With the crazy winter weather we've been having and various family and work commitments it took us a while to organize an ice fishing trip together but finally Vincent and I managed to nail down a date and destination. Saturday was the day and the target was northern pike at Frontenac Pond. With a big storm coming in I suspected the fishing would be either really good, or quite bad. When I arrived there seemed to be many more people than usual and I soon realized there was a tournament on - oh crap! I'm not so keen on spending my outdoors time with hundreds of my closest friends so I dragged my shanty out of the official fishing area to a spot I've had success before.
Vincent had never ice fished before so I was really hoping to put him on some fish so I had the best baits I could get but with all the drilling activity close by I was wondering if my best plans would go astray. Still, when Vincent arrived he seemed pretty into the idea, even if we would have to squeeze into my little shelter. I knew just the remedy for feeling cold and in no time he was drilling his first ice holes through the two plus feet of ice.
All around us the snow was really coming down and an army of ice augers were frantically drilling away. Unfortunately, the minutes passed with no action...............and still no action. I was beginning to feel pretty bad about dragging him out in these conditions for no fish. The worst part is Claire (his wife) was off hiking and sledding with their young (14 month old) son Lucas in the conditions. Despite the lack of fish I still had a great time just chatting about science and life in general. In fact I pretty much ceased caring about getting a fish for myself within a few minutes (maybe the couple of beers we shared had something to do with that :). It's not like I go fishing with too many folks these days.
The real highlight of the day came for at about 11:30am. Before the tournament could begin, in the freezing cold (and the cold front was really pushing in), the heavy snow and the blistering, whiteout winds, a young girl sang the American national anthem. All the fisherman stood facing into the wind with the hats on their hearts. While this was happening Claire came by pulling little Lucas and we crammed all four of us in my shelter - a new record. Luckily she got there just before the front got right on top of us and the wind went really crazy - it was total whiteout conditions. Once the worst of it passed we headed back to our vehicles but none of the tournament contestants were moving. Those guys are either tough or perhaps.....................let's just say tough.
We stopped by a subway on the way home to warm up and just chatted for a while. I personally had a great time but I feel really bad there weren't any fish. So far this year (and most of last year for that matter) I just don't seem to be able to get back on the hot bite and I'm waiting for the bad run to be over. If this weather ever settles down there should still be some good winter fishing to be had but man, it's been so cold. I did feel really guilty Sunday when Claire cooked up a fantastic meal for Jessica and I after I'd taken them out into some serious winter conditions and caught nothing, but at least we can say we did some hard core, Minnesota ice-fishing. Hopefully I can redeem myself soon.
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1 comment:
Sorry I missed the fun, but glad I was there for the meal :)
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