Black’s Cliff Resort’s Birch Bark Blog

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Had a group of guys up fishing this weekend who listened to my advice on their 2nd day and headed over to where Grandpa Gibson was fishing.  They did not start until 11 am and slow and steady all afternoon had the crappies coming through.  The top 2 crappies were about 13 or so inches give or take maybe an inch more.  They would catch 3 or 4 and then it was quiet for 40 minutes.  All of them were caught on Wigglers (Mayfly Larva) that they picked up in town.  Under the stack is one of the finicky perch that eluded Grandpa Gibson earlier in the week.  They only caught one perch the rest were crappie.  Had the walleye tip ups out as well but only found the crappie

The day before they headed to Big Arb and caught these perch.  They said the fishing was much better on Lower Kaubashine

I am not sure the statement this squirrel is trying to say.  Any squirrel mind readers please post a comment for the quote of the day from this squirrel

Lower Kaubashine earlier in the morning at minus 15 degrees

What to do in the cold?  Fire up the chainsaw and cut up some wood.  Personally I would rather do office work and save this for a 30 degree day but each to their own.  Steve and Troy saw the challenge of finishing the pile that was left from Ted and Mark

Pile growing but little do they know I have more on order from the wood sellers as soon as they finish this pile

Side Note.  I do not recommend the coldest day of the year at minus 8 with a windchill of -30 to go grocery shopping at Save More.  The wind off the lake at -30 is a killer especially if you leave your gloves at home

We had a visitor at lunch come into our feeders, a Pillated Woodpecker.  The biggest woodpecker that lives in our area.  They are usually very spooky and do not stay around people.  A few years ago I caught 2 of them on our Suet Feeder.  Troy has seen 3 of them at one time.  They are neat to see fly around as long as they are not pecking on your house

Trying to figure out how to get to the suet and if the branch would hold the big bird

When in doubt retreat and try from a different vantage point

Got it!

For those that need a snow report, the snow on the roof is all fresh from last night.  John the Groomer guy reports “Trails are Pretty Decent, I would ride them”  When John says he would take his baby out on the trails you know they are in good shape.  He said the snow seen above just added to things.  Trails will still be a little icy in spots but generally “Pretty Decent”

Woods by Shamrock coated in the new snow.  We recieved mainly mistly light rain Sat and Sunday night and then it changed over to slushly wet heavy snow all day on Sunday followed by a couple of inches of normal snow on top.  It made for pretty trees this morning

View off the hill by Muskie

View down the Bearskin Trail this morning.  I talked to John the Groomer guy, he was not out grooming last night but will go out tonight.  He says with the cold weather coming it should freeze up the slushy snow nice and make the trails fast and icy this weekend.  So sounds like a good time for both skiing and sledding this coming weekend.  I do have a few cabins left

Headed out on the lake to see how Grandpa Gibson was doing at the shack.  Through cellphones I had heard they had seen alot on the camera but nothing was biting.  One of the highlights was 20 huge carp swimming by

They ran into a huge school of perch that were not hungry for the minnow on the hook.  You can see the stripes on the perch in this pic.

Here you can sort of see the school.  Troy had my old camera that was not cooperating with the Fish TV

While Grandpa and Troy huddled in the ice shack with finicky perch, we headed over to the previous spot to find the snowman they had built earlier.  For those that know the lake, we are headed over to the entrance to Muskie Bay

One of the most original snowman faces I have ever seen.  I love the eyes.  I guess when the fish are being finicky this is what happens

Poe taking a break after running across the lake.

Hey it looks like a hole that chipmunks might use…..

Come out of there you furry rodents

don’t make me come in there after you.  I will

Time to head back and see what is happening at the shack now that Poe has scared every fish within 200 feet away

We returned to the shack just in time to see Troy and Grandpa Gibson get into a school of Crappies 25 feet down.  When the fish are that deep in the winter they come up white.  A few hours later they get their spots back and look normal.  It is funny to see them in this white condition

This blog entry has been brought to you by Ben and Grandpa Gibson.  Coming tomorrow (or later today) the new secret ice fishing bait, Wigglers.  They are guaranteed to catch the most finicky perch anywhere.  Also the snow is coming down hard for now, Sunday morning, we are hoping that it stays all snow and there will be a bunch of snow in the pines pics.

One of our favorite guests of the year arrived, Tom the Treeman.  Tom brings me a box of trees each time he comes to put on the fireplace mantels at the resort.  Tom has no idea how many people have enjoyed his trees over the years.  Thanks Tom from all your tree fans at the Cliff.  This tree he is holding is definitely a Tom orginal with an intersting lean to it.

In other news, the continuing war with the squirrels has entered a new level with Grandpa Gibson at the resort.  Troy and his dad tried an experiment to lure the squirrels into the squirrel flipper feeder.  They dangled corn on a string from the feeder.  This squirrel gave it a try

If you look at the string it is twisted up because the squirrel activated the flipper.  He got away with a few kernels but had to give up when the string got twisted or he would go flying.  We gave this idea a grade of a B.  Troy and his dad were shooting for an A with a squirrel gripping onto corn and flying around in a circle

More modifications involving removing the string and adding in wire

Reports on this newest edition to come…. along with the ice fishing reports with White Crappies

Headed out of the house to wander on to the lake for a good scratch and too see what was going on at the ice shack

The shack looking quiet

Along the way to walking to the shack I saw evidence of where it had been or Aliens were probing the lake again

It is always fun to walk across the lake and see lines like this in the snow.  Gives great confidence in the stability of the lake and plate techtonics

Unzipped the shack to find an unlikely fishermen who was having fun not picking up garbage or splitting wood

I got them to show the “big” catch.  This has to be the smallest batch of fish ever taken out of Lower Kaubashine.  They were fishing in the bluegill nursury.

Poe checking out the action at the bigger tip ups along side the bluegill nursury.  Maybe some of those bluegills could  be used as minnows

After leaving the Fishermen to their big catches, Poe and I ran into Tom from Hilltop and his dogs out for their daily walk on the lake.  It is much safer in the winter to walk the snowmobile trail on the lake than walk windy, icy, snow-covered Lower Kaubashine

Jenny (the dog) and Poe checking each other out.  Usually when they run into one another Poe is riding on the gator with his head hanging out at about 30 miles an hour and Jenny is running after him ready to take his head off for tresspassing on her resort

Using the Macro and Black and White feature on IPhoto I think this pic came out nicely showing the frost and light snow we had this morning.  All the trees were coated in crystals this morning

I forgot to switch this to a Black and White but it still turned out nicely showing how pretty the whitepines are this morning on the hill

Looking off the hill with the frost and light snow.  It was a cold damp cold and I was happy to go inside and find the woodstove.  Grandpa Gibson has come up for some icefishing and I told him to make sure he grabs his heater before heading to his shack

I left the color on this one showing the new way Grandpa Gibson and Troy are trying to lure the squirrels to jump on our Squirrel Flipper bird feeder.  So far no takers…