January Thaw Largemouths

Andy Nabreski and I took advantage of last week’s thaw by grabbing a dozen shiners and cutting out of work early last Friday. Though this mid-winter “heat wave” only brought the temperature into the 40s, combined with some rain early in the week, it was enough to take the ice off the small ponds around the office.

We headed to a pond that Andy had ice-fished the weekend before. We rigged the frisky shiners a couple feet below a blaze-orange float, cast them out and cracked a beer. The wind had laid down, the pond had flattened out entirely, and a group of swans swam tight circles in a small cove. Before long I had to remind myself it was January, not March.

It wasn’t until the sun touched the treeline to the west that the floats started to drop. The takes were deliberate, with the bobbers slowly sinking out of sight, as if they had sprung a leak and could no longer stay afloat. The fish still fought well, and by the time darkness set in and January temperatures returned, Andy and I had each caught a couple largemouths—enough to stave off cabin fever for one more week.