Saturday, December 27th. of 2008 could be labeled as the cold day from hell...except for one nice lake trout.
Winds were steady at over 30-40 mph, gusts over 50, wind chills from -10 to -25 all day long, 9 hours fishing for one fish. I lost a nice one this size or bigger, missed a dozen flags provided by nibblers.
After yesterday, today is a good day to stay indoors and replace leaders, hooks and sinkers. The big one I missed was the result of his tail hitting a 6 pound leader and literally breaking a knot in half. Now I use 10 pound shorter leaders so tails hit the chartruse green braided 30 pound dacron line. We will see if that helps or hurts.
Note below that I have mowed my sasquatch fur on the sides of my hood. Great idea.
Good eats! At about 4 pounds and 24 inches, this was a good eating lake trout. The spices and George Foreman grill make it easy!
The little sled worked well but will receive some anchor points for use on extremely windy days. I have thought of rigging a sail.
Lake trout looks somewhat like a walleye, he's taking cover from the high winds.
The auger gave me some early grief, ...always open the fuel tank vent. Be sure the governor is not frozen up. Weather is hard on the gear, the fish, and the fisherman. Great for the ice!Mr. Birdseye (the founder of modern frozen foods) discovered at the turn of the century that fish "flash frozen" on the cold northern lakes of Canada tasted better than frozen fish frozen slowly in the freezers of the time, possibly freezers powered by blocks of ice I would think. Anyway, the ice crystals forming in the tissue were smaller when frozen faster and thus the fish tasted less mushy and fresher when fast frozen. So, I like the idea of my fish freezing fast on new ice!
A different perspective.........early Sunrise.
I really like this style of tip up.
Decenber 31st, was a good day to fish. I did not use gloves all day!
Sunny, no wind, temp above freezing it seemed, fish cooperated. Perfect day on the ice.
Here I am with a fish on. Again. Five of six of my fish came from "the lucky hole"!
A nice fat Lake Trout. I lost one like this before this one came around. Day starts out very well.
This one is my last creel limit fish of 2008. Nice sassy rainbow. We realize the significance of the "lucky hole".
Fishing partners trophy ling. Ain't they cute? Especially that little hangy-down part on their chin!
Last creel limit of nice fish on December 31, 2008. Top four fish all came from "the lucky hole". I had six lines out,
in over a dozen different holes over the course of the day. 
Here I am at the New Year's Eve Dance...finished off a great year. Have a happy new year fishing.