Ice Fishing - A Breed of Their Own.

Spring is a long ways off and we shouldn't give up on some good fishing just because the snow and ice has covered up our favorite lakes and ponds.

I know some folks that would rather ice fish all winter and golf in the spring and summer. It's hard to believe but it's just on of those crazy things about fishermen.

Ice fishermen can be in a class all of there own, and I found that out one time when I was fishing Saginaw Bay.

We walked out on the ice about a mile and a half when we came to a crack in the ice. The crack was about three feet wide and stretched in both directions as far as I could see. The ice was about eight to ten inches thick so we thought we would take advantage of the crack and walk along jigging our spoons and teardrops. It wasn't long before we got into a nice school of perch. Lots of small ones but after sorting them out we had a pretty good mess of nice yellow belly perch.

We had no sooner got our lines in and things packed up for the long walk back to shore when two fellows pulled up in a bright red pick up. The driver's window came down and a ruddy unshaven face came into view.

'How's fishing? Have you had any luck today?' the driver asked as he spit a big wad of tobacco juice on the ice.

'Lot's of small ones!' I answered, 'We had to do a lot of sorting to get a good mess.'

'We're heading out to deeper water for the big ones!' he said as he and his partner climbed out of the cab of the bright red truck.

They dropped the tail gate down and pulled out two long oak planks and laid them across the crack in the ice. Each plank was lined up to the same width of the truck tires and eyed by the driver as he climbed back into the cab. The second man jumped on the tailgate and rode across the crack with a smile on his face.

The planks were placed back in the truck and one last splash of tobacco juice hit the ice and they were off to deeper water and bigger fish.

Be safe and good luck.

Jon Book