Where do you fish (20 char. minimum...)?

1.) You're actually sitting above the water, on a large concrete platform. There's lots of underwater brush piles and such, along with some trees overhanging the water to your left. Not much room for a lot of gear, maybe two rods at the most (if your fishing with a partner) and a few smaller tackle boxes. You'll frequently find a deer grazing behind you or see a crane fly overhead. Crappie, channel cats, carp, largemouth bass, spotted bass, bluegill, sunfish, I've caught pretty much all major types of fish out of here. It's what you'd consider a creek, it's not too wide, but it's very deep. It'll go at least 15' and 20' at the deepest.

2.) You're fishing at a spot a hundred yards or so below spot #1. The lake levels have dropped, so that 15' creek is now down to maybe a foot. The spot that's a hundred yards or so from it, is about 7' at the deepest, and the bottom is very rocky. It's too shallow to hold a bass population with great size, but there's some spots and largemouth that will hit a pound or so in the spot. It's mostly filled with crappie and bluegill though. I'd be fishing a small tube of various colors on a jig head. You're standing on lots of big rocks, so watch your step.

3.) You're fishing a long way away from those above spots. It's the same lake of course, but almost on the other side. Where you park is filled with dust, because there's frequent coal trucks riding by, and they'll sure mess up that new Camaro. It takes a few minutes to actually walk to the spot. It's very deep if the water is up, you pretty much just cast out in the middle and hope somethings out there. I catch a lot of smaller carp, and big channel cats here. There's lots of soda cans behind you, but beautiful grass in which you're sitting on. It takes a long cast to get your spot into where the fish are.

4.) You're fishing close to #1 and #2, but this is a different creek. It's small, and gin-clear. There's largemouth bass, carp, sunfish, bluegill, crappie. Unless it's just finished raining, then it's going to be clear, and nothing's gonna bite when it's clear. But when it is clear, you can see lots of carp swimming around in circles for some odd reason. You can see the bottom of the creek, it's about 15'. These carp are up to 30" or maybe bigger. I've caught two of them when it was muddy one day, one broke me off, and one was 16". Spinners on lures don't work good here, even when it's muddy. Grubs or tubes work good for the sunfish and bluegill, and 2" fat grubs work well for the largemouth.

5.) You're fishing in walking distance from #1, and #2. It's a pond, with a constant stream of water flowing through. It has bullhead, carp, largemouth bass, and bluegill. There's a dam where water is constantly rushing in. I've had luck on ONE bass with a brightly colored plastic worm, but nothing else has worked yet. Carp fishing this year was horrendous here, I didn't catch one. Didn't catch a bullhead either. Last year I caught lots of 1-4lb carp and smaller bullhead.

Inside an 8' x 12' ice house with LP heat and power from a generator. On a lake in Minnesota and only 45 minutes from minneapolis. Drive my truck right onto the ice and right up to the ice house then reach into the back window of the truck where my generator sits and run an extension cord to the house.

After I start up the generator I pick any 4 (because you can fish 2 lines per person) out of the six holes available and drill holes. Now as the exhaust from the auger is venting from the two windows and the open door, I can grab my 20# LP tank from the truck, set it next to the house and hook up the gas line.

Now once back inside I have lights and electrical outlets for accessories like a radio. And heat! Just clear some slush from the holes and ready to fish. The house sits on ice about 13'-14' from a sandy bottom. The sandy lake floor declines on a ridge that drops to a 60' depth on one side and 90' on the other. I grab the rods and put Crappie Minnows onto a glow-in-the-dark jig heads. Prop the lines in and lower'em down to about 1 and 3 feet off the bottom and jig one and place the other rod into a swiveling holder in the wall.

There is abundant numbers of Walleye and Crappie in this lake. You can see them in the day time, especially on sunny days. I have seen very big Northern Pike swim slowly by only 3' below the ice and I've caught a 5 pound largemouth bass. But almost always you will catch Walleyes and Crappies.

Radio on, favorite beer in hand (2nd & 3rd choices still in the truck staying cold), food and chips on the table and hanging out with one of my best friends since early childhood while pulling Walleyes and Crappies through the holes. We write down everything that is caught onto a specific wall, the time, date, species, size, etc. I'm going to make sure the bets are real this year!

Every once in awhile it is nice to walk outside and take in some fresh, clean cold air. And as for others there is No Smoking inside, so they go outside. But it's nice to step out even more so, to appreciate the absolutely peaceful tranquility out on the lake and look up and see the thousands of stars in the night sky. Oh yeah, and to look at all the frozen fish layin outside the house!

These are good times and they are ones I will reflect on one day. In todays day-and-age it is rare for friends and/or family to enjoy things you like. Ice fishing provides that opportunity or venue to catch up and while doing something you enjoy...fishing! One day in the future when I do think back to these days, I may not remember how cold it was or even how deep we fished that year, but I will remember the friends who were there and the good times we had.

The writing on the wall will remind us all of who caught what, how big and how many, so hopefully I will still have the braggin rights.

The river is 150 yards wide. upstream, to my left is the "fast water", a shallow riffle section. It flows down and makes a gentle sweep over exposed bed rock where the depth is increased substantially. Across the stream is a rock out cropping where the snaggers ply their craft. On "our side" of the river we have morals and use actual technique to catch salmon and steelhead.

There's an ancient Douglas Fir tree laying almost diagonally in the water. It cannot be seen except during the lowest summer water levels. It's there. The locals know right where it lays. They fish swim up stream and hold tight against it. You have to use every bit of you Jedi sense to know where to make a successful cast.

It doesn't end with a hook up. You need to be able to keep a fighting fish out of that tree. The fish take full advantage of it and usually sprint right to it. The tree always wins in a fight.

a long, wide (200yd X 400yd) shallow point. small creek channel on the left... maybe 5 to 10 feet deep.

stepped drop-off to the right... depth up to perhaps 40 feet. another steeper, secondary point midway from this shoreline to the deepest area running parallel to the original point giving one a sloping hump to cast over.

a small rocky rise at the end of the wide point before it drops 5 or 6 feet to a crossing roadbed then continuing on down another perhaps 40 feet (eventually) before reaching a flat bottom that rises to a saddle to the left (presently underwater), extending 1/4 mile to a major island in the lake.

Definitely the Outback Steakhouse - nothing else comes near for good steaks Dotted about Phoenix Scottsdale Glendale Yum Yum

The best and the not so best places.

That's where I love to fish.

I'll take what I can get.

I love fishing no matter what.

Better yet, I'll give you a visual... Gimme a sec... hold on... okay, here we go...

Take a gander...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/grandmasterbasser/