Variations of snow, rain and sun getting old

By Bill Bartusek

I don't know about you, but I'm sure tired of the snow. After some very warm and spring-like weather, snow has come again. Brenda and I headed north last Friday as temperatures soared to 60 degrees. We left the cabin three weeks ago, leaving ice fishing and winter behind. When we arrived at the cabin, most of the snow was gone. However, the lake seemed the same. Sure, there were some four-foot drifts of snow around the cabin.

The lake ice still had good color, and the shores were still quite solid.

On Saturday morning, we headed on to the ice with the four-wheeler. The ice was still thick, and there was no water on the surface. There was a big change in the quality of ice. I drilled through almost 28 inches of ice.

In some areas, the ice was very soft, and the ice auger would gouge out big chunks of ice. The day warmed up too. We were sitting on the ice with air temps hovering around 60 degrees. I've only done that once before in my life that I can remember. Fishing was slow for us. We just couldn't locate the panfish. They had obviously migrated from areas we fished three weeks ago. We looked hard as friends and I used two augers in our search. After Saturday, the lake ice looked like Swiss cheese. We planned on fishing Sunday too, but we awoke to a winter storm with 3 inches of snow on the ground.

By the time we left for home, visibility was less than a city block. The snow changed to rain as we headed south. When we arrived home, friends at the cabin called to say we had 7 inches of snow on the ground. Grand Rapids had 13 inches, just north of the cabin.

Here at home the weather was wet and warm. Cannon Lake was clear of ice, and the robins were singing.

The spring turkey season is just around the corner. Will we hunt in spring weather or snow? Who knows!