I had just gotten out of work at 7am on a Sunday morning and decided instead of sleeping the day away I would brave the inevitable lethargy and try some new year’s ice fishing. After getting home and getting unpacked from work and then re-packing for fishing, eating a quick “meal” of doughnuts and a venture 2 towns over for bait I made it to the pond by 11:30. For this pond to have fewer than 50 people on a weekend day is somewhat of a sacrilege even if the Pats are playing. On this given day when I arrived the pond was utterly deserted. When the fishing is good at this pond I usually pack up to leave around noon just because I have run out of bait, but there are always those that come prepared to stay all day and that is what usually happens. So now I came to the conclusion that the pond was empty for one of two reasons. Either everyone came to the conclusion at the same time that the fishing was so terrible that their time was better spent in front of the TV, or everyone was so satisfied by their immense catches that they decided to leave some fish for another day. Granted I have never heard of the second possibility I felt oddly optimistic and even if the fishing was terrible that day, and I was under the illusion that because I am a fisherman I have patience. Now on a typical day here there are a couple of flags even before my 5 traps are in the water. After 15 minutes of no action I changed the depth of all the traps and changed lures on my jig pole. After an hour and a change of depth and baits several times my greatest form of entertainment is to watch a trio of Bald Eagles playing catch with a dead fish that was left behind. At one point they flew right to me and swooped low enough over me so I could see the color of their eyes. The reason for this aerial display is unclear to me as I definitely didn’t have any fish for them to be interested in unless they just wanted a closer look at what I was doing so they could take notes on what not to do. As quickly as they arrived they vanished into a cloud and I didn’t see them for the rest of the day. I began to talk to myself out loud at this point and remember by now it was 2pm and I had been awake for about 23 hours. I was in the middle of asking myself if maybe I had fallen through the ice and died earlier and my punishment for all of eternity would be to have to keep checking these fishless traps when “click-snap” I had two flags go off at the same time. I was so confused and startled that I didn’t know what to do first. I grabbed the bait pail and set off for the first trap, upon closer inspection I could see the reel wasn’t moving and so I didn’t touch it in hopes that the fish would come back and the other trap had a more aggressive foe. Reaching the second trap I found it void of life, including the bait, and so I reset it and headed back to the first trap. This time the reel still wasn’t moving but the line was taught and off to one side. I gingerly set the hook and after a valiant effort I pulled an 8” dace up through the hole. I had never actually believed in the idiom that all fish are trophies. I just thought that some fish were of lower quality than others, but didn’t take into account the circumstances when this could take place. After a few hours of getting skunked at your local hotspot I guess anyone can sing a different tune. |