You would never know it by the weather, but spring is just a couple of weeks away. Less than two weeks ago the channel was a buzzing little village of fish houses, and now the only reminder of what was are a couple of old Christmas trees sticking out of the ice.

It seems that they disappeared overnight. Having a law in place requiring removal by a certain date no doubt had something to do with that.

Now it seems like it’s time to wait for the next big event. The way things are going ice-out may not happen as early as it has the past few years.

There have been many years where the ice hasn’t gone out on northern lakes until the first week of May. I guess the latest I can remember was the year that I fished the opener in the Bemidji area and the ice had only went out that Wednesday. It made for some extremely tough fishing.

Now is really the time to start looking for a &uot;quick fix&uot; for cabin fever. With no real hint of spring in the near future it even makes it hard for me to want to take the annual spring trip to Cabela’s.

There are still panfish to be caught and there have been some nice perch caught on some of the area lakes. As long as the ice is safe a person can still get in a little fishing. The only thing is that if you want to use a fish house it has to be a portable. No more luxury suites on Channelview Estates.

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources officially recognized five new state-record fish in an awards ceremony at the Northwest Sports Show in Minneapolis March 8.

New records were set this year for yellow bullhead (3 pounds, 10.5 ounces), white crappie (3 pounds, 6 ounces set Jan. 23, 2002), white crappie (3 pounds, 15 ounces set July 28, 2002), silver redhorse (8 pounds, 4 ounces) and tullibee (5 pounds, 11.8 ounces).

State record holders receive a plaque and certificate acknowledging their accomplishment from DNR Commissioner Gene Merriam at the awards ceremony.

This year has seen one of a couple of firsts for me.

First, I was heading north on I-35 to a hockey game and when I got a little past Faribault I saw a coyote running across the highway and into the ditch. That same evening as I was coming home on 35 just after dark there was another one laying on the road just before the exit ramp to Albert Lea. I don’t usually get too excited over road kill but you don’t usually see too many coyotes, although I guess they are getting quite a population in the area.

As spring approaches it will be a little bit different than past years for me. I have given up my permanent camp spot at Best Point in Waterville and am moving it farther north for a little change of scenery.

I enjoyed the time spent at Best Point, the owners, Jerry and Linda and their family are super people who treated you like part of the family. I made a lot of good friends at Best Point over the years and I’ll still go there from time to time but sometimes a person has to try something different – sort of like following a dream.

I can remember as a kid I kind of always wanted to be a forest ranger or conservation officer. As I got older I realized that it was not going to happen. You needed a college education. There were only two things that kept me from college, money and the draft. After the service my goals changed and I sort of forgot about being &uot;Mr. Ranger.&uot;

Now my grandson Trevor, who is all of 8, has his sights set on becoming a conservation officer. I had nothing to do with it; he just came up with it on his own. He not only has this goal set for himself but he also knows and pretty much understands what a conservation officer actually does.

The kid lives for the outdoors and probably already has more &uot;critter&uot; calls than I ever knew existed. When I was a kid I don’t think I would have thought about calling a turkey, except maybe to the Thanksgiving dinner table.

Once fishing starts Trevor and I will once again try to see who can out-fish whom. I like to think I haven’t spent all these years of fishing without absorbing at least a little fishing knowledge. While I may have experience on my side he has determination and the patience to keep after it until he catches something. He is also the first one to tell anyone that will listen about his out-fishing Grandpa., and that’s the way it’s supposed to be.

I always felt that time spent fishing was reward enough, but if you put in enough time you are going to catch fish.