River in motion and other news

 

The first photo is already three days old. The ice on the Mississippi started to break up and just got jammed across Mud Lake because of the dam a couple miles down the river. The other image is from today at almost the same spot. The main channel is clear now and only the quieter backwaters and the marina are still frozen over. There were even a few guys ice fishing on the ice of the marina this evening.

Hundreds of Canvasback moved in (the photo shows only a small fraction) and will probably continue to go further up the river. Unfortunately I haven’t been able yet to get my lens close to them. I’m not crazy enough to step on the ice of a big river in motion… ;-)

The other news is that I saw clearly an owlet in the nest of the Great Horned Owl. The mother wasn’t present at my arrival at Mud Lake Park but a fuzzy looking young owl peeked over the edge of the nest when I pulled into the area. After watching the ducks on the river I checked the nest again and the mother had returned. The owlet wasn’t visible anymore. I guess the mother bird ordered it back into the safety of the deep nest. I’m excited about maybe having the opportunity again to make some photos of a young Great Horned Owl in the next few weeks. We will see…

All about ice fishing today...

Ok, today’s post isn’t so much about photography or nature. I posted already a couple landscape images a few days ago, but Brian, my German photography friend from Texas, wanted to see more about the ice fishing we did last weekend. So, here are some pictures and a few words about the fishing itself.

First we had to remove some snow and drill the holes with an ice auger. The ice was about two foot thick and that took about a minute before the drill touched the water underneath. Whatever you do on the ice, there is a lot of joking going on as you can see here. Our friend Doug swung the shovel while Bryan got ready to drill the next hole, and I was waiting to clean the snow and ice out of it with a ladle.

Since a few years our buddy Dale brings his dog Tucker along, who enjoys to run around in the snow and check out the deer tracks along the lake shore.

In Wisconsin every angler can have three fishing lines in the water and we use so called “tip-ups” for fishing. If a fish bites and pulls the line, a flag goes up and a little bell rings, indicating that there is some action going on. Sometimes that never happened during the whole weekend but this year we caught nine Northern Pikes (German: Hecht!!). As soon a flag goes up everybody who sees it yells”tip up!!” and the owner runs to his hole and tries to get the fish out of the water. Well, this is sometimes easier said than done… My friend Bryan got this one onto the ice and tried to get the hook out of its mouth.

Well, the rest of the time you hang around “base camp”, talk smart, drink some beer or German style “Glühwein”, eat unhealthy food from the grill, and have a good time with friends… ;-) Every year since 2007 we meet for a weekend in January up in the Northwoods of Wisconsin and our TEAM ICE adventure became a nice tradition everybody looks forward to. Bryan, Dale, Doug, and I know each other through business in the graphic industry and my brother in law Don joined the group three years ago. Don, who is a farmer, wasn’t able to join us this year because of some problems with his livestock (we missed you Don!) but I’m sure he is sharpening the hooks for 2015 already… ;-)

Snow patterns

 

While here in Eastern Iowa the mild temperatures took care for some of the snow we had on the ground, a fresh layer of the white stuff covered the landscape up in the Northwoods of Wisconsin. It was my traditional ice fishing weekend with friends and as always I took the camera with me. The fishing was good this year but a strong overcast made for gray snow most of the time. Nevertheless, there were some brief moments when the sun was covered only by a thin layer of clouds, creating at least some luminosity.

The patterns of snow on the trees were wonderful and I just tried to integrate them in my compositions. The deer tracks in the snow that covers the ice on Popple River are a different kind of pattern but they add to the story about a nice winter day in a great landscape.

Wintry mood on Stevens Lake

 

I had a business meeting last Friday in Northern Wisconsin and decided to spent the weekend in the Northwoods for some more ice fishing with my friend Bryan. Mostly blue sky made for fantastic weather to be on the ice on Saturday and this time we even caught some fish :-). We went to Stevens Lake where the ice was covered with a layer of fresh snow. The cold temperatures since our first trip two weeks ago doubled the thickness of the ice (~20" = 50cm) and we were able to drive onto the lake. The camera stayed in the bag until late afternoon when big cloud formations moved in that created some nice patterns and light. Nothing spectacular but I like how the peaceful and wintry mood is pictured in the photo.

Ice fishing fun and a little bit photography

We finally got the winter here in Iowa and have some snow on the ground. However, I would have seen snow anyway, because it was the weekend for the annual ice fishing trip with friends. For the sixth year in a row we went to the Northwoods in Wisconsin. The ice was not as thick as other years but nevertheless still thick enough to drive on. I usually take my camera with me but photography was not the top priority last weekend.

My fishing luck wasn't really great. I caught a couple Northern Pike but they were small and I didn't keep them. "Fisher king" was my brother in law Don, who pulled two 28 inch Northerns onto the ice. It was my pleasure to make a few clicks of him with his catch.

Nikon D300s, Nikkor 24-120mm / f4

The main reason why I take my photo gear on the ice is the never ending hope to catch some great light. I always have one eye on the sky, especially during the time around sunset. The image above tells the story about a great final of a wonderful day on the ice of Fay Lake in Wisconsin.