Wednesday, January 23, 2013

90 minutes

Not sure why we decided to go icing on one, if not the coldest day of 2013 thus far. I think somewhere in this mass above my shoulders there was a thought that it would be cool to be first on the ice right after the recent warm spell that made most bodies of water unsafe to ice fish.  It was what, -26 with the windchill today? Forget who in their right minds would stand outside on top of frozen water in these conditions, why is the real question here.
During the first hole we drilled, a three way pressure crack popped out in different directions before we could get through to water.  I sprung like a mongoose avoiding a lunging snake and two-stepped ten feet back.  The ice was no more than four inches at best. It didn’t look like we should be fishing on this stuff but we decided to move further over to test another spot. What would make us think the ice was any better seemed illogical and if true, unnerving as to just how unpredictable ice formation can be.
I had a different ice scooper with me. One that did not have a measurement on it so I hand measured the thickness. It was five inches. Go figure it was better so we moved over more and repeated the test. It was also a good five. Now my hand is red and really feeling wintery. Where did common sense go when I decided to take off my glove off deserves no answer.
We lasted only 90 minutes out there. Why would anyone go through all this only to wimp out in such a short time?
Because…..
It’s what we do in the winter while we wait for the rivers to become ideal for steelheading again. It’s fun to see fish on the flasher. It’s like playing a video game. See the fish come in, dangle the offering to them, make them move for it and trigger them to strike.





The Rolling Rock, burgers and wings were instrumental in bringing us back up to normal body temps.

6 comments:

  1. Crazy!
    Beer has an tendancy to make everything better...and better looking for that matter ;0)

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    1. I noticed Brad looking at me different after the first pint. He is such a homo!

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  2. thats 90 mins longer than I think I would have stuck it out - although one of those pop up tent style shelters goes a long way to add comfort on cold windy days on the hard water!!

    Looks like MB is shaping back up so I hope to be drillin' holes and icing perch on Monday.

    Cheers

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    1. LOL.... I had mine but we decided to leave it off the ice as it would have meant anchoring it each time we moved and that would have been a pain.

      I see that MB could be good to go for this weekend. Too bad I will be in Niagara Falls, NY for a hockey tournament. Next week maybe. ;)

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  3. Couple of nice outtings with some nice slabs bro! And ya you are right about BN being a homo ;-)

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  4. Very cool recap Gil. lol One of these days...

    Jack

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