~*~ Oxford and Cranberry Weekend ~*~

[Andrushkin33]

No rain, no sleet, no snow can keep me away from hitting that hardwater.

~*~ Saturday 01-24-2015 ~*~

Was up at 5am and went up to Oxford with my friend to have a chance at some buck or a doe. Man I didn't know I was that out of shape. After getting to the hunting place it turns out we had to endure a hike through the forrest up the mountain. 45 minutes later we finally got to our spot and next 3 hours just waited. A lot of deer tracks in the snow but it was not the day for us to have some venision.

On the way to the spot I have spotted a nice small forrest lake that was covered in ice. Man I needed to get on it ASAP and had my ice gear in a truck so long story short there we were fishing the lake.







We did not catch anything there but it's a nice spot that I would come back to. Don't even know if anything swims in that lake but want to find out.

Wanted to try out OXford Furnace lake as well but the road leading to recreation area was completely snowed in and not clean so we decided not to risk it.

~*~Sunday 01-25-2015 at Cranberry Lake~*~

Come 5am Sunday morning was already up and after meeting up with 3 of my friends went out to Cranberry again.

Lots of people were already setting up but catches were a little bit on a smaller size. There is until we found a honey hole with pickerel. Which was suprising to me since I thought pickerel being a predatory species usually controlled a piece of the lake by itself. But who am I to complain. Finally my first fish ever through the ice and it turns out to be the biggest one we caught that day. Solid 21 inches (not my pb) but first one ever through the ice. Caught on he jigging rod with a shiner suspended (I got tired of jugging) Actually ripped the rod out of my hands (wasn't paying attention) and got it into the hole. But my Ninja reflexes have saved the day (and my rod) and fish was caught. Overall it turned out to be the only one I caught. In total we caught about 12 of them between 4 of us. 7 were released and 5 were kept for some fish stew (uha) Pictures below and stay safe through this storm everyone.







PS --> with all that snow we are due to receive just a reminder to all who ventures out to be careful out there on the ice. Stay safe.

Andre

[FASTEDDIE29]

Congrats on the PB through the ice Andre. Sounds like you and the fellas had a great time. That Cranberry can be really good sometimes. Will there be enough stew for everyone? What kind of drink compliments this fish stew? After this storm we'll all be working very hard for the fish we're trying to catch!

[Andrushkin33]

Eddie,

The stew or is more of a soup actually is really easy to make and one of my favorites when spending weekends outdoors. As far as drink goes I am strictly whiskey and tequila man now so anyone of those is good for me.

For uha you can look up how to cook it online but pretty much everyone who makes it will make it as something of their own.

Andre

[lennysky]

I figured you were keeping these for уха, although larger specimens are quite good to fry and broil as long as the 'y' bones are filleted out. I still have not mastered the skill completely so I end up giving most of my pickerel to my russian, sorry Ukranian brethren.