Opening Day

Well, sort of. Opening day for ice fishing in Maine is January 1, but we didn't make it out until the 3rd. Dave and David had hauled the ice shack out onto Long Lake a day earlier. We had a fairly large crowd as usual. Dave, David Jr., Dana, Dan, Dan Jr., Felipe and his dad Orlando all ventured out on one of the windiest ice fishing days any of us could remember. With a total of 30 traps in the ice, the fish never had a chance! We caught a variety of fish, including yellow and white perch, brown trout, pickerel and salmon.

For those of you who haven't been ice fishing with us before, I'll fill you in on some of the non-fishing details. We typically bring several rounds of snacks and beverages with us, including coffee, "soda", donuts, chips, hot dogs, and the occasional deer steak. Believe it or not, ice fishing takes a lot out of you, so it's completely necessary to continuously have snacks available.


Felipe and Orlando are from Colombia, and both needed to be broken into the idea of sitting on a frozen lake waiting for fish to bite. Felipe's got a year of experience under his belt, but this was Orlando's first day, and he was prepared for it, from his Eskimo style jacket to ice creepers for his boots.

Inevitably, it seems like something strange always happens to make us all remember each day of ice fishing forever. Last year, the most significant thing to happen was Felipe's first snowmobile ride, which resulted in a busted lip, and a great lesson for an onlooking little boy! On this day there were a couple of things worth mentioning. In an effort to make Felipe believe he had caught his first fish, Dana tied one of Dave's ice spoons (the newest and best one he had) to the end of one of Felipe's traps, causing his flag to go off. Felipe rushed to his trap, and proceeded to pull "the big one" out of the ice. After a few seconds of pulling, he announced that he had lost the "fish" and Dave's new ice spoon was history!

Dave's bad luck continued later in the day while rushing out to watch as Dana pulled one of two giant pickerel from the ice. Dave forgot that his ice creepers had snapped off of his boots earlier in the day and slipped, falling on his back, and breaking a couple of ribs in the process!

Here are a couple of videos of Dana catching a 23 inch pickerel, and the first salmon of the season, as you'll CLEARLY hear Dave point out.