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Maine winters can be long, and out here in the country you take your entertainment where you can find it.
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Often times, that’s on a frozen river.
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Smelt, a small oily fish people enjoy fried…
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… run thus time of year and intrepid Mainers set up ice fishing shacks.
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Sitting in a plywood box in sub zero temps staring at a hole in the ice isn’t my idea of a good time.
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But to each their own.
🐟
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My partner went ice fishing in Northern Ontario one time and he said he had no idea how loud ice sounds at night when you’re sleeping. It was an overnight trip… Imagine hearing the noise of cracking and the whooshing of water from underneath you and not knowing really what’s happening…
Not my idea of fun either. 😃
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No. No. And definitely not.
I have enough trouble sleeping as it is… I can’t imagine worry about ice cracking all night.
Nope!
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Nor mine. I never understood the appeal, although if you were on the fence about the whole endeavor, today’s ice houses can be pretty fancy. In fact, I just looked online to see HOW fancy. Holy trout! They’re like little cabins now, replete with kitchens, dinette-style booths, poker tables, and TVs. I thought the idea was to fish (and have a structure light enough to not break through the ice), but what do I know?
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No fancy shacks up here., though I know the Great Lakes have them. The smelt season is short, it’s not worth the effort. Plywood and tar paper rules the river here.
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They must taste pretty good to get past such an unappealing name…
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I don’t think so, they’re oily. Like sardines…
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Huh. Proof insanity can strike anywhere.
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Ice fishing is the winter pastime of many around here. Guys are out when I’d be afraid to walk on the ice, it’s so thin. Shanties can be a nylon pop-up that is removed every day, or a barn mahal. Sturgeon fishing is the opposite end of the spectrum from smelt – you need a mighty big hole to get a sturgeon out of the ice. We even have a musical devoted to ice fishing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAGb031cOCA (As well as a song by Lou and Peter Berryman to the tune of “La Cucaracha” – “Up in Wisconsin, up in Wisconsin/The weather isn’t very nice/Up in Wisconsin, Up in Wisconsin/They gotta fish right through the ice.”)
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Ha!
Love the song.
We have sturgeon a little north of us, but I don’t think they ice fish them. Here it’s land-locked salmon, lake trout, brook trout, cusk, smelt and white fish.
🐟
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I used to think ice-fishing only made sense if you needed food. But after spending months in a small house with my family during the pandemic, I finally understood the appeal.
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When I spent 90 days on the Ross Ice Shelf near Mt. Erebus in the Arctic, the Russian soldiers showed us how to use C4 to blow holes in the thick ice so we could ice fish. It was a “blast”! (Pun intended.)
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We have a good friend who was stationed at McMurdo. That’s serious ice fishing!
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I think that’s why most men do it. Get away from the wife and kids and drink in peace… if not comfort.
😊
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Ice fishing has never been appealing to me, but then again I’m from far west Texas where it’s not cold enough. But I just don’t get it, lol.
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It’s a great excuse to drink, but I can think of more comfortable places to do that…
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A BIG no for me!!
I wouldn’t mind ice skating on a frozen lake – I’ve only ice skated in mall rinks (really popular her in the 70s/80s!).
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I never mastered ice skating. Though I did ride a mean skateboard in my day…
🤣
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I’ve never ridden a skateboard! I think I tried and immediately recognized that I’d likely kill myself!
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I went ice fishing once. Key word: once. That was enough for me.
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😂😂😂
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I think I’ll stick with fish fingers. At least I can close the door on the freezer.
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