Winters for me are usually busy with boat shows, seminars, river steelhead fishing, and my other passion many of you might not know of – skiing.   I often get asked if I ice fish, and the answer has always been no.   But it was never because I didn’t want to, its just a whole new thing that I never seemed to have the time for.  Not to mention, you need a good hard winter to get safe chance out on Lake Erie.

Last week, good friends Scott Geitgey and Paul Rogers (aka PapaScott and Uncle Paul) were headed out on the Erie hard water and asked if I wanted to go.  Being so busy in the winters, it happened to be a day I was on reserve with the airline.  Reserve basically means you have a certain call out time, mine being 11:30AM, and scheduling can give you a trip with a minimum of 2 hour notice.  This happens in case a trip isn’t covered for various reasons such as crews timing out, weather cancellations, crew calling in sick, whatever…  So, 11:30 call out, minimum 2 hour notice, 1 hour 15 minute drive to the airport, I figured I would give the ice fishing a try.  Uncle Paul and Papascott were on notice that they may have to drop me off at sudden notice.  All agreed and I was off for my first ever Erie ice fishing trip!

We met out at Wild Wings at 6:00am and unloaded the 4 wheelers to head out.  As we went out on the ice, I’m watching Uncle Paul’s Lowrance with the mapping up, and I see us passing different contour lines.  First it was 3′ line, ok at least I could stand up if we fall through, then it was the 6′ line, uhhhh ok this is getting real, then the 10′, if we go through now I’m screwed.   In the back of my head I knew we were fine.  These guys are professionals and they know what the hell they are doing.  Plus its been cold as all hell here this winter, but I couldn’t help but think like this.   After a few miles, we approached a pressure crack in the ice and Papa went first as he navigated around the big chunks of ice.  I stepped off and was walking around a bit as we were trying to figure out the best way through.  With lots of snow on the ice, a couple times I stepped into the soft snow and swore I was just going to go right through a crack or something.  Its kind of fun to scare yourself a little bit, but again in the back of my head I knew we were good.

So finally we get out there near B can in a spot Papa had heard of some good reports.  It was just white in every direction you looked with a faint outline of West Sister off in the distance to the west.  Damn it was cold, 15 degrees with 20+mph winds.  We scattered out and Uncle Paul fired up the auger and started popping holes in the ice.  15″ thick I could see the ice was, ok, now I know we are good, let’s fish!

I was impressed with how easily the convertible sled/shanties popped up.  Uncle Paul stuck me in his, fired up the propane heater and set up a camera on the bottom so I could watch my jig.  The shanty heated up  in a hurry and soon I was peeling layers, it was cozy!  Not long later I get a call from Papa  that he was 1 for 3 in the last 15 minutes with a nice 8lber.

Right off the bat, I learned some things about fishing that I never would of if I hadn’t gone ice fishing.  First, I knew there was current out there, but I didn’t know that much.   I put my Northland Buckshot jig down and it kept getting caught in the camera that was 3′ away, I had to move the camera to a hole 6′ away so that I could see the jig without it getting caught in the camera.  Then I would bounce the jig off the bottom, and see the silt pop up and be carried off just like we where in a river.  And we really were, Lake Erie is just one massive river.  Like I said, I knew this before, but that picture just makes it even so much clearer.

I am a very impatient fisherman in general.   That’s why I like fishing out of a boat, I am constantly moving and feel like I am more like ‘huntung’ fish.  If somewhere isn’t working, I’m out of there until I find them.  With ice fishing, its not so simple.  We set up, and after 5 minutes of not seeing anything, I’m asking Paul if we should be discouraged and think about moving.  He laughed, “Patience my friend, they’ll come to us.”  Totally the opposite of the way I usually fish.   For some reason, I envisioned winter walleyes under the ice just hunkered down somewhere and hardly moving.   Not long after that I saw a walleye cruise through the screen.  He was moving, and fast!   And a little later 2 more go cruising by but ever saw my bait.  Then Uncle Paul, who was fishing from outside the shanty goes yelling for me to bring the gaff, and up pops a 4lb walleye through the hole.   I went and set back up and got the dreaded phone call from scheduling that I had a trip with a show in a few hours.  My ice fishing trip was over.  Maybe I’ll take this new found patience I learned to some of my open water fishing, those walleyes are on the move.

Although I never got to catch one, it was a really cool experience that I look forward to trying in the future.  Papa put me in a quad and drove me back in so I could make it back for my trip.  Later that day as the sun was going down and I was flying to stupid Baltimore or something, things heated up for the boys and they brought several nice eyes through the ice.   Thanks again for getting me out Papa and Uncle Paul!