Ice Fishing East Pond

A beautiful Saturday morning....a vast frozen expanse....temps climbing to four degrees by 9 o'clock....a thermos of Honey Dew coffee.....two four wheelers....two snowmobiles.....Art Carrano....good friends.....a dozen donuts from Hillman's.....what, in the world, could be better than this? Look at the picture above, and you can begin to get a sense of the bright cold; a brilliant gray that carries the air with a richness of frozen morning. In the background is Sappi--the paper mill in Fairfield, emanating its smokestack....East Pond on the Oakland and Smithfield line. A beautiful place.

Garrison Keillor tells a funny story about how men both invented and go ice fishing to get away from women for a while; it is just a place women dont want to go. They dont see the beauty of the solitude, stillness, and misery. I dont know. I know Amanda would love to go. She'd probably want to knit, though, like she does when I paddle the canoe in the summer. But her fingers would freeze pretty quick....

Below, Seth, Brad, Dave, and Glenn take in the frigid morning; meteorologically speaking, we really did go on the coldest morning of the year thus far.

I didnt even set any traps on this morning; I was merely an observer and "hole fluffer," which means that, after Brad drilled the holes with Art's auger, I went by to each one and scooped out the slushy slurry so we could drop our lines into the water. The ice, if you are wondering mom, was 14 inches thick. And solid. With ice fishing, each person is allowed five traps. Below, I tried to capture our "camp" as it were; if you blow it up you can see Brad and Art's traps. With their flags down. Like they stayed all day. Brad caught the only fish of the day--a beautiful yellow perch. And if you blow up the picture you can see some other ice shacks in the background.....
The guys kept daring me to put the "throttle to the bar" and "floor" it across East Pond. If I did, I may have hit 90 miles per hour. But, as anyone who knows me well knows, I have a irrational fear of speed. On my bike. On XC skis. In cars. And especially on snowmobiles on 14 inches of solid ice on East Pond when it is four. Sorry I let you down guys. I did, however, hit 80 (kilometers per hour, that is). But I had a great time tooling around on the ice, across the pond, spinning around, and annoying all the fish away from taking any of Brad or Art's shiners....

Just a fantastic time. Cant wait to go out again!!