Ice Fishing
Ice fishing... ice fishing... Sitting in a small hut on top of a lake, minding a hole in the frozen surface, waiting for a fish to bite. I have to admit this is something I don’t see much excitement in.
Sometimes they stay too long, these hardy anglers. Maybe they’re trying to extend the season (catch one last fish, avoid the wife one last weekend) and the next thing they know, the minivan has gone through the ice.
Once I heard about a guy who built too big a fire inside his shanty. Nope, not what you think. He didn’t melt his way into the lake - or at least not initially. He stoked the stove and then went to visit a “neighbor” and when he looked back, his shanty was going up in flames! (Then it went into the lake). He was really broken-hearted.
I can’t think of any women who ice fish, but I know several guys who love it, and there are a few others I suspect of having the affliction: this time of year their clothes give off a faint fishy odor when you bump into them in town.
Come to think of it, maybe ice fishing is like blogging. There’s a virtual neighborhood, friends you don’t really know, and everybody’s interested in what’s going on in the others’ places.
Hey, City Mouse or Em or Whim, toss me a beer. Huh? Oh, right. ‘Guess that’s the difference... that and the smell...
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..........Ice fishing shanties on Lake Champlain near South Hero Island
.......................March 6, 2007 ~ © copyright Wizened Eye 2007
.............................................................................(Click to enlarge)
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
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20 comments:
I can't see the joy of ice fishing, but running around my blog neighborhood, now that is a blast (and it doesn't leave me smelling like fish)! Heads up Wizard, beer coming your way!
miller or bud?
We used to fish with the kids a lot. Not so much any more and never have been ice fishing. We never kept anything either. Fishing was more of a reason to get out of the house and be together. I miss that. It used to be out Mother’s Day tradition. The kids ‘took’ mom fishing.
Thanks for your comment on my ‘Our Night Sky” post. I left a response.
I grew up in Erie, Pa. They ice-fish all the time in Presque Isle Bay, and I remember thinking that it was cool when I was little. But, actually, it's just COLD. LOL.
I'd try it, though=:)
LOL You've summed up well my feelings for ice fishing as well. DH & FIL go on occasion, but I've never seen the thrill in it. (Hell, they don't even have a shack to huddle in, out of the wind, they go out on the lake without shelter.) DD has gone with them on a couple of occasions, and has had mixed feelings for it. Of course, with her along the DH & FIL can't stay out too long. Eventually a girl's gotta take a pee somewhere, and out on the ice doesn't work as well for us as it does for the guys.
nope, no ice fishing in these here parts..
i'm not much of a fisher person although i don't mind fishing at times....
i'd rather blog although my beloved thinks it's kind of a weird habit.
anywho, could i interest you in an organic syrah which i'm presently drinking.....i'm on my second glass and a do believe there's some left.
Wizened, I've got a couple of cold Sam Adams in the fridge right now. Would love to share with you! But please, can we sit inside by the fire instead of outside in a little hut on a lake of ice?!? I think the reason women don't ice fish might be because they know they can buy fresh fish at the market. A market with heat! :)
I have a cold Sam Adams right here for you!
Growing up in Michigan there was a lake that I lived near that people used to ice fish on. I remember one year seeing that someone had driven their truck out onto the lake (a normal ocurance in the dead of winter but this was near the end) and it was on it's way through the ice. I always wondered if they tried to pull it out or if it just sank and they left it there at the bottom of the lake.
Zhish ish quide a pardy! Maybe I zhudn'ta mished the syrah wizh tha Zam Adumz maybe? Ah Ha Ha Ha! Why ish the room going all around like that? Ya-HOO!!! Ize fizhing iz bug- big- beGINNing to zeem like a good idee! Ever hear the one about how to catsh a fizh on a frozhen lake? Ya p;ut a pea omn the izc next to the hole] and when tha fizh cums u;p to take a pea you grab him!!!!@ Ah ha ha ha!
You gize ahr tha verry very besht!
Thanks for a colorful shot of something I'll probably never see in real life. I like the joke, too, only I heard a slightly raunchier version that included references to a polar bear and an icehole.
I do like to fish. I have never been Ice fishing though.
my dear wizened one....!
methinks you're ready for a stout cup of coffee after mixing all that wine and beer.....dear dear
how's the noggin' this morning?
i'm about ready to fix coffee here. want some?
Ohhhhhh....... Foam, you're an angel... Whatever was I thinking? And I have to drive back to Burlington today.... oooohhhhhh....
Black, please.
sorry service is so slow..
it's coming right up..:)
I went ice fishing one time in Colorado.
Whole lotta cold...Whole lotta beer..No fish..
I was surprised this year that the lake in Las Vegas, NM froze hard enough for people to go out onto it and fish. There were even a few shelters out there...something we've never seen out here before. I couldn't imagine it was safe as our daytime temps were well above freezing. Didn't last long, they were out there maybe a week at most. Well, you know, I'd rather pluck my eyelashes out one at a time than do any kind of fishing! Carmon
I have whole "rant" concerning boat ownership, but could also apply to ice fishers. That is...
What would I rather do with all my available free time? Stay home and have the option to go anywhere (or nowhere) and do anything (or nothing) or commit to being bottled up in the middle of a lake in an enclosure of less than 100 square feet wherein I can only fish and drink?
Since I care for neither fishing nor drinking, I think I'll stay home.
So if I had a fish in my freazer does that count as ice fishing?
Or what if I got some ice cubes and tried to get them with a fishing pole? Maybe that would count.
Other than that I'm not too big of a fisher. I've done it a few times. Heck, I'm not even that big of a fan of seafood.
There's no way to prove this theory, but I go back to the notion of community. I took the photo just before sunset, but if you pass this bay earlier in the day (especially on a weekend), you would see a couple dozen cars and many people out there among the huts.
Who knows whether anyone catches a fish or how much beer is consumed, but maybe few and little.
Again, this is all speculation, but it seems likely to me that for these folks with the shanties, it's a commaraderie they enjoy for three months and a happy memory to be rehashed for the other nine.
It was the red shanty that caused me to stomp on the car brakes and swerve to the side of the road; the red shanty and that wonderful late-day sun glow. The photo makes ice fishing look lonely. When I passed by here again earlier Sunday, there was a bustle of activity out on the ice and a dull gray sky, so no follow-up photo.
I tried ice fishing once. I caught a couple of cubes, but nothing worth keeping.
He he...
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