Enjoying the Days Before Milking Season
Our new ice fishing hobby took root last winter on a trip to Long Lake in the Adirondack park. We took a day away from skiing to go on a guided ice fishing trip. It was me, my dad Bill, and my son Everett. We started the early morning journey by stopping for donuts at a small shop in Tupper Lake called The Washboard Donut Shoppe, a combination donut shop and laundromat. The donuts were excellent, especially the maple glazed offering. We continued on and arrived at Long Lake to meet our guide for the day. After going over some safety items we set out on the ice. Our guide already had a fishing hut set up and about a dozen tip ups set out. We helped him drill a few more holes and bait some more tip ups. After everything was set, we went to the hut to hang out with a cup of hot chocolate, snacks, a little buddy heater and a few holes drilled in the ice where we could jig with a small ice fishing rod. All four of us standing on that one spot on the ice, with three holes drilled beneath our feet sure made me nervous! We ended up catching a few pike and some pickerel that day. It sure was fun running out to reel in a fish after seeing the flag on the tip up pop up!
Fast forward to this season and we were at it again! This time we bought our own ice auger, a couple jigging rods, some lures and some minnows at a bait shop in Gouldsboro called JC’s Live Bait and Tackle Shop. JC and his wife sure are knowledgeable about fishing! They outfitted us with everything we needed for some fun days on the ice. After JC’s we headed to Swiftwater Lake, a private membership-based lake club that we joined a couple years ago. We started drilling holes to check the ice and we measured 18 inches! It sure has been a cold winter. After doing our safety checks we ventured further out and drilled some holes in the deeper part, closer to the dam. We hung out on the ice for a few hours, for a couple days in a row. Unfortunately, we did not catch anything. We sure had fun trying though! Now we have the gear and will be ready to go next winter again.
I sure enjoy the winter months when I don’t have the strain of daily milking chores that only give me a 10-hour window of opportunity for adventures each day. The ice is mostly gone now anyways, so I’ll have to wait for next winter to get back to our new hobby.