Bonescreek
10-23-2015, 04:08 PM
Ice Fishing
When I was a kid I got started with fishing around 5th grade or so.
There were many bodies of water in the area to fish, ponds, lakes, streams and rivers.
This was back in say 1970 or so. I was inspired by my friends at school and Field&Stream and Outdoor Life. We had opportunity back then, we had places to go fishing, water that held fish and being in school we had,
Time, we had the whole summer off to actually go fishing.
I started out fishing for trout with a friend next door, using worms and spin
Geer. Then gradually took on the challenge of fly fishing.
This was done in early spring from April 5th to May or early June, witch started Bass fishing with a bang and a rubber worms and rubber frogs in August in the lilly pads.
What exiting times they were, so much to learn, so much to do, all the prep
Work before the season started and yes yes, the great feeling of true accomplishment when you caught the biggest or the most.
It was proof you were the ultimate angler.
A “Fisher of Men” so to speak.
I don’t recall how the change came about, with me thinking that I really
Needed to out do myself rather than my friends but it did happen.
Maybe it came about gradually over a few years back then or maybe it was
Like over night. I don’t remember. But it happened just the same.
When I decided to try to catch a trout on a fly that I tied myself, that’s
When it started. I challenged myself to fool a fish, a trout, on an artificial,
One I made myself, that would be really cool.
So this leads us to a storey I may tell at the end of this winter when you
Are all very much ready for the ice to break and spring thaw to come.
For now I’ll back up a bit and tell you a tail about my ice fishing early days…
Early on in my fishing days, like I said above I used to fish with a friend
Next door in a stream that was stocked with Browns and Rainbows and each
Year reproduced a native Brook spawn.
My bud next door and I would hit the stream almost every day from Apr. through the end of June for trout, then baseball practice would start. He
Was big into that, I was still wanting to fish, the trout were thinning and
Getting smart. So I focused on Small mouths in the river and Large mouths
In the pond at a farmers property up the road a piece.
I got into chasing Grouse and Pheasant that fall, and was thinking about bow
Hunting deer, but fishing never left the back of my mind.
I had killed a few ground hogs and lamprey eels with my bow but wasn’t sure just yet. As the winter came on that year, Christmas came and went,
We were dumped on with a few good snow storms that year, 2 – 3 feet at a
Time, then in Jan. the ice came, split the maple on the side of the house and
Put the power out for 2 weeks. 1” thick around the twig branches of the maple. Yea it was cold, the old man was gone with the welding truck thawing out frozen water pipes the whole time. Ours too at about the middle
Of the week.
No school for the for seeable 2 weeks, Oh Boy!
Sleigh riding, hunting, ice skating to all hours of the night on the creek, my
Sisters made a 6’ snow man in that week during the storm.
It was about 11:00 pm with the light of a full moon and Dolly and Eileen where rolling the bottom belly of the snowman right up behind me.
About to roll me over with like a 4’ snow ball at the point.
I never heard them approach until the busted out laughing.
We used to fight a lot too, but laughed to all get out and had a lot of fun back
Then. Give and take in a family of 6 bothers and sisters plus mom and dad and the Grand parents too.
So with all this time and snow and ice on my hands I decided to tye every
Fly pattern in the McClanes Fishing Enclylopedia in the sizes of 10, 12 and 14 to have any and every artifical fly tied and ready for opening day of trout
Season the next year.
I did this for like 3 days and nights until the wee hours of the morning.
Got up to the Muddler minnow section when it hit me.
Cabin fever.
I could no longer stand to go down into that basement and tie ever one more
Fly, I had to go fishing. Done.
I think it was Febuary 15th or so, the sun came up, it must have been 10:00am (trees on the mountain in front of the house) I had all my stuff
Packed, Tipups, jigs, hatchet, grubs, hooks, backpack tied on back of my
10 speed bike ready to go. Five mile ride to get to the pond on a bike.
The farmers kids fished the pond once in while, they had a row boat, I did
Not, If I could get out to the far end of the pond beyhond my casting range
Maybe I could catch a bass in the 5lb class. This was my motivation.
Over the summer I caught many 19” 3lbers but never a 5’lb, nothing over 19”. The pond was no more than 4’ deep and ½ acre around, but many bass
And bluegills. There had to be one granddad in there.
The storm had passed the day before but left 10 or 12” of fresh snow on top
Of the 1” ice on top of the 8” of snow from two days before.
The temp. I think was around 17 degrees, not that bad, but I forgot about the
Wind, when I was getting stuff packed.
I get to the pond with high hopes and no one is there except me, just like that.
As I dropped my bike to it’s side on the ground and looked across the pond,
It seemed different than I ever saw it before, Covered in snow, and all the
Trees in swamp behind bare of leaves up against the mountain.
