Posted on 12/16/2008 7:16:18 PM PST by ButThreeLeftsDo
Ice fishing is ubiquitous in Minnesota, home to the largest ice angler population in the nation.
Most of us don't give a second thought when thousands of ice fishing houses and thickly dressed anglers show up each winter on frozen lakes and rivers around the state.
That just happens here.
But it's also what makes us unique.
"Ice fishing is this really distinctive thing of living up north; people who don't live here think it's nutty," said Greg Breining of St. Paul.
And, of course, staring for hours into a faintly illuminated hole bored through the ice is a little bit nutty. But several hundred thousand of us do it anyway.
Breining, 56, a freelance writer, and friend Layne Kennedy, 51, a freelance photographer from Minneapolis, both long noticed that intriguing things happen each winter from Moorhead to Montana and from Maine to Moscow when soft water turns hard.
So, of course, they wrote a book about it.
(Excerpt) Read more at startribune.com ...
In Bemidji, we were already driving full-sized pickups on the ice a week ago....
Ping.....
I grew up icefishing here in Michigan.
We’re going to do some in Bemidji and then Lake of the Woods and a late season perch run to Devil’s Lake, ND.....
Perhaps Gore should drop by.
Why?
Because people who go hunting and ice fishing are too well grounded to be taken in by this Madoff guy.
Warm weather fishing, I guess they're ok too.
“Perhaps Gore should drop by.”
No, thanks. It’s been cold enough for this early in the season.
Minus 18 in the Twin Cities last night. It’s still Fall....
I set up my shanty less than 100 feet from where I sit right now which makes it nice. It’s not legal but I could set tip ups out for pike and watch them from the couch.
Fished a lot of contests on Prior, many moons ago...It was always touch and go on that one. During the coldest days of winter, it could open up due to currents and so on...
My favorite in that neighborhood was just down the road on Spring Lake. Crappies, all day long.......
Never understood it. Sit and freeze. Just to catch a fish. Cold and I don’t get along. My on and off Girfriend, who is from Minnesota,has tried to explain it and it stil makes no sense. Except for the beer part.
Nothin’ better than Yellow Perch caught ‘true de ice!’ :)
I think that it’s like....if you’re within 300 feet of your lines...it’s legal in MN.....
I’m not into that sprint to the flag like I was some (many) years ago.....
;-)
A few years ago, my son and I were out on our snow mobiles on the lake where a fishing contest was being held in front of a lake front restaurant. Someone had drilled several hundred holes in the ice for the fishermen and when we arrived, water was boiling out of the holes. We decided that it would be a good idea to move on.
I’m not sure which of the last two threads I read are more unappealing to me- decide for yourself.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2149768/posts#comment
Probably the linked one- at least this one has beer in it.
;-)
Winter is the onlt time crappies are any good in my opinion. The flesh gets a lot firmer in the cold water.
Cheers!
...oh, and Merry Christmas.
Too many small bones. I live alone. No one to do Heimlich Manever.
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