You have got to check out this ice fishing demonstration. You won’t believe this guy’s catch! This is what every guy dreams for their fishing trip to turn out. I mean after all, after you suit up under multiple layers of clothing, haul your ice hut out to the lake, set up your space heaters, plop your chairs down and whatever minimal nourishment you have for the duration, then saw a hole in the ice… you want to catch something epic. At least I do.
I don’t know about you, but most of the time the epic part escapes me. Those monster trout are more elusive than those snipes I used to hunt with my fellow boy scouts back in the day. If you don’t know what snipe hunting is, you need to go one time. If you catch one, you will be famous. Just Google it and see what I mean.
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The Real Challenges of Ice Fishing
Back to ice fishing though. It is just plain hard. A lot harder than trying to catch imaginary birds at least. My hands get so cold holding the reel, and the visibility always stinks. It’s not like regular fishing at all. At least when I’m doing that, I can stare off into the distance, or gaze around from my seat on the boat, looking towards the bank to see what else might be lurking below. Not the case with ice fishing. Nope. It’s just me, my cold hands, my reel, and a lot of waiting.
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On the rare occasion I do catch something, it is typically not even worth mentioning. I am a guy after all. I have an ego to maintain. It’s not like I plan to catch the smallest
On the rare occasion I do catch something, it is typically not even worth mentioning. I am a guy after all. I have an ego to maintain. It’s not like I plan to catch the smallest minnow in the lake, it just happens. If I were to show that to the rest of the gang, they would laugh me out of the ice hut just like the time they laughed me out of the neighborhood when I stuck my tongue to a flagpole after watching a Christmas Story. I was only 9 for crying out loud! If you are nodding your head along with me, you have been there. Maybe you do not have to deal with painful childhood memories of your friends taunting you, but you know what it is like to go ice fishing and come back with nothing but a cold. It is miserable. Well, to make up for all of those times where the real fish seem to elude us, we have this to enjoy.
A Picture Perfect Catch
I have studied it, but I can’t for the life of me make out what this guy is doing different than myself. He hooks a monster trout on the end of his line, and after a bit of patient reeling, they pluck him out through the hole in the ice. They make it look so easy. This is one of the biggest male brown trouts I have ever seen, and evidently the same can be said for our smiling foreign friend. Take a look at the grin on his face. You don’t smile ear-to-ear like that if you have done this a thousand times before. Nope, he has just reached a new life milestone it would seem. I would be smiling too.
The other guys also seem to be quite impressed. They are happy for him and make a big deal over the catch. Secretly I bet they are jealous, but that could just be my own insecurities talking. Which lake is it you ask? Well, none other than Lake Michigan. Each year, they hold several ice fishing tournaments. Thousands of people flocked to the lake in hopes of scoring the biggest catch, biggest yield, or most unique. Those are the few though. The majority of fishermen do catch something though. The few, well, they end up like you and me my friend. They go home with cold hands and empty stringers. Yet, at least they got to go fishing. That’s what I tell myself every time. I would rather have a bad day ice fishing than a good day working. I just wish I could keep my hands warm. Pocket warmers and gloves are over rated.
