I started out early. Fishing where the warm water of a water treatment plant dumps into the river. Too early, I like to froze to death. The radio driving in said it was 13 degrees. It felt worse. After about ten minutes I had a fish on for a second then off. Then a half hour later caught a nice five or six pound buffalo...


...right in the dorsal so he could pull like he had a harness on. It was nice though to have a fish take drag after the last few frigid weeks.

then came the cool part. Downriver I could see two big raptors. A bit too far away to give an ID but close enough to have a great view. One would swoop down at the other and the one being bombed would roll over on its back midair. For a second or two they would lock talons and then tumble towards earth before breaking their grasp and pulling out of the fall. Then went downstream out of sight then back up even with me before finally going back downstream out of sight. The whole time diving and chasing. I guess love is in the air.



A bit later I found some muddy mink tracks on the ice crusted snow.


Then Greg called wanting to know if I could meet him at a wildlife area to ice fish. It was a bit of a drive from where I was at but I instantly said yes. I could thaw out on the drive. By the time I got some waxworms and made the drive to meet Greg it had warmed up to the balmy mid-20's. Which seems to be as warm as it gets any more. The wildlife area was deserted and quiet and beautiful.



Greg stationed himself between two holes and with an ice rod in each hand put on quite a show pulling in one gill after another. We didn't catch any monsters just average sized ones but I guess we must have caught 50. We didn't see any one all day but two guys out after rabbits. A very nice trip considering the earth has obviously moved on it's axis and the north pole is now somewhere close to Dayton.