In
the month of March it seems to be the best
time for
ice fishing.
At least that is what I hear... I am not a ice fisherman!
What is
Ice Fishing you ask?
Well... Ice fishing is walking out in
the
middle of a frozen lake, taking a large ice-auger (looks like
an
over sized drill bit) and drill a hole in 15 inch thick ice.
You
then have this special type fishing pole, with a short handle and reel,
fishing line, and hook. You use your own special bait and
drop
the line in the hole drilled in the ice and wait... and wait... and
wait...till you finally feel the tugging on your pole and you reel
in
the fish.
Photo
by K Fields
I
have not
been ice
fishing yet... I will someday when I can get over the
fear of walking on ice, hearing the weird cracking sound underneath my
feet unnerves me. I automatically see the picture in my mind of the
cartoons with the ice cracking and floating away from the poor dude
standing on the ice. Being stranded on a small chunk of ice
in
the middle of freezing cold lake does not sound appealing to
me.
But I have heard that it isn't like that...
There
are many, many, many Alaskans
that love to ice fish. Some build
little box houses that can measure anywhere around 4' x 4' x 6'
to 8' X 8' X 6" They do not have floors
in most cases
or if they do then there are special holes in the floor where you can
drill the ice and sit and fish inside. It keeps you out of
the
wind that usually is blowing across the frozen lakes. I seen
a
couple of small travel trailers used for ice houses, they just drive
them out on the ice and leave them there for the winter
An
Ice
Fisherman has to be prepared for just
about anything.
The temps can bottom out quickly, so you need to
have plenty of
clothing layers on plus heavy parkas and snow pants, gloves, hat, and
heavy well insulated boots. You also need to have all your
fishing equipment plus ice augur. Plus something to carry
your
catch in. I have seen some people just drag out a old kid's
snow
sled to use to carry all the equipment with them and to drag their
catch back.
In
the end as you can see by the
photo above it is worth all the
trouble... That huge pike is amazing...
Who knew such large
fish
live under all that ice.
But
even still... maybe... I will try out ice fishing next year!
Later...
