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.
