• The story about my trip through Wisconsin Continues

    After I left Wausau (you can read about that story here) I drove two hours north to Eagle River Wisconsin.

    Eagle River is the “Snowmobile Capitol of the World”. It really is, they have that phrase
    “Snowmobile Capitol of the World” trademarked. But even better than that, at least for a fisherman like me, there are over 2500 lakes in the area. So what did I do here in the true North Woods of Wisconsin, I went snowmobiling and ice fishing of course.


    I also watched the Polaris Racing Team do a few practice laps on the Snow-Cross race course at Derby Track. They have a Snow-Cross track on the inside, and an oval racing track around the outside. It was amazing to see them fly through the air like that on their snowmobiles. That has to be one heck of an impact when they hit the ground.

    When they were done, we got to take a few laps around the track ourselves. Although I have to say, our laps around the track were quite a bit slower and did not involve air. We kept the sleds planted firmly on the ground.



    The next day we went fishing on Silver Lake, which is located within the town of Eagle River. It's a small lake but it did have some nice Bluegill in it. An interesting tidbit about the lake is, it has a nesting pair of Bald Eagles on it. The eagles know to check after fishermen leave to see if they left any goodies on the ice. By goodies I mean minnows or fish.


    They say sometimes you can throw a fish across the ice, and the big birds will come down and snatch it up. That's exactly what happened too. Polly pulled up a small Northern Pike, and one of the guides threw it across the ice towards the eagle. It came swooping down and picked it up. It's partner was on the far side of the lake and also came flying by to see what the commotion was all about. The eagle took the fish to the other side of the lake and sat down for a meal. It did not share with it's mate. I don't know, maybe they take turns eating, but it was way cool to see these super big birds come so close to us. It was also cool listening to them chatting to each other across the lake while we were fishing. Every now and then you'd hear them screech out to each other. I wonder what they were saying about us!



    Here we see the eagle starting to come down for the fish. Stupid me, I'm taking pictures of the people and not the bird. By the time I turned around to see the Eagle, I missed the shot.



    Afterwards, I did get this shot of the Eagle eating the Northern Pike on the ice.



    Pictured here is the "Wild and Crazy" travel writer Jill Gleeson. I mean "Wild and Crazy" in the best possible (Steve Martin) way. Check out her website GoPinkBoots.com.


    The ice was very weird this day. They had a heavy snow the prior day, that lay on top the ice. When you would drill a hole the weight of the snow caused water to come up through the hole on top of the ice. So what we were left with was snow on top of about a half inch of water before you got to the ice. Essentially wet slush all over the place. You had to have waterproof boots here or find a high spot. I've not really seen ice like this before, very strange.



    We had a little reception at Derby Track that evening. This is a picture of me with the owners of Chanticleer Inn. It was a wonderful coincidence to see them at the reception. I first met Jake and Sue at a Chicago Outdoors Show probably 15 years ago. I actually built them a website for their resort. It was one of the very first websites I made when I started working on the Internet.

    You can find more information about the Eagle River area of Wisconsin here: www.EagleRiver.org



    My trip did not end in Eagle River. I stopped in near the Marinette/Menominee River area on my way home to fish with my fishing partner TomTom and his father Alex. Here we fished a flowage of the Menominee River. We drove out on the ice and set up my new Ice Shanty, the big blue thing pictured below.

    It's kinda neat, it's a Clam Summit. It can accommodate up to four fishermen. I can actually stand in it and I'm 6'4"! It's an open floor shanty so you can drill holes pretty much anywhere, and just slide the shanty over them. The corners have little ice anchors to tie the shanty down and prevent it from blowing away. It's got hubs on each wall and ceiling - so setup is a breeze. It kinda just snaps into place.

    Alex with a nice Crappie.

    Anyway, even though the fishing was not exactly great, but we did manage to catch a couple nice Crappie. In speaking to other fisherman on the ice, the fish had just turned off. They told us stories about catching limits of nice Bluegill the day before, but today was a different story. Oh well, just as is often the case, a day late and a dollar short. That's why they call it fishing and not catching, right!

    In any event, it's always fun to get out there and fish with good friends and enjoy the crisp clean air.

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    Comments 1 Comment
    1. Billbob's Avatar
      Billbob -
      you should have got sum AIR that would have warmed you up
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