Mulling things on my morning ramble with Storm, the family’s mixed Lab. I think the guys with the ice shanty are screwing with me. Well, more likely they are having a hard time finding fish. Yesterday, their shanty was on the far north end of the north old clay pit. This morning it was on

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Mulling things on my morning ramble with Storm, the family’s mixed Lab.

I think the guys with the ice shanty are screwing with me.

Well, more likely they are having a hard time finding fish.

Yesterday, their shanty was on the far north end of the north old clay pit. This morning it was on the south end of the south pit.

And I saw where they had set it several other places and drilled holes yesterday.

I made sure the meathead and I walked on the ice of the north pit. With the weather forecast for rain and temperatures reaching the 50s by Tuesday, this morning was probably the last chance on the ice of the town pond later this week or might even be it for the winter.

Perfect morning to consider the oddities of ice and fishing.

Jim Hudson died yesterday when his snowmobile went through the ice on Lake Superior.
Click here for the Duluth News Tribune story.

Hudson was a rising young star in fishing with his Hudson’s On the Spot Guide Service. He was especially noted for smallmouth fishing and his ice fishing adventures on Lake Superior.

Over the years, we had tried to set up a trip several times and it never meshed for both of our schedules.

I am just stunned more than anything.

It made the minor matter of walking on the ice of the town pond seem insignificant.

Ice has its thrall aspects.

The meathead still is spooked of shiny clear ice, as he should be, and I had to drag him from patch of snow to patch of snow on the ice. I had to walk carefully myself.

Back in town, a gray squirrel again ran down the guttering of one building and climbed into the wall. A gray squirrel climbed around the neighbor’s elm.

That was it for wildlife. I didn’t hear any Canada geese on the lake to the west. Their hole was frozen to a small one yesterday. By tomorrow morning, I expect they will have a good one going again.

Mind preoccupied with Hudson’s death and with the pending ice storm.

I am hoping I can drive to Rosemont for the Chicago Outdoor Sports Show before the ice storm arrives. Although the latest forecasts sound like the threat of a real ice storm are melting away.