29 January 2024
Hello friends and Hivers I hope all is well. I'm back again to show the snowman's last journeys. Ten days ago it was close to 73°F (approximately 40°C) colder. That's quite a swing of temperature, eh? Also I got out for a short time to try some ice fishing.
Day 5 morning
Well snowman looks good here as he got some frost on him over night. He did lose his last eye sometime between now and when I last took his photo. Unfortunately the day forward included sun and warmer weather.
Day 5 late afternoon
When I seen him just before sunset I couldn't help but laugh, sorry. First thing that came to mind was the shrinking head scene from the movie, Beatle Juice. The weather reached 47°F (8.3° C) and he is barely hanging on. Also his left arm came off.
Day 6
Oh my now the snow man looks like either an astronaut, robot, or an alien, haha. Definitely lost a few inches of height since the last time I saw him. Let's take a closer look than peak under the beanie.
Our snowman has met his demise. There's no way his cold heart is beating. He has no eyes, no mouth, his nose is disconnected, and his head has decreased in size. Poor guy, his mellon is now split open. Let's discover him without his scarf.
Even my dog, Watson smells no life, haha. Our snowman is shrinking everywhere. Even a side look reveals his fate. The last photo was taken a few hours later at around 5:00. It's over, RIP Snowman (January 24, 2024 to January 29, 2024).
I had much going on today and some frustration but I'm not going to mention any of that. I will say it lead to going ice fishing much later and doing it for a shorter time than what was planned. At around 2:30 for about two hours I did some ice fishing 🎣 The weather was above 50° F (10°C) and that is really warm for this time of year. So for here this is beautiful weather for January.
What you see above is pretty much all I needed to get some ice fishing in today. Fishing on the ice requires different equipment. The fishing rods are shorter and lures are mostly made of metal. I will share why in a little bit. You need an auger to drill holes and need scoops with holes in them to get loose ice out of the holes. I did not need an ice shack today because it wasn't cold enough in my opinion.
I decided to go to a small pond that wasn't that far away. It's not where I wanted to go because I didn't have that much time. The pond is frozen but it does have both water and snow on top of the water. I'm not one who likes to test the ice. I set up shop on a dock that extends about 15 feet onto the pond.
The first thing I did was check the ice thickness with one of my scoops that has a ruler on it. The thickness is just above 5 inches. For my safety I will fish from the dock. Having snow on the ice can be dangerous. You see snow on the ice is like a blanket. Blankets typically keep things warm. The sun can make the snow warmer causing the ice beneath it to melt. Water on top of the ice means melting is currently taken place.
Now if there was a good 10 inches of ice I would have ventured out further and fished some deeper water. I can't believe this family above walked out to the middle. The mom did not want go because she was scared. I was shaking my head and rolling my eyes at the same time thinking why than would you allow your spouse and children to do it? Thankfully no ice broke and they got back on land.
I fished a few areas on the dock. I took pictures of the overall view of the dock but they didn't show up in my gallery for whatever reason. Anyways I sat on the floor of the dock and others times I used my bucket as a chair. It was more comfortable sitting on the bucket, plus I was able to use it as a rod holder.
Why shorter rods? It's because of angles with the ice hole. When you hook up with a fish the rod will bend. If you use a longer rod you would have to be further away from the hole. I have never used a full size rod ice fishing. I've seen others do so and it looks like a huge pain in the butt. Also it would be an easy way to break your rod if you were to hook up. The thing is you would almost have to be standing up to fish.
Lures are mostly metal and are not made of light weight material. This is because you fish vertical with the hole. Need weight to get you bait straight down. Also these lures are quite a bit smaller than most open water lures. I don't know, maybe this is because the fish look for smaller meals in the cold water. I find the bite isn't as heavy in the cold water. The fish move slower in the cold water, well I think so.
The sun was out and it felt warm on me so I took a jacket off I was wearing. I'd like to show you all the fish I caught but the thing is I didn't even feel a bite. I was probably only in five maybe six feet of water depth. This pond is pretty shallow and it's max depth is around 10 feet. Maybe the fish were deeper but I wasn't going out on the open ice. I'd rather not catch fish than swim with them under the ice 😳
Even though I didn't catch any fish it was a good breath of fresh air. It allowed me to exhale some stresses and distract my mind of worries. Nature is the best, affordable and safest remedy for this 😊
To end this article I'll show you some ice I seen form on a lake nearby. I had to drop my son off at one of his fellow basketball player's house for a team dinner. It was pleasant time as I watched the sun disappear. I spent about an hour here taking the views in and feeling the temperature drop a bit. Again nature playing it's role in clearing my mind.
Take care, stay safe and enjoy the rest of the week. Until next time!