Raining Again

The rain has been coming down for 3 days now, makes it hard for me to get out fishing. I hate standing or sitting if I'm in the boat in the rain, especially if its cold. We had 3 beautiful days last week and I did manage to get out fishing. Now its 39 degrees and raining. I can only hope for continued cold so the ice fishing season will open earlier than usual in my part of the country. So I guess I will check the line on my ice fishing rods and make sure everything is ready for the ice. I can't wait. The water in the river by my house is very very cold, I'm sure its a bit colder than usual for this time of the year, and we did have an unseasonably mild summer. I also really need to go buy new rain gear as mine is leaking in the shoulder area so its quite ineffective. I also like to use my rain gear for ice fishing because it really blocks the wind. So I will have to do that soon, see if I can get a good deal on a nice jacket and pants combo. I did get a really nice pair of mittens for ice fishing last year where you can unsnap the bottom part of the mitten to expose your fingers when you need to. They are really nice and warm. My feet are what gives me problems when I am out on the ice. I have a thick pair of boots that I have had for over 20 years and they are still in good shape with a wool insert. My feet still get cold very easily. I usually wear 2 pair of socks inside the boot and still I have cold feet. So this summer I asked my 2 sisters to knit me some thick long socks. Maybe this will do the trick for my cold feet. We shall see.

WooHoo I went fishing today!!!

The last 2 days it has gotten into the 60's. Very very nice. I just had to get out and wet a line. And what a good time my husband and I had. I caught 6 crappie. The 2 largest were 10 and a half and 10 inches. Chunky little fellas. I also caught a small largemouth bass about 13 inches and also very chunky for a bass that small. My hubby caught 4 crappie, his largest was 10 inches and 2 bass, 14 inches and chunky. We went into Indiana which is only about 10 miles from home and fished the back waters of the Kankakee River. The leaves on the trees are changing and it was a beautiful day to be outdoors, especially because I was fishing. At home the ladybugs were everywhere. Those Japanese ones that bite. Makes being outside miserable. At the river there didn't seem to be any ladybugs ( for which I was eternally grateful ), but I did get one mosquito bite. Its supposed to be even nicer tomorrow and hubby wants to go fishing again, but i won't be joining him as its my bowling night and I can't miss that. After tomorrow its going to get cold again. But then again the sooner it gets good and cold the sooner I get to go ice fishing. WooHoo !!!!!

Frost

Woke up this morning at 8:00 to frost. This is a good sign for us ice fisherman. I said in an earlier post that i thought we would be ice fishing sooner rather than later and this sure helps get us on our way. The sun is shinning brightly and it looks beautiful out but looks can be deceiving. Its 35 degrees out and there is a heavy frost still on all the car windows. Think maybe I will wait just a bit to take my walk. So maybe I will go browse around Ebay and see what goodies they have for sale today. I will also be waiting impatiently for my beloved Bears to play. They have the Sunday night game this week and had a bye last week, long time in between games. Little tough for the die hard Bears fan.

It's too cold to fish !!

Wow, I can't believe how cold it's been this October already. Not only did we have a really mild summer, ( I don't think I ran the air conditioner in August), it's unseasonably cold right now. Makes going fishing a bit of a drag, I really don't like to be cold when I'm fishing unless of course I'm standing on the ice. Not that I like being cold when I'm ice fishing, I don't, but then I would have my ice shelter and a heater. And don't forget the big thermos of hot coffee. My husband and I like to fish some really nice areas in Indiana as we only live 10 miles from the Indiana border. In Indiana however they close our favorite lake to hunting right around this time of the year, and even though hunting doesn't go until the lake freezes, there will be no more fishing until the ice comes in. Makes my hubby crazy. We can still fish in Illinois, we live on a river, but someone stole our outboard motor a few weeks ago. Unbelievable!! That motor has been on our boat in the driveway, ( we put the boat in the garage in the winter), for 7 years and never had a problem. We went out a couple of weeks ago to go fishing and the motor was gone. So no motor, no river fishing for us. Going to have to get a new motor this spring when we get our income tax check. So now I sit and wait for the lakes to freeze. I'm thinking it will be sooner than later because of the weather we have been having the past month. Usually in Illinois we don't get to ice fish till well into the winter months, usually January. This year I think will be earlier. Hope so, its unbearable when you can't fish when you really want to. Good things come to those who wait, or so they say.

Columbus Day Stuff

Today is Columbus Day and most kids have the day off. My son who is in the high school band had to march in the Columbus Day Parade in Chicago. He had to be at the school by 9:30 am this morning to ride the bus into Chicago. We live in a very small town about 50 miles south of Chicago. It was a very cold day and the kids in the band had on their band uniforms consisting of a tux shirt,red cummerbund, red bow tie and black tux slacks and black shoes. They all look so nice when dressed up. My son knew it was going to be cold, it was only in the 40's today, so he put a Under Armor shirt under his uniform to help ward off some of the cold. The parade started at 12:30 in the afternoon and Danny (my son) called to let me know what number had been assigned to his band so I would be sure to not miss them on TV. He later told me that they had waited in the cold for 2 hours before it was their turn to march. Needless to say I was anxious to see the band. I sat looking at the parade for an hour and a half to see the band. I taped the parade so I could show him when he got home. It was exciting to see him and the band and this is like the 5th or 6th time his band has marched in the parade. Was glad to get him home and warm, he wasn't happy about getting up on his day off for the parade but when he got home he told me it was kinda sad as this would be the last time he would be marching in that parade. The Momence Marching Band, which consists of 6th thru 12th grades, combine for marching in parades only. I am a proud mom.

Welcome

Hi everyone, so glad you joined me. As most of you can probably tell I am very very new to blogging but am excited to be here. Today my husband was off work so we were going to go fishing, and of course it started to rain as we were getting ready to go. Now I love to fish but when its 50 degrees out and raining I am not nearly as excited as usual to go. So instead of going fishing I made a wonderful diner of fish he caught 2 days ago. Yummy bluegill, probably the best tasting fish ever. The days are getting longer and colder so that will lessen our fishing outings until the lakes freeze. Then watch out. Get out the long johns and the ice shelter cause I'm going to hit the ice. I am usually the only female on the ice, and that's not so bad, cause when I out-fish the menfolk its the biggest rush ever. I actually started to fish when I was dating my future hubby and only went because I wanted to be with him and he loves to fish. Well it turns out so do I. But I certainly didn't know that at the time. Get in a boat and throw out a line, and truly its such quality time to spend with someone you love. Now its been 26 years of dating and marriage and we still spend tons of time out on the water. So once we got married we decided to have kids. I wanted sons because I figured they would love fishing as much as my husband and I do, and we were blessed with 2 wonderful sons. Guess what, they both hate to fish go figure. Thankfully they are both almost grown so we can still go fishing without them, as they are old enough to be left home. I do believe I am rambling so I will stop for now. Hope you all enjoyed my post and please feel free to add anything you wish.