09 January 10, 2009 - ObserverXtra

THE OBSERVER | Saturday, January 10, 2009 SPORTS | 17
»THE NOT-SO-GREAT OUTDOORSMAN | STEVE GALEA
Finding the right prompts to head out ice fishing
In central Ontario,
where I live, ice
fishing season has
begun in earnest.
Most lakes have
eight to 10 inches
of safe ice and,
among my circle of
friends, a few good
fish have already
been caught since the season opener
on Jan. 1. Every day, someone calls to
tell another fish story.
Despite this, I have yet to wet a
line.
It’s not that I don’t like ice fishing,
because I actually do. But there is a
certain mindset you have to get into
before you can convince yourself to
drop all the work you need to do in
order to spend a day drilling holes
and jigging lures out on the open ice.
This frame of mind is basically
borne of the realization that the
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snowshoe hare hunting is too tough
right now, the driveway needs shoveling
again, there’s no way to slip
another new gun or fly rod into the
house, and your wife might ask for
a foot rub at any minute. As I write
this, I recognize that I’m very close
to attaining that desperate mental
state.
In the last day or two, I have started
to do certain things automatically.
Last night, for instance, I found myself
checking line and transferring
several reels to the small ice fishing
rods that I use this time of year. This
morning, my fingers were sorting
through jigging spoons even before
my second cup of coffee was poured
from the thermos I’m testing. And
now, as I type this sentence, my snowmobile
suit is hanging from the door,
begging me to don it once again, just
to ensure that it still fits.
I’m trying to resist, honest, I am,
but the open ice is a seductive siren
that calls out, “Lake trout! Come get
some lake trout!”
That’s because this is the only thing
that you can clearly remember from
last season. You don’t recollect the
frozen fingers or the backbreaking
work of drilling multiple holes with
a dull hand auger. You certainly don’t
have any memories of hours spent
jigging like an automaton or watching
set lines as unwieldy snotsicles
form on your upper lip. If you did,
you’d probably take up a more sensible
hobby like hibernation.
In place of these memories, you vividly
remember the best laker of the
year – its sleek graceful form, exactly
where it hit, what lure you were using,
what jigging sequence you were
trying, how deep you were fishing,
and who was there to witness the
blessed event. And, then you smile as
you recall the way it danced, both on
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the ice and, later, in the frying pan.
All this is indelibly etched in your
mind.
With all these things dancing in
your head, you can finally justify why
you have put aside a busy schedule to
make a mental inventory that asks,
among other things, where your fourinch
auger is. After that, it’s a slippery
slope to the point where you find
yourself debating which lake you’ll
make your second home this winter.
Or which old rods and lures will get
the green light the first time out.
So, you surrender and sort through
winters of experience, smile as you
polish up that killer lure, and decide
that the day has finally arrived.
Even now, I’m thinking about how
long it might take me to gather all the
gear I need for that first, all-important
expedition of the year. I figure
an hour at the most. Fifteen minutes,
if I hear the phrase “foot rub.”
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