Ice fishing Lisa Erickson style
This is how I ice fish on a sunny day!

Perfect day for ice fishing. We didn’t catch anything other than a tan! Actually, my son Lee, tried to pull a huge northern up out of the hole. It broke the line before he was able to get it out of the water. Oh well, we had a fabulous time any way.

Good friends came and joined us.  We won a cooler and a t-shirt in the raffle!!

Ice Fishing with Lisa Erickson Minnesota Bound
Ice Fishing with friends

Many people turned out this year. The winning fish was a 7 1/2 pound Northern!

Ice Fishing with Lisa Erickson
Ice fishing Crowds

We needed to have a little fun too! Still can’t believe there were hardly any bites! I was looking forward to Bluegill Chowder or any kind of chowder!

Lisa Erickson On a 4 wheeler
Fun Ride!

I guess it is okay to pull some fish out of the freezer for some yummy winter soup!

Sunny Chowder
This soup is a hundred times better than clam chowder.

Sorry, I don’t care for clams. We used to call them elephant boogers when we were kids. Just can’t seem to get past the rubbery texture.

This recipe is easy to add clams…if you prefer or bluegill( or sunnys ) filets, crappies ( pan fish ), or walleye– but only if you have a small amount that will not feed two people. I do not recommend wasting such a lovely fish like walleye, in soup!

Making soup
Melt the butter and saute the celery and onion together.

My secret weapon. Clam juice.

Cooking with Lisa Erickson
Shhhh don’t tell….

Here is the recipe…enjoy!

Blue Gill Chowder

Ingredients:

1lb of thawed uncooked pan fish

1 large onion, chopped

3 stalks of celery, chopped

2 carrots coined

2 potatoes diced

water

3/4 cup butter, divided

1/2 cup flour

1 bottle of Clam Juice

1 quart half and half

salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

  1. Cook celery, onion, carrots in 1/4cup of butter for about 5 minutes in a large sauce pan. Add potatoes, clam juice, and enough water to just cover the veggies and simmer until potatoes are tender.
  2. Add raw fish to veggies and cook until fish is no longer gray and cooked through, remove from heat. Careful not to over cook or your fish will fall apart.
  3. In separate pan, melt butter and add flour. Cook until mixture resembles sand. Stir in half and half and cook until thickened about 1-2 minutes.
  4. Stir in half and half mixture into veggies and fish. Return to heat and heat through, being careful not to boil. Serve immediately.