Ice Fishing Memories!

Being from Michigan (East Lansing), and in my youth, I enjoyed going 'up north to the UP (upper peninsular...Marquette, MI), and ice fish (besides snowmobiling), in a ice shack (or on the ice), with my 'peps'.

It was a great time to be 'chilling' and bonding with my friends (and trying to stay warm). I remember we didn't catch too many fish, but we had a 'blast' all the same.

"There are two types of [ice] fisherman - those who fish for sport and those who fish for fish". Author Unknown

I'd love to give that a whirl one of these days. I enjoy fishing very much. Ice fishing just sounds fun.
I've got no memories to add but one day I'll come back to this thread and add some!

Before I became dad 4 years ago I was fishing and ice fishing 3 or 4 times a week. Now I have my memories . Eventually kids will grow up and they'll come will go fishing with dad. I mostly fish for rock fish, cod, brook trout during winter. I'm still trying to get a good spot for walleye and pike during winter.

Lots of fun for the whole family. Finally have a winter with ice close to home.



Tom

Some of my best memories with my dad are from Spear Fishing on the Leaf River in MN. River was only like 4-5 feet deep so you could see the wildlife very well and the big square hole that you make for spearing (and the dark house) make for a pretty cool window into the aquatic world especially for a 5-6 year old.

Lots of other stories from ice angling card games played fish caught etc. One of the nice things about living in MN. IMO the fish always tasted better caught on the ice versus in the summer too.

The Count of Merkur Cristo said:

Being from Michigan (East Lansing)

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Go Green! MSU Alum here.

That's about all I can add to this subject. Although I grew up in Michigan and consider myself to be an outdoorsman, I'm not a fan of ice fishing. I've only been twice.

First time was as a Boy Scout. Our leaders were a couple of clueless drunks that took our troop out on a cold day, drilled a hole in the ice and tossed a line in the water. After freezing for 6 hours with nothing to show for our efforts, we gave up, went home and made bird feeders.

Second attempt was a couple of years ago. One of my clients wanted to try ice fishing on Lake Michigan in early January. I hired an experience guide and we actually caught a few big Brown Trout. The issue was that the wind chill was around -20 and even with the portable shelter, it was impossible to stay warm. I was wearing about 4 layers of clothing and froze during the 4 hour excursion. I think it took about 24 hours before my body felt warm again.

It's going to take a lot of convincing to get me out on the ice again.

I love ice fishing, but it all depends on the company that you go with. For my family it was one of the only times during the year that my brother and I got to hang out with our dad and just do 'guy' stuff. We would go with my uncle and cousin, and my Dads only rule was that legal drinking age was 9 am. Good times!!

so that is where fresh frozen fish come from.

Any ice fishing posts from Maine probably belong in the Speakeasy.

Yes, it's great fun. I've done some in northern Ontario.
We caught lake trout, brook trout, pike and walleye.

I didn't have a gas powered auger so dug my own holes with a manual auger (fun). Set some tip ups, pull out the little chairs, cook some moose sausage over a fire. Yes, the guys built a fire on the ice (it was very very thick, no worries). Apparently they'd done it for years. They were local so I assumed they knew what they were doing haha.
Anyways, I would definitely recommend it. Just bring a book, warm clothes/warm drinks and relax.

Our cut off point was -20 degrees Celsius (-4 Fahrenheit). Colder than that and we didn't bother going out and freezing our butts off.

I'm from the south, so no ice fishing here. This is not a criticism, but a comment. I like to hunt, so I get the camaraderie angle.

Ice fishing seems to me like an excuse to get away from the women-folk and hang out with the guys and mostly something to do while you drink. Unlike hunting where guns and alcohol don't mix.

Kind of like bowling or surf fishing.

I love seeing some of the elaborate ice fishing houses y'all come up with.

Ice fishing is a blast, only did it a handful of times in CO, and now in WA there's really not much opportunity...have to go up to Canada for that.

I do remember (although not sure how) my last ice fishing adventure. Went with my cousin and a buddy. Technically we were fishing, drilled a few holes, put out the tent, baited the hook and submerged. Then at some point we thought it would be a super idea to fire up the F-250 and do some donuts on the lake. All was fine until we reached the end of the lake near the dam...gets a bit soft around the inlet/outlet tower and the back of the truck started to sink at the same time the hose from the turbo let go...sinking in a diesel with no power is not fun...luckily we popped back onto firmer ice just prior to bailing out of the rig.

I used to travel to Marquette MI and the town across the bay, Escanaba MI on business. Those are two cold towns with lots of snow. I was never into ice fishing but do recall one time watching some folks doing some what I thought was salmon fishing. I noticed a fish and wild life officer pull up in a car and saw a fisherman was trying his best to get a large fish off of his hook. It didn't work and it seemed he was using a treble hook to snag the fish - a violation of the law. The officer went over to him and pulled out his violation book.

Have done ice fishing only a couple of times. I live in Manitoba and it can get extremely cold here. No shack, just warmly dressed. Didn't catch a thing.