Willy Sturgeon 2/25/2011

Afternoon off:  Check
Below Freezing Temperatures:  Check
Wide open wind swept body of water:  Check
Frozen hands, a$$, and thighs:  Check

Worth it? As they say in the land of my birth,  "Ya, you betcha!"

I got off work later than I had hoped and got on the water at about 2:30 ish.  I saw Isaac (The Nothing) up river from George Rodger's Park so I paddled up to say hi.  You can see him behind me, and as you can see, he chose a sunny spot out of the wind.  He was much smarter than I.


Due to the fact all the nice sunny holes were taken, I paddled back to the west side of the river by the park.  By the time I was set up and anchored it was 3:00.  I was getting nibbles, missing hook sets, and feeding several sand shrimp to something.  Finally, at about 3:45 pm, I hooked into this friendly little shaker.  I was actually disappointed when he surfaced because he fought very hard for his size, and I had signed up for the AOTY just before heading out.  Luckily, I had turned on my GoPro just before catching him so I could pull some photos from the video.





We called it quits a little after 4:00.  By the time we got up to the parking lot my wheel ez straps were frozen to the yak.

I may brave it again tomorrow.

Nice shaker, glad to see you got out.  Hopefully see you out there tomorrow. 

I am pretty sure I will be there.  I will remember pants this time.    I was in such a hurry to get going, I put on my fleece under layer and for got to put pants on top before the dry suit.  I'm surprised by thighs weren't colder.

See you guys @ G.R. around 9ish. Brrrrrrrr

I may try for earlier, but 9 sounds better the more I think about it.