What to do for fun when it’s –5 Fahrenheit…

  Layer up and go outside of course!!  And what better way to spend a VERY early, crisp, morning then to drive a few hours to immerse one’s line and mind into the art of  ice fishing.  Ice fishing around the world is a culture in and of itself.  It’s been celebrated and mocked on TV, and in movies, and I can say from first hand account that all of the things you’ve seen are true.  You have the people who have a “second home” on the ice complete with beds and TV’s, the “good ol’ boys” who drive their dualy truck out onto the ice, and then there’s the weekenders (of which we fall into)…people who have a passion for fishing, a love of wild vistas…and maybe we’re a little bit crazy too. 

 

Our camp is an old fashion one.  We fish with Tip-ups which are an early method of ice fishing that consists of some line, a hook with a worm, a tiny reel and a couple thin slats of wood that bend apart to straddle the hole in the ice.  A small flag is triggered up when the fish jerks the hook down below and we all slip and slide our way to the hole.  The trout is then hauled in by hand (hopefully). 

 It’s the kind of set up I like to imagine I could rig up using a spool of thread and some sticks if I was ever marooned on a frozen lake.  Did I mention you have a lot of time to sit and conjure up stories while you ice fish?

 

 

 

And your hair freezes, and your eyelashes frost over and your nostrils get…well…crunchy.  Did you know your hair can freeze?  It does.  Good times.

And you sit…shuffle…appreciate the beauty of hand warmers and think thoughts that resemble prayer to the makers of them…and you dance to keep warm. 

You play games with the fish to coax them into biting, such as walking away to a set point without looking back at the Tip Ups, and then spin around quickly as a group.  And around you the lake shifts and groans, and cracks under the weight of 15+ inches of ebony colored ice. 

And a flag goes up!  And you scramble and slip and crawl your way to…