Weekend "recon" of an old favorite

This past weekend I found myself fishing solo.  First and foremost, I never do this unless I am 100% sure the ice is in good condition.  Ice fishing alone is just not a good idea. 
With safety in mind, I was ready to hit Rock Creek Lake on a recon mission.  I haven't fished the lake all winter, and was looking forward to checking out a few new areas, which were found in the lake fall in a boat, along with checking in on a few of my time-tested spots. 


A VEXILAR is mandatory

when fishing suspended fish.

With snowmobile in tow, I had planned to hit the new areas on Saturday afternoon.  I was able to accomplish this, thanks to the modern conveniences of GPS, snowmobile, power auger and of course the Vexilar.  Rock Creek has about 400 acres of water to cover, and the snowmobile makes short work of it, and allows me the chance to carry all my gear with little wear and tear on me, letting me focus on fishing.  It was a good afternoon and I did find one new area that was holding some nicer bluegills.  However, all the way home I couldn't help but wonder where the better crappies were.
Sunday morning came, and I just had to go back to Rock Creek in search of the crappies.  I planned to check the new area too, to see if the fish were living there.  Sure enough they live there.  Nice bluegills once again came up on the ice to see me on a beautiful morning.  Still my focus was on those mysterious crappies...where could they be?  It was time to put the snowmobile to work.  I went all over the lake, checking my normal locations, drop-offs, deep basins, and brushpiles.  Finally, I had found them.  I caught one after another for about an hour, and then it was time to go home for lunch.  Oh, and they were still biting, something hard to do, but it had been a great morning, so back home I went.
A couple final thoughts about the weekend; fishing alone is much harder, and hard work does pay off.  When you have to drill every hole, check every hole with the Vexilar, and fish every hole, it takes awhile to get a feel for the fish.  However, it also does make you "one" with the fish too, as you know all of your surroundings very well.

My ice fishing set-up