Love/Hate

I have a love/hate relationship with this time of year, early spring.  On one hand, who is not happy to see spring roll around?  On the other hand, I hate to quit ice-fishing.

We get a few days of nice weather this time of year and everyone thinks they are a fisherperson.  On the other hand, in my opinion, early spring is some of the toughest open-water fishing of the year.  The water is still cold, the fish are not near maximum activity levels, and the weather is schizophrenic.

We are anxious to dry some off, but the struggle is real.

Better days are ahead.  By late spring, we will have some of the best open-water fishing of the year.  So, how can we get through these early spring days when we just want to catch one fish?

I have been blogging for some time now.  When you blog about the outdoors, about fish and fishing, as the seasons change, you come back to the same topics year after year.  I have blogged about early spring fishing strategies a bunch of times.  Call me lazy if you wish, but let me compile several of those blogs on this topic and link to them here:

First of all, and this got me thinking about this, my buddy Greg Wagner blogged about this topic this week.  He quoted me in several places, so might as well share it here too:  Early Spring Fishing Tips.

Here is a similar blog from just a year ago:  Ice is Gone, Water is Cold, Now What?

Looking back, here is another one with some good advice:  Think Warm.

Read ’em all, read none of them.  The choice is yours.  If the weather stays cold, cloudy, windy and gloomy, maybe you will have time to read them all.  Then again, when we get some sunshine and warming weather, once again we will all be chomping at the bit to GO FISH!  The only thing I know for sure is you ain’t gonna catch anything sitting at home on the couch!