Outdoors column: Beating winter blues through ice fishing
It was 38 degrees.
That’s not bad for the end of January, but it was very windy.
You might say it was less than comfortable out on the ice at Sylvan Beach.
It was amazing to me, however. I was ice fishing – for the first time – and trying to get my mind around the fact that I was standing just about on a spot that I had visited in a boat four or five months before. It was maybe 18 feet to the bottom there. That seemed amazing to me. I was standing on about 10 inches of ice, which was as solid as well cured concrete.
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Ice fishing was not a common thing where I grew up, and it hadn’t occurred to me to try it in the dozen or so years I had lived in the Mohawk Valley. Jerry Mankiewicz asked me to accompany him that day, and I was glad to have the new experience, wind or not.
It wasn’t a great day fishing. I landed one 16 ½-inch walleye using a Swedish Pimple and a perch eye. I don’t remember what Jerry caught, but I’m sure it wasn’t much. No one around us seemed to do much better.
What I do remember is that I enjoyed the experience, even if conditions weren’t the best. I was out of the house and feeling alive. And I’ve continued to fish through the ice to this day, enjoying it without having it become a great passion – not that there is anything wrong with that. It now is a very occasional thing, but something I find worthwhile. It’s a chance to bring home a few meals, for sure, and maybe have a good fight with an outsized bass or pike, but I think it has become more about getting out there and dealing with winter head on. Better to be out there and battle it than give up and sit on the couch.
Things have changed since that day many years ago. There were electronics then, and ice shelters, but not like today, when it seems few anglers go out without both. Things are pretty high tech, and the results often are very good. Me? I’m still sitting on a bucket out in the open jigging and occasionally setting out tip ups, and I’m generally happy with whatever comes up through the hole.
The shelter thing is interesting. I had a friend who had one back then, and I was in there with him once on a very windy day. Maybe he had it set up incorrectly, but that thing rattled and shook and whistled terribly. It was torture, and I couldn’t take more than 10 minutes of it. I went out into the wind, which was more bearable but very annoying, and then I went home. Wind, we say, is generally an enemy in the outdoors, and it sure was that day.
That said, in the many years since we’ve had our share of really good days on the ice, especially on Lake Moraine, where Ron Moshier and I teamed up for some good days. It’s funny, though. I used to think we were catching bluegills and crappies one after the other, but as I check my journals I see that there were some very good days … and too many tough ones.
Anyway, I’ve always found ice fishing fun and worthwhile, and I recommend it to anyone looking to break up winter blues. People get the impression that it is a brutal activity, and that can be true, but mostly it isn’t, as long as you are prepared for it. And I can remember more than one day when we were out there in shirtsleeves, with the sun bouncing off the ice so brightly you might have thought you were at the beach. Well, not quite, but sort of.
It used to be that ice fishing around here started the week before Christmas. Global warming changed that, and it became the first week in January. This year, however, they were fishing Oneida Lake right at Christmas. My cousin lives in Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia, and even he was on ice a few days after the holiday. No doubt the recent warm spell has set things back considerably.
I have always kept my gear simple. Number 4 or 6 hooks on 8-pound test leaders to fish minnows on tip-ups, and 6- and 4-pound line with Kastmasters and mini jigs baited with spikes on my jigging rods. I carry my gear in a 5-gallon bucket. I have an auger (I recommend a 6-incher for most fishing), a skimmer, a couple of towels, removable cleats, a rope, and whatever else I think might be useful.
Insulated boots, long underwear, wool pants, several upper layers topped by a hooded coat is the uniform of the day, depending on the weather. If you are a greenhorn, pick a nice day for your first adventure. Sunny, high-pressure days are regarded as less than ideal for fishing success, but we’ve seen that rule broken many times.
I heartily recommend learning from an experienced ice angler, and going with a group, at least until you have some experience. Even after you have some experience, really. The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has some good ice fishing information at dec.ny.gov/outdoor/7733.html. You might also find some useful information on the Oneida Lake Diehards Facebook page.
Bait shops are a good source of information, too. Here are the ones I know about that are open in winter. Others can contact me and I will add them to the list.
Fite da Bite, 3805 Oneida St., New Hartford 315-723-7375.
The Bait Shop, 4854 Rte. 26, Bouckville 315-750-6161.
Blake’s Baits, 359 Otsego St., Ilion. 315-360-5650 blakesbaits09@gmail.com.
Lakeside Outfitters, 3279 state Route 31, Canastota. 315-633-6030.
Bucks & Bolts, 2442 State Rte. 49, Blossvale, 315-245-1902.
Write to John Pitarresi at 60 Pearl St., New Hartford, N.Y. 13413 or jcpitarresi41@gmail.com or call him at 315-724-5266.
This article originally appeared on Observer-Dispatch: Ice fishing in Mohawk Valley: What to know before you hit the ice
