Sunday afternoon at Mt. Ashwabay. Ski racing and visiting with old friends.

Scott headed up for another run.

The years pass but Kathy never seems to get any older. She can still beat almost everyone else on the hill when it come to Sunday racing.

Tim can still turn in a great time. This run 27:29 sec.

Scott enjoying the day.

Coach Kathy and one of her team members.

Scott and Mike headed up the hill.

Tim and Bob.

The sun tried to breakout in the late afternoon.  I set out today to take some outdoor picture. Outdoor sunny picture. I'm glad I had a "high speed" camera because the sun did not hang around for long. Still turned out to be a fun day.

The moon sure put on a great show at the end of the day.

A good day of fishing on Chequamegon Bay.

Sunny day, deep snow and great moments of fish biting everywhere. If you had the touch or were lucky to have a fishing buddy who did you went home with fish.

One of the many plowed roads that lead somewhere on the bay. In this case due east toward the break wall.

Cohos for dinner?

2013 Early Ice. Chequamegon Bay.

New ice fishing shelter. 

Early ice fishing. Some are driving vehicles. I prefer a little more ice. For now this is my way on and off ice. If the cold weather holds out we should be driving by next week. It is shaping up to be a great season. For now the bay has 9 to 12" of ice with little or no snow cover.

Setup and fishing.

This was a great early ice fishing day.  It has been a couple of years since the "brothers-in-laws" have been ice fishing together. Hopefully we will get to do this more often. 

Ice fishing isn't only about catching fish. It's about enjoying the day and the company. Having fun is always in the cards.

A view to the Northwest. Looking toward Washburn Wisconsin.

Captured air bubbles in this early season black ice.

It doesn't get much better than this. A great way to end a day out on Chequamegon Bay. And yes we did catch some fish.

Second Ice Rescue this weekend. Submerged snowmobile, 2 rescued individuals.

Snowmobile with two self rescued passengers on the ice.

Ashland Fire Department personnel approaching snowmobile passengers.

Safely ashore with others.

Work on the oredock demolition for 2012 has started.

Here is where the work day starts for the crew members who are working up on the top.  The day begins with a nice long high climb up the open scaffolding stairs. I'm guessing the wooden build at the top is a break/lunch/management building.

A view of the east side outer end of the dock. Those who are familiar with the oredock's appearance will notice the difference.

They have started demolition by lowering each individual chute one at a time. It appears that they are not detaching them completely at this time.

If my information is correct the overall height of the oredock is 90 feet. If that is the case then follow down the set of stairs from the top (seen at just below the 2nd tower from the end).

At the bottom of the steps is a gangway with a guard rail. Below the gangway (I'm guessing now) is the opening from the hoppers up above.

Below that area are the chutes that have been lowered down. The chutes are probably about 40-45 feet long.

From this view you can see, on the lower half,  2 or 3 brown support columns. To the right and left of them are the lowered chutes.

You can see the backhoe operator it this shot. Seventy five feet up on a structure "that's not safe and need to be torn down" ..... nice job.  There is not enough money to get me in that backhoe.

If you look closely at the end of the backhoe arm you can see what I believe is an hydraulic winch. My guess is that they attach the winch to the upper end of a chute then "cut it loose" and winch it down allowing it to pivot down to a hanging position. In the picture below you can see six lowered chutes (right) and one raised chute on the left. 

This shot gives you the whole picture. From top to bottom.. backhoe and  operator, stairway down to gangway, the opening from the hoppers above, the hanging chutes, the dock base and finally 4 men working on the ice cleaning up debris from the lowering of the chutes.

This is a view from the west side of the oredock. I am parked on the ice road we use to get off and on the bay.

Here is the ice road looking toward shore at Kreher Park landing.

2012's first trip on Chequamegon Bay. 8-10" of ice. Fish biting

Maiden voyage for 2012. As usual more equipment than needed yet still missing some key things. Notice my new high tech Arctic Armor float suit. Not something you want to have to use but safety first. Visit this website to see how it "works".

The day started out perfect. Sunny, cold and clear. It soon turned to cloudy and overcast. 

