Fishing in the winter can be a little tricky. If you are going to a lake, like Becker for example, you never know what it is going to look like when you get there. Two days ago, I was driving passed it so decided to stop and see what the conditions were. I found that it was mostly clear of ice. I could launch but would need to break through about 40 yards of ice before hitting clear water. This wouldn’t be a problem and with temps predicted to be in the 50’s for the next couple of days, I figured the lake might be clear by today. So, I talked my neighbor into hitting the lake. We got there and to my surprise, the lake was covered in ice. There was one clear spot and that happened to be by the one and only fishing pier.

We could see fish rising in the open area so we did what any die-hard angler would do. We went and fished off the pier. Of course when we got there, they stopped surfacing so I started with a type II sinking line and a small white bunny leech. There was a patch of ice that my line had to go across and it was keeping it from sinking. I then went to a floating line with an indicator and two flies. We picked up some fish and had a good time. There is another winter storm approaching this weekend so it might be a while before this is really fishable again. That’s okay. the fish on the mountain could use some more rain and snow.