Its been a loooooong winter (again). I've read all my fishing magazines so many times I can recite them word for word. I have re-reorganized so well that I'm afraid to move anything now. It looks so perty. I have used my dremel with a small wire brush to remove the rust from all my hooks( I now its easier to replace them but I NEEDED SOMETHING TO DO.) I've designed a number of ingenious new lures that, oddly, all resemble a 4 inch piece of broom handle with hooks ( red hook in the front of course).

I drove to the ramp on my lake a couple weeks ago and it was still all ice. A week ago, you could see the open water out in the middle but the cove where the ramp is was still ice. Yesterday the ice at the ramp had melted out to about 40 feet from shore then there was about 150 yards of ice out to open water. I came home, loaded my gear, hooked up to the boat and headed for the lake. My intent was to back in and run the motor with the boat on the trailer. Fired her up and , after all the smoke settled, she was purrin like a kitten. Then I snapped. I drove the boat off the trailer, pointed to main lake and set off at headway speed for the damnable ice flow that seperated me from my beloved open water.

My 18 foot bass rig proved more than a match for the remaining 2 inches of ice. I inched toward the main lake leaving broken shards of ice in my wake like an ice breaker in the arctic. A small crowd of others who come by the lake on a daily basis to check how much ice remains were whistling and shouting encouragement as I plowed on toward freedom and my first casts of the season.

I fished for 3 hours, caught nothing and froze my tail off but, I'M ALL BETTER NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sounds like what's gonna happen to me tomorrow.  Almost word for word... ;D  Feels good to get the stink of winter off.