Setup and fishing. This is one of our favorite spots. A GPS is a wonderful thing. We return to this site year after year and it most always produce fish. Today I out fished my nephew that rarely ever happens. GLOAT GLOAT.

A view looking SW toward Xcel Power Plant.

My nephew Skip. Who caught less fish than me. Gloat gloat. Boy I'm going to pay for gloating. But considering the score is probably Skip 1000, Unk 1. I'm enjoying the win.

Supper. Fresh perch and a Coho.

The ice is moving. Our own little non-destructive version of plate tectonics.

The ice in Chequamegon Bay is starting to move.  Spring is getting near.

These photos were taken at 1st. and 2nd. landing today.

These photos were taken at 1st. and 2nd. landing today.

These photos were taken at 1st. and 2nd. landing today.

 This photo is from the archives. It is one of my favorites from a series I shot northwest of Bayfield WI near the Ice Caves. The "landscape" is large mounds of push ice that have been covered with blowing snow and beach sand from the shoreline. If you look at the right side of the photo at the point where the "land" and sky meet you can see a thin slice of open water of Lake Superior. For additional information about the ice cave see here.

I went back and dug deeper into the archives for this and the two photos below.

Ice cave approach.

Ice Caves.

Walking out to fish.

This photo was taken at the head of the bay between long bridge and short bridge.

Smelt fry ahead. "Film to follow...."

Well at least the smelt were biting. Checkout the 10" smelt. The first time I saw it under the ice I thought it was a coho. 

Checkout the teeth. Imagine if this were a 5 lb. game fish.

First trip onto the ice. Full disclosure I did not catch any fish. We walked out.

Chequamegon Bay Smallmouth Bass. This picture was taken with my cellphone camera. I left the 7D home. The ice is about 10" thick. It is a little slushy on top 2-3".  No one is driving from any of the landings including 1st and 2nd landing.  The first 1/4 to 1/2 mile of 1st and 2nd landing is push ice and is tough going. We were marking fish at 1-2 feet off the bottom in 25 ft of water. The smallmouth above was caught on a tip up. After a couple of quick photos and a test of my new Christmas present a BogaGrip Model 130 the smallmouth was released.

A little Christmas HO! HO! HO!.

We joined friends and their kids for a little outdoor Christmas spirt. A story reading by Carol Seago for the youngsters. Campfire, hot chocolate, cookies and a couple of choruses of Jingle Bells. Hot coffee and cookies for the adults.

How about a little Jingle Bells.

Yup, you're right, at this time of the year I have a one track mind.... ice fishing. Fishing, for me, starts next week.

This time of year is always long and boring for me. Open water fishing has been done for 6-8 weeks. Ice fishing doesn't happen, for me at least, until the ice is safe. Say 6 inches. Six inches means that, except for a few exceptions, the ice is safe everywhere. The time from "safe" ice to great ice is from 6 inches to 12 inches.

Four to six inches is not safe enough to drive the truck on so the approach is different. Without a four wheeler or snowmobile the only alternative is walking out while pulling your gear.

The first few trips are the early shakedown trips. Bringing to much gear or not enough. To much gear means dragging lots of unnecessary weight. To little gear and you might need to make a trip back to shore for....say the ice auger.

Once the ice is "safe" to drive I fish with one simple gear related rule "bring it all, use what you need and take it all home for tomorrow".

Tomorrow, in this case, will be get the gear ready day. Find it all, sort through it all, check it all, start what needs to started, charge what needs to be charge, fix what needs to be fixed, fresh batteries all around and of course pack the early ice gear sled. Now lets see....where did I put those jigging rods?

Videos from on the ice coming right up. Hopefully videos from on the ice with fish. One step at a time... WHERE ARE those jigging rods?

This photo was shot from the S curve looking SSE toward Ashland.

At least for the day there is ice on the bay.

Colder weather and light winds help make ice on the bay.  

Colder weather and no winds will help keep the ice on the bay.

Now we need some extended cold weather to make more ice.

This research vessel is settled in it's winter berth on the west side of the oredock.

The campground is also in winter mode.

The boats are up on land and on their cradles.

These two visitors to the bay I think have seen enough ice for the day.  Maybe if I were from West Palm Beach Florida I would feel the same way.  I invited them to stay and try ice fishing.  No takers.