At first I had trouble telling the where the end of the pond stopped and the
Swamp began. I was looking at the baren tree tops in the swamp and remembering all the mallards, getting up when I spooked them back in Aug.
They blackend the sky and flew in circles around the swamp. You couldn’t
Count them all.
A gust of wind hit me in the back and I felt the cold.
Time to get things going, at this time I’m a happy camper let me tell you
What, I got visions of 5’lb bass and bluegills on the barby baby. Oh yea I
15 or 16 years old back then.
I had to dig about 6” of snow off the ice to start the holes.
Then had to chop a hole through 8 to 9” or more of ice to get to water.
Then had to anchor a tipup and set the bait.
Here’s were gloves are a problem.
Mind you I do not have a shealter of any kind doing this.
I rode my 10 speed bike to get here from 5 miles away, in 17 degrees and 30 mile an hour wind, steady as she goes.
On about the 4th or 5th tipup I had taken off my gloves, sweating hands, can’t tie the line down or pull the slack out. Off go the gloves.
All the holes are set. Now we wait.
I don’t thing 20 mins. Went by watching t he flags with the wind picking
Up like hewills bells, and seemed to the the temp. dropped as sun came up.
Soon the wind was gusting and blowing snow in the holes, ice was closing
in at the bottom. And not a single flag had flown that morning.
Fingers no longer move without pushing them, the wind will not let up.
Looking up to the sun I expect it’s about 1:00 pm.
I’m done.
Being young and stupid as it were, I knew I had to pack all the geer before
I could head for home. This will take more time, dang it’s cold right now.
Oh yea, no gloves, they froze solid when they got wet choppin’ holes.
Oh yea.
That’s why I took them off.
Can’t even find the gloves by this time.
Somehow managed to pack all the tipups, etc. on the bike.
Pushed the bike through the snow from the pond to the road
About ¼ mile.
Then prceeded to walk along side the bike all 5 miles back to home.
A man in a snow plow truck passed me once, he waved.
I remember that.
When I finnally got home, as I walked into the front wash room that
Leads to the kitchen, I can still recall just how good the warmth felt.
Just to be out of the wind.
My hands were white, and as I stepped into the kitchen and the heat hit
Me, from the look on my mom’s face I can guess, my eyeballs were
Popin’ out.
Yea, that hert.
Back out in the wash room I went, lickity split.
Ice fishing is not simply a hobby, or something to do on the weekend.
Ice fishing is an adventure.
One you will never forget.
When I was a kid I got started with fishing around 5th grade or so.
There were many bodies of water in the area to fish, ponds, lakes, streams and rivers.
This was back in say 1970 or so. I was inspired by my friends at school and Field&Stream and Outdoor Life. We had opportunity back then, we had places to go fishing, water that held fish and being in school we had,
Time, we had the whole summer off to actually go fishing.
I started out fishing for trout with a friend next door, using worms and spin
Geer. Then gradually took on the challenge of fly fishing.
This was done in early spring from April 5th to May or early June, witch started Bass fishing with a bang and a rubber worms and rubber frogs in August in the lilly pads.
What exiting times they were, so much to learn, so much to do, all the prep
Work before the season started and yes yes, the great feeling of true accomplishment when you caught the biggest or the most.
It was proof you were the ultimate angler.
A “Fisher of Men” so to speak.
I don’t recall how the change came about, with me thinking that I really
Needed to out do myself rather than my friends but it did happen.
Maybe it came about gradually over a few years back then or maybe it was
Like over night. I don’t remember. But it happened just the same.
When I decided to try to catch a trout on a fly that I tied myself, that’s
When it started. I challenged myself to fool a fish, a trout, on an artificial,
One I made myself, that would be really cool.
So this leads us to a storey I may tell at the end of this winter when you
Are all very much ready for the ice to break and spring thaw to come.
For now I’ll back up a bit and tell you a tail about my ice fishing early days…
Early on in my fishing days, like I said above I used to fish with a friend
Next door in a stream that was stocked with Browns and Rainbows and each
Year reproduced a native Brook spawn.
My bud next door and I would hit the stream almost every day from Apr. through the end of June for trout, then baseball practice would start. He
Was big into that, I was still wanting to fish, the trout were thinning and
Getting smart. So I focused on Small mouths in the river and Large mouths
In the pond at a farmers property up the road a piece.
I got into chasing Grouse and Pheasant that fall, and was thinking about bow
Hunting deer, but fishing never left the back of my mind.
I had killed a few ground hogs and lamprey eels with my bow but wasn’t sure just yet. As the winter came on that year, Christmas came and went,
We were dumped on with a few good snow storms that year, 2 – 3 feet at a
Time, then in Jan. the ice came, split the maple on the side of the house and
Put the power out for 2 weeks. 1” thick around the twig branches of the maple. Yea it was cold, the old man was gone with the welding truck thawing out frozen water pipes the whole time. Ours too at about the middle
Of the week.
