This family knows the drill, Diehards live for a morning of frigid ice fishing in great New Jersey

star ledger ^ | Sunday, February 08, 2009 | Mark DiIonno

[Coleus]

Bruce Hartzog went to college at Colorado State, in the clean-air city of Fort Collins, 30 miles south of the Wyoming border and just below the snow-capped front range of the Rockies. Hartzog went there, to America's great outdoors, to study wildlife biology, because he was raised as an outdoorsman by his father, who was raised as an outdoorsman by his father. They hunt, bows and guns, they fly-fish and icefish. They know every inch of the rod-and-reel New Jersey, from their home area of Somerset County to the northern reaches of The Highlands.

"People out there, they all thought New Jersey was nothing but macadam," Bruce Hartzog said. People just don't know," said Walter Hartzog, his 83-year-old father. On this morning, New Jersey was nothing but cold. Temperatures in the teens, the wind coming across the lake in unobstructed gusts. The wind kicked up particles of frozen snow, like a sandstorm in a desert of pure white. While the ancient, round-topped Kittatinny Mountains are not nearly as wild or imposing as the upstart Rockies, they can still throw down a frigid blast in winter, and even let loose a mild earthquake now and then.

It was Friday about 10 a.m., and the Hartzogs had already been ice fishing on Budd Lake for a few hours. "I got one little perch, about the size of my finger," Walter said as he sat above a perfectly round hole, now coagulating with ice chips. "We've got to find a better spot." They weren't giving up, but they were on the move. The gas powered drill and buckets were loaded on an old Flexible Flyer and dragged across the lake to another spot.

[cripplecreek]

It’s been too damn cold for me to do much icefishing this winter. I did get out on one of the warm days but I’m not as young as I used to be.

[Daffynition]

Just how it should be. It isn't all about hunting and fishing but building character, appreciation of the outdoors, and life skills.

[BerryDingle]