In January 2010 I went ice fishing for the first time.   I walked onto the ice with two tip-ups and worms.  I did not catch any fish.  But, I learned a lot about presenting bait through the ice.  Experience is the best teacher.

Now in January 2011, I went back to the same pond.  I walked onto the ice with five tip-ups and shiners swimming in an aerated and insulated container.  Using a power auger and my work gloves, I drilled five holes in a “T” formation.  I rigged up my five tip-ups and left the shiners swimming at various heights off the weedy bottom.  I then trekked back through the 12 inches of snow and slush to base camp.  I waited patiently and scanned the entire pond from left to right.  The action under the ice turned to in-action.

The wind started to blowing.  To keep warm, I decided to sprint to my tip-ups to generate body heat.  I cleaned out the newly formed ice around my tip-ups with my ice skimmer.  As I was sprinting back to base camp, my friends shouted “FLAG!”  I immediately turned around and sprinted to my raised tip-up.  I reached the tip-up exhausted and fell to my knees.  I lifted the tip-up and slowly pulled line hand-over-hand….then with a sudden jerk, I set the hook.  Fish on!  As I winched up the fish, I literally felt each head shake.  The fish was a 0.7 lb chain pickerel.  I never worked so hard for a 0.7 lb fish.  But, it felt good to finally pull a fish through the ice.

An hour later, my friends said “FLAG!”.  And once again I sprinted to my raised flag.   I slowly pulled line hand-over-hand.  This fish felt larger.  A bass?  To my surprise, a 1.3 lb chain pickerel surfaced.  Chain pickerel totaling 2.0 lbs is nothing impressive.  But, it’s better than the 0.0. lbs from my first ice fishing trip. ;-).

Each fishing trip teaches me something.  The fishing trips without fish teach me the most.

On a Sunday afternoon, a friend visited my home and asked me to go fishing. It was August and gator-like bluefish were terrorizing our local striped bass.  I said: “Let go!”.  When we arrived at Surfland, we were greeted like old friends returning from a distant place.  While my friend told stories, I purchased three pounds of his favorite bait.  With bait in hand, we were off to our bass hunting grounds.  Based on the entries in my fishing journal, I know where to go to avoid the tourists.

We finally reached “the zone”.  I read the water and found a fishy spot.  My fish sense was on code red.  I quickly rigged up my friends rod and dressed his bleeding sharp hooks with tasty clams.  I asked me friend: “Can I make the first cast?”  He hesitated.  “For good luck.”  I said.  He agreed.  I walked to the water’s edge and loaded his rod to its maximum and propelled the bait rig past the breaking waves.  As I returned the rod to my friend, he said  “Good cast.  Thank you”.

As the sun started to set…BANG!  My friend’s rod was ben over and the spool was screaming.  The fish was irate!  My friend fought the fish from his chair.  After a few minutes, the waves pushed a beautiful striped bass to his feet.  The fish was full color and well proportioned.  I removed the hook with care and showed the fish to my friend.  At that moment, my friend was the happiest I had seen him in months.  To my surprise, he said “Put her back to grow.”

The drive home was quite, until my friend broke the silence.  “Today was a good day.  Tomorrow I have an appointment with the doctor to discuss the chemotherapy results.”  Take a friend fishing.  You will catch more than fish.