow melts.

1st Winter Storm of the Year

Well it is hard to believe that the first real winter storm of the 2011-2012 winter came on February 28th and continued into leap day.  It started yesterday with a few flakes and then turned into just a nice rain.  And rain it did.  It rained until I went to bed and when I got up in the morning we had about four inches of wet slushy snow.  It was really heavy and difficult to shovel.

It actually broke off many branches on trees in our yard, mostly from the Chinese elms and cottonwood trees.

New Star Tribune Post

It has been a while since I last posted anything on the Star Tribune Club Outdoors blog.  So I thought I would write about one of my favorite fishing days.  It was March 2, 2002 and I have recorded that it was 11F with a wind chill of -10F.  I have copied the blog here for  you to enjoy with out having to click to go anywhere else.

Winter Trout

When cabin fever has set in and you are looking to do something outside that is not winter related, go hit the trout streams.

About this time of year everybody is beginning to wonder when and if spring will ever arrive. I really do love winter and everything you can do on frozen water or snow, but as a fly fisherman I really like moving water. A good thing about living where we do is that many of the spring fed streams and rivers are actually open in the winter for fishing.

Every year I try to get out at least once sometime in from January to March and fish with ice freezing to the guides and frozen fingers. For me it is a passage into spring knowing that things will get better. Although, that is not to say that fishing is bad in the winter it is really just a lot colder and more work.

I remember back to one trip on the opening weekend in March of the Wisconsin catch and release season a number of years ago. According to my fishing journal it was a very cold day the temp was close to zero with a wind chill well below zero. I headed to my favorite spot on the Rush and was surprised to see two other cars of fisherman in the area. I suited up in layers and headed out walking down the stream.

When I got to the spot I wanted to fish I had to figure out how I was actually going to fish the pool as there was quite a bit of shelf ice. After a few minutes I was able position myself where I could cast and make and drift through the pool. On about my fifth drift through I hooked a nice big brown. Now I had to land it. That meant I had to slide downstream across the ice to open water where I got it in the net, a good hookup, successful landing and release.

During this process I did break off some of the shelf ice, so I figured I would now have to move farther upstream. I also noticed my net was a big block of ice, so I laid it in the water near the bank. I proceeded to cast a few more times and got another good hook up. This one I again played down stream to where I left my net and I was able to land it.

After releasing the second fish I discovered that I had set my reel in the water and it was now frozen solid. At this point I decided that I should probably call it a successful day. I had hooked, landed and released two fish, the first ended up being the biggest brown I caught that year.

1st Real Snow of the Season

We had our first snow storm of the season and we survived. According to the National Weather Service we did end up with 8 inches of snow. This was followed by wind and the very cold temperatures. It seems that winter has finally arrived and it came all at once.
During the build up to the storm KFAN radio was calling it a "snonami" and that we were going to be in "snomageddon". This is of course from all of the hype the local weather people were giving out. You think by listening to them you will be stuck inside of a week with no access to the outside world. Well we survived.