No school for the for seeable 2 weeks, Oh Boy!
Sleigh riding, hunting, ice skating to all hours of the night on the creek, my
Sisters made a 6’ snow man in that week during the storm.
It was about 11:00 pm with the light of a full moon and Dolly and Eileen where rolling the bottom belly of the snowman right up behind me.
About to roll me over with like a 4’ snow ball at the point.
I never heard them approach until the busted out laughing.
We used to fight a lot too, but laughed to all get out and had a lot of fun back
Then. Give and take in a family of 6 bothers and sisters plus mom and dad and the Grand parents too.
So with all this time and snow and ice on my hands I decided to tye every
Fly pattern in the McClanes Fishing Enclylopedia in the sizes of 10, 12 and 14 to have any and every artifical fly tied and ready for opening day of trout
Season the next year.
I did this for like 3 days and nights until the wee hours of the morning.
Got up to the Muddler minnow section when it hit me.
Cabin fever.
I could no longer stand to go down into that basement and tie ever one more
Fly, I had to go fishing. Done.
I think it was Febuary 15th or so, the sun came up, it must have been 10:00am (trees on the mountain in front of the house) I had all my stuff
Packed, Tipups, jigs, hatchet, grubs, hooks, backpack tied on back of my
10 speed bike ready to go. Five mile ride to get to the pond on a bike.
The farmers kids fished the pond once in while, they had a row boat, I did
Not, If I could get out to the far end of the pond beyhond my casting range
Maybe I could catch a bass in the 5lb class. This was my motivation.
Over the summer I caught many 19” 3lbers but never a 5’lb, nothing over 19”. The pond was no more than 4’ deep and ½ acre around, but many bass
And bluegills. There had to be one granddad in there.
The storm had passed the day before but left 10 or 12” of fresh snow on top
Of the 1” ice on top of the 8” of snow from two days before.
The temp. I think was around 17 degrees, not that bad, but I forgot about the
Wind, when I was getting stuff packed.
I get to the pond with high hopes and no one is there except me, just like that.
As I dropped my bike to it’s side on the ground and looked across the pond,
It seemed different than I ever saw it before, Covered in snow, and all the
Trees in swamp behind bare of leaves up against the mountain.
At first I had trouble telling the where the end of the pond stopped and the
Swamp began. I was looking at the baren tree tops in the swamp and remembering all the mallards, getting up when I spooked them back in Aug.
They blackend the sky and flew in circles around the swamp. You couldn’t
Count them all.
A gust of wind hit me in the back and I felt the cold.
Time to get things going, at this time I’m a happy camper let me tell you
What, I got visions of 5’lb bass and bluegills on the barby baby. Oh yea I
15 or 16 years old back then.
I had to dig about 6” of snow off the ice to start the holes.
Then had to chop a hole through 8 to 9” or more of ice to get to water.
Then had to anchor a tipup and set the bait.
Here’s were gloves are a problem.
Mind you I do not have a shealter of any kind doing this.
I rode my 10 speed bike to get here from 5 miles away, in 17 degrees and 30 mile an hour wind, steady as she goes.
On about the 4th or 5th tipup I had taken off my gloves, sweating hands, can’t tie the line down or pull the slack out. Off go the gloves.
All the holes are set. Now we wait.
I don’t thing 20 mins. Went by watching t he flags with the wind picking
Up like hewills bells, and seemed to the the temp. dropped as sun came up.
Soon the wind was gusting and blowing snow in the holes, ice was closing
in at the bottom. And not a single flag had flown that morning.
Fingers no longer move without pushing them, the wind will not let up.
Looking up to the sun I expect it’s about 1:00 pm.
I’m done.
Being young and stupid as it were, I knew I had to pack all the geer before
I could head for home. This will take more time, dang it’s cold right now.
Oh yea, no gloves, they froze solid when they got wet choppin’ holes.
Oh yea.
That’s why I took them off.
Can’t even find the gloves by this time.
Somehow managed to pack all the tipups, etc. on the bike.
Pushed the bike through the snow from the pond to the road
About ¼ mile.
Then prceeded to walk along side the bike all 5 miles back to home.
A man in a snow plow truck passed me once, he waved.
I remember that.
When I finnally got home, as I walked into the front wash room that
Leads to the kitchen, I can still recall just how good the warmth felt.
Just to be out of the wind.
My hands were white, and as I stepped into the kitchen and the heat hit
Me, from the look on my mom’s face I can guess, my eyeballs were
Popin’ out.
Yea, that hert.
Back out in the wash room I went, lickity split.
Ice fishing is not simply a hobby, or something to do on the weekend.
Ice fishing is an adventure.
One you will never forget.