The conversion

By V. Paul Reynolds

Ice fishing? Why would you want to do that? The north wind comes blowing in across the lake and bites into your cheeks. You are cold all the time, frozen fingers are your reward for baiting the hook and rebaiting the hook. You just get a promising ice hole going and in time it skims over with ice. The fishing can be ponderous and slow, or, as more than one ice fishing cynic has observed: “It’s really exciting if you enjoy watching paint dry.”

So why do we do it?

I can’t speak for you, but I have my reasons. There is a compelling gambling facet to it, kind of an outdoor crap shoot. You lose more than you win, but like a good day at the tables in Los Vegas, when Lady Luck blows on your dice, it can be truly memorable.

My sons and I made our first major ice fishing foray, five straight days, at a northern Maine lake that is known to give up some decent game fish when the stars are all aligned. Joining us was my neighbor Rick Maltz, who lives near me here at Branch Lake, where I live but hardly ever ice fish. An urban New Yorker by birth, the retired banker has really taken to Maine’s outdoor legacy. He has become an avid deer hunter, a hiker, and bass angler. His ice fishing experience, as he explained to me, was limited to Branch Lake, where the “watching-paint-dry” analogy has some applicability.

On this particular trip the fishing gods, for some inexplicable random reason, really favored us. The weather was five straight days of sun and light winds. Can you believe that? In Maine in February? And the fishing was, shall we say, just about as good as it gets during just about all of the five days.

Our ice fishing nexus, which will remain unnamed, boasts a diverse fishery, which includes salmon, splake, brook trout, white perch and a raft of snaggle-toothed pickerel. As you can imagine, the tip-ups were springing constantly and the guessing game of just what species of fish was unwinding the spool of line made the exercise all that much more fascinating.

Rick Maltz, it was plain to see, was having himself a ball and iced a couple of fat salmon to take home to his wife Kelly. With a big smile, he said,”Boy, this is some different than ice fishing Branch Lake!”

My boys and I took a lot of pleasure in sharing all of this with a guy like Rick, who not only pulls his share of the load when it comes to filling the wood box at camp and chopping ice holes, but also knows his way around a cribbage board and enjoys hot dogs and onions on the ice.

He never did ask the question that I expected, however: “Is the action always this good here?”

I would not have held back. “No sir, it isn’t. As a matter of fact, looking back over more than a half a century of ice fishing this particular place, I have no memory that matches it. The weather, the fishing, and the fellowship was incomparable.”

“It is rarely like this, my friend. But isn’t it a kick when a plan actually does come together?”

The author is editor of the Northwoods Sporting Journal. He is also a Maine Guide and host of a weekly radio program “Maine Outdoors” heard Sundays at 7 p.m. on The Voice of Maine News-Talk Network. He has authored three books. Online purchase information is available at www.sportingjournal.com, Outdoor Books.