Well, my fishing year ended with not much of a bang up in prairieland. Most of the lakes to the north of where I live are frozen over, and much of the north end of Flaming Gorge is frozen over also. SinceI have no desire to shuffle out on frozen water, I have been driving south to hit warmer areas that still offer shore fishing (and boat launching for those lucky enough to have a boat to launch). For boat anglers, there are still plenty of lakers to find in the deep. For shore anglers, things have slowed down quite a bit. Best times for catching any numbers seems to be at night or around sun up, neither of which are very appealing to me, since I already have problems with my rod guide inserts icing up at 28 degrees, and single digit temps when the sun isn't present are only worse.
Luckily though, there has not been too many snow events (yet), so roads are clear, and shorelines accessible. I fished few times in December, and while numbers were low (in fact, the last two time I went, I got skunked), when I found fish, they were generally hefty enough. I expect that we will be in for some snowy conditions pretty soon, however. On the bright side, there are only three more months before we get some spring-like weather.
Never butt heads with buttheads.
