Ice Ice Baby

Ice Ice Baby
- Robert Van Winkle, American Poet

Before I go any further I want to make one point very clear: I really don't care much for ice fishing.  For me ice fishing is a necessary evil to help get me through the winter.  Despite my clear disdain for the cold, ice fishing always makes for a few fantastic fish tales.  I want to share a couple of great stories from this season and also give you an idea of what worked well for us through the bitter cold of winter.

Winter is the only time I don't smile while holding a pike

I did more ice fishing this year than I have in any year previous.  The big reason for this; Guide Dionne got a power auger which made our lives SIGNIFICANTLY easier.  We struggled through the 2013-14 season hand drilling holes through three feet of ice, and we were miserable because of it.

All of my negativity aside, we actually had a pretty productive hard water season this year.  I do want to offer you some words of wisdom on what made us successful this year.  Here are a few things to consider for next season:

• Like every other style of fishing, find those transition zones.  If you can find a drop off that offers cover and a food source, you should find the fish.
• Stay mobile!  If something isn't working, find a new spot.  I know this doesn't work for those less rugged fishermen who like to use tents or sheds, but some days you will have to really work to find the fish.
• Experiment with presentation: set on the bottom with some slack, set just off the bottom with a tight line, set suspended in the water column.  Until you figure out what is working, keep playing with it.
• Experiment with the colour of your jig head.  Sometimes the smallest detail can get a fish to bite.
• Don't be afraid to go shallow.  We typically start the day by looking for 11' of water.  If we don't pick anything up, sometimes we will move into 4-8' of water just to see what's happening.  Some of our bigger fish this past season came from a shallow hole.
• Walleye can be tricksters.  They often strike very delicately and you'll miss it if you don't have your hand on the line.  If you feel that gentle tap, set that hook.
• Don't forget to tighten up that line before you set the hook.  We fished with my younger brother quite a bit this past season, and he earned the title "The Noob".  He gets really excited when that rod tip starts to bounce and immediately runs over and sets the hook as hard as he can.  The problem is if you don't tighten down first, you'll crack that line like a whip and break the fish off.  Needless to say we had quite a few laughs at his expense this season.

We had really good luck on walleye in January, but they seemed to entirely disappear by the time February arrived.  They likely moved out to deeper water as the ice got thicker.  Our range for finding fish fluctuated between 4-17'.  We finally hit some bigger pike in February, but the majority of our season was made up of some of the smallest pike I have ever seen.

Lunker alert!

Now I want to get to the real purpose of this blog...to share my favorite story from this past season.  Guide Dionne and I pretty much only use jigging rods with cheap wire rod holders that fall over with a small gust of wind.  Typically we try to anchor the holders with some snow and ice, but we aren't always that smart.  You should also note that we typically put some distance between the holes we fish from.  It isn't uncommon to see someone from our group sprinting 40 metres across the ice to get to a rod that is about to go down a hole.  These stories don't always have a happy ending.

Let's get one thing out of the way: Guide Dionne and I are athletes through and through.  There are countless examples of perfect baseball slides to grab a rod that is following a fish down a hole.  Unfortunately for us, athletic ability seems to go hand in hand with lack of intelligence.

Guide Dionne was out fishing by himself in January at one of our favorite Southern Alberta destinations.  He watched in horror as a rod that he set up 30 metres away tipped out of the rod holder and went straight down the hole.  Guide Dionne licked his wounds and kept fishing for a few hours in the same bay.  He worked around the bay, and eventually came back to the spot that he had lost the rod.  He dropped a smelt down the hole and waited.

Within a few minutes the rod tip started to bounce; fish on!  Guide Dionne began reeling the fish up through the hole and realized that something odd was happening...he had a fish on, but he was also bringing up an extra line.  He finishes pulling the fish up, and starts to hand bomb the extra line up through the hole.  Up comes the rod that he lost earlier with a fish still on the end of the line.  He reeled the poor exhausted fish up through the hole and sent him on his way.  This fish had dragged that rod around for about four hours before accidentally running into the second line.  What are the odds!

Now I know what you are thinking; lightning can't strike twice, right?  Wrong.  Guide Dionne and I were out a few weeks ago and decided to drill a bunch of holes relatively close to each other.  I set up a rod in an area that didn't have much snow or ice built in the general vicinity, so I had to leave the rod holder without an anchor until I was able to get a few hand fulls of snow.

I wandered out a few yards and found a snow bank.  With an arm full of snow I watched in horror as my rod tip began to bounce.  I threw the snow and sprinted as quickly as I could to the rod holder.  The ice around the hole was very flat and clean, so naturally I slid right past the hole.  I eventually came to a stop and lunged for the hole a few seconds too late; we made another donation to the pike tackle club.

Guide Dionne and I remained silent for a few minutes as we tried to process what just happened.  Were we really this dumb?  Was that fish a new Alberta record?  Which one of us was going to stick our head down the hole to find the rod?

All of these questions were put on hold as Guide Dionne got a hit on a hole a few metres away.  He reeled up the line, and to our surprise we began pulling up another rig!  I quickly grabbed the extra line and started to hand bomb it up through the hole.  Guide Dionne was able to land a small pike, and I was able to land a rod and reel covered in mud and freshwater shrimp.  The fish had broken off the line, but we saved a rig none the less.

In summary:

We lost two rigs down holes this year, and were able to recover both of them.  You can call us crazy, or you can call us stupid...neither would be incorrect.  We clearly live on the edge.

I am so very pleased that spring is upon us.  The pike season has just closed until May on most Southern Alberta lakes, and I we won't see many of these fish again until the ice clears.  This past hard water season was the most productive one I've had in my life, and I have been able to take away many fond memories.  All of that being said, bring on the open water!

So long Chinooks!