ICE FISHING

Hello friends!! What a mild winter is has been. Lucky, not warm enough to keep me from learning how to Ice Fish this winter. I had so much fun going out with my boyfriend Ryan and my buddy Matt three gorgeous weekends this February and we caught some great fish, met some cool dogs, and saw BALD EAGLES relatively close up. I took LOTS of photos along the way and wanted to share how this experience goes down.

It all startws at the bait shop. We went to The Tackle Shack in Hennicker, NH and got some small fish to use as bait. As for equipment, we brought a bucket for keeping fish you will eat in/doubling as a stool, an auger, short weird looking fishing poles, hooks and lures, a shelter (ours is on a sled so we can take it to different ponds and lakes every weekend) tip-downs or flags and LOTS OF BEER. Last one is optional but makes it a bit more exciting because every time you stop looking at your tip-downs (more on those later) to grab another beer the flags fly and fish are biting. Murphy’s law am I right?

Anyways the tip-downs Ryan made are super old school but effective. See, the way to catch a lot of fish is to dig many holes, then drop one of the tip-down hooks into the hole with bait on it. When it gets a bite, the fish will pull the hook and this will cause the butt end, or flag, to go up. Then, you run over and pull the line HARD to hook the fish, and use the line spool to pull the fish to the surface! It’s a fun waiting game. As for the poles, they are short for use inside your hut so you can dangle the bait into the hold in the shelter and still pull up the hook when you feel a bit without smashing your pole into the ceiling of your shelter.

I’m not the best writer, so maybe these photos will help?