An Outdoorsman’s Journal

Camping/ice fishing on Lake Puckaway

Hello friends, As I write this week’s column, I have been without electricity due to a winter storm for 30 hours. About all I can say is that it feels like I am living back in 1800s.

Anyways this week’s column is about my first winter camping and ice fishing trip of the season and I went to where I usually start. That is on Green Lake County’s 5,000-acre Lake Puckaway and my goal was to catch some walleyes and not fall through the very thin ice that I was living on top of.

Tuesday, Dec. 6 High 34, Low 32

Lots to write about on this expedition and it was a dandy. I put in at Miller’s Resort near Marquette and would be hauling my gear in an Otter Sled in what would be three trips with each one being about 500 yards. Red, my 8-month-old golden retriever, would be along as would her mother Ruby and this would be Red’s first time on the ice as she was born in April. Red and Ruby wrestle about 50% of their waking hours. Ruby kicked her butt as she had no idea how to use her claws to get traction on the ice.

I would be tip-up fishing for walleyes, northern pike, catfish and striped bass and as soon as I set my last tipup it went up and I iced a 27-inch gator which I released as they have to be 32 inches on Puckaway. As I said, I had to make three trips and had only two hours of daylight, so I was a busy man. But in reality had no cares. I have headlamps and propane lanterns and that is how I built my camp.

I had each of my tip-ups rigged with 12-pound test mono, a number 12 treble hook, a small split shot, chartreuse bead and for bait I was using a medium golden shiner. I guess you could say this was the hot ticket as the flags just kept tripping. After dark it was like Christmas on the ice. I have lights on my tip-ups that flash when I have a tip-up trip and I just love to see the flashing lights.

This would be one of those trips where the air temperature almost stayed the same and with it being just over 32 degrees my holes did not freeze over. I built my camp in the dark which was made up of an Eskimo popup ice shack, a cot, table, cook stove, propane light and a good mood. Once everything was rigged up, the pups were either playing on the ice or sleeping on my cot.

Tonight, the fishing was excellent. I caught four legal walleyes, a large striped bass, a catfish, and three northern pike and I missed several fish. I stayed up the entire night and really enjoyed myself.

Wednesday, Dec. 7 High 34, Low 31

Today my brother Mike, who just retired after 38 years of working at Research Products in Poynette, and our families long-time good friend Roger Frank, who is also retired, came out to my camp for a day of fishing. Each of us would have a line of three tip-ups nearly 150 yards in length. It was kind of a learning day for these guys as they simply do not ice fish much and have a strong desire to get into it.

As is always the case we give each other a lot of BS and I have to admit I had the hot line of tip-ups and Mike and Roger were living in SUCK CITY. In other words, they claimed I had put them in a rotten spot, and I claimed they couldn’t catch a cold if they fell in the lake. Also, during the day as we sat in lawn chairs and shot the breeze, several very damp lows blew through, and it was very interesting to experience how the temperature really did not change but the moisture in the air would make it very uncomfortable.

We fished a few hours after dark, the lights were flashing and we were laughing, especially because my buddy and my brother were going to starve to death on what they were catching.

Mikey, who has had many nicknames over the years such as Farkel, Dark Cloud, Catfish and Musky Mike, got extremely lucky and actually caught a fish, which was a beautiful 21-inch walleye that was blind, starving to death and stupid. I declared Mikey’s new name Walleye Mike and when Mikey, I mean Walleye Mike, asked Roger, who was still living in Skunk City, if that could become his official name Roger clearly said “no.”

These guys are going to need some fine tuning on several of their skills and they are practically begging yours truly, Master Guide Extraordinaire, to please help them out.

My first camping trip on the ice was a pleasant one! Sunset