Winter 2008

March 21, 2021: Father Son Ice Fishing Day (21 Photos)

Well mother nature turned out not to be a crazy ol' lady after all and granted us an extension to our ice fishing season here on the east coast, albeit a brief one. Forecasted rain on Friday wasn't near as bad as they thought, the mild spell was short lived as temperatures dropped well below freezing Friday evening. By Sunday morning the ponds in our area were completely re-frozen with no evidence of standing water or slush.

With such favorable conditions Sunday morning French, Bassan and I headed back to the backcountry of Bauline this time with our fathers Don, Peter and Randy in tow. Today we would have another crack at a few trout and some quality father/son time.

Bassan arrived on his 1997 Foreman 400, Mark and Don made the trek in his 2017 Argo Huntmaster while Dad and I hit the trails in Project 6x6. Thankfully the pond is huge so it was no problem to social distance as we are still under Covid alert level 4.

We fished under bright sunny skies, cold temperatures and yet another bout of unrelenting cold winter winds.

French started the day off hooking a nice pan sized mud trout on one of his Automatic Hook Setting ice fishing rigs.

My cheap Chinese CS 2500 mini chainsaw continues to work very well and runs like a top. My beautiful Georgecraft Damascus Steel axe made it's debut appearance on a crew adventure, it was my first real good chance using it to gathering sticks and making a few splits. Not only gorgeous, it works fantastically as well.

Bassan and I tagteamed lunch which consisted of Bassan's homemade Moose Chili and my homemade hand crafted moose sausages. I cooked up one pack of Spicy Italian with Red Wine, and a pack of Okto-beer-fest which features a little IPA.

My Coleman Hyperflame propane stove was the right choice today cooking up a larger than usual amount of food for our larger group!

Lunch was outstanding and thoroughly enjoyed by all hands.

After lunch, French's lucky automatic hook setter triggered and captured another beautiful Rainbow trout, this one about 1.5lb. In the name of conservation with rainbow's being spring spawners we released this trout to populate the pond for future adventures.

After lunch I took project 6x6 for a quick rip before re-positioning it as a wind break for this afternoon's fishing.

Sometimes the embedded video doesn't play well so here is a YouTube link to the video: https://youtu.be/GzCjO_ZMNLA

Again, the power of the March sun was demonstrated as it melted even a light colour board into the ice over the course of a day during freezing conditions. This daily increasing solar power is what will soon break up ice covering the ponds here on the East Coast.

Later in the afternoon one of Don's lines attracted the attention of a dandy pan size mud trout placing yet another fisherman on the scoreboard!

Dad had to head back to Bay Roberts around 3pm ending his day a little early but not skunked as he caught himself a dandy pan size rainbow as well.

Don, Mark, Peter and I left around 4:30pm while Bassan's wife and niece dropped down to keep him company for a couple more hours of trouting. Today's adventure was a pretty last minute plan that came together well with favourable condition, I think our inaugural father son day was a great success as every one had a great time!

Cheers, MIKE