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" -17 before wind chill today and the weatherman said if you DON'T have to go outside you shouldn't. " Well, we felt that we most definitely should. So 8 am on a frosty but sunny Thursday morning, holes are drilled and it didn't take long at all before we ran it to some fish. The Marcum was showing suspended marks above food off the bottom. Targeting Walleyes with Jigging Raps, it took me a bit by surprise when my first fish turned out to be a fat 11" slab. A beauty Crappie, and the day was off to a great start early. As the morning and afternoon continued it appeared that the fish had their mouth glued shut, we threw everything in our boxes at the marks on our flasher with the odd little guy coming to play but nothing big would ever commit. Most folks must have taken the weather forecast seriously since we were pretty much alone out there for the better part of the day. The few groups of anglers around us didn't seem to produce anything at all. We fished the same general area all day with the same results, mark, follow, play, disappear. After our neighbours to the right called it quits, we decided to sneak over there and take advantage of a fresh set of neatly power drilled holes. A couple of quick flashes and we found a nice drop off, a bunch of marks - time to bunkered down. Three decent Saugers and a small eye came up quickly. Then I yelled out "big mark" and before I could finish my sentence my rod went south. Bass came over but before he could assist me fish off and the screen went blank. Quick check to see if the minnow is still there and the Swedish Pimple hales back down, as it was about half way through the column, that big mark returned...a few more feet of slow agonizing flutter and BOOM, fish on again. A battle that I was winning ended in true tragedy as a big golden flash appeared under the hole and faster then I could say "I love gold"... tink.... it was gone. As I cried into the minnow bucket Bass got his rod down the same hole and was able to land a nice size eater with only a few minutes to go before we had to call it quits. A solid day of hard work and creativity that ended with a big smile on both our faces, a few tears shed but thank you weather man for keeping everyone else indoors and safe. Smooth