Trout 4 -Joseph 0

This winter, I have been visiting my Grandma in Novi every weekend, and, along the way, I have been stopping at the Island Lake State Recreation Area near Brighton for some ice fishing.  A fun thing about the Spring Mill Pond at Island Lake is that it's stocked with brown and rainbow trout, including some of the brood stock from the state hatcheries.  I have seen several trout at Island Lake this winter.  I wish I could say I caught one!

On my first visit to Spring Mill Pond, I had a huge brown on my line that must have been more than 25 inches long and weighed six to eight pounds.  I think this fish might have been from one of the hatcheries.   It was a great fight that lasted for about four minutes, with lots of heart-pounding, drag-peeling runs.  After fighting the fish for a few minutes, I finally had the fish up to the hole, but then he swam back down and coughed out the hook, taking off under the ice.  I was sad this great fish got away, but I enjoyed the fight!

On my most-recent trip, I had large fish on my tip ups three times, but they managed to get loose every time.  After being discouraged three times, I focused on the area where I had been getting action, but I was only catching small bluegill.  Still, bluegill are fun to catch.

Although I haven't landed that big trout, I know I will be back and I'll hopefully get my ice fishing trout of 2015!