Ice Fishing with Friends

My company has several thousand employees overseas. I happened to meet a manager from India who had come to Boston. In our conversations about our different cultures I told her about a day of ice fishing I had with my son. I put together a description and pictures that she passed around in India. She had never seen snow or frozen lakes and ponds so it was quite interesting for her. This is what I sent her.

It was 10 degrees out and very windy so the wind chill made it feel like it was below zero. When the lakes and ponds freeze in the winter we go ice fishing. We use an ice auger to drill holes in the ice. (my son Kevin and my friend Doug)



Once the holes are drilled we use "tip-ups" or traps to catch the fish. We put a minnow (small silver fish) on a hook and lower it through the hole in the ice. The minnow swims around under the ice. When a fish swallows the minnow and hook the fishing line goes tight it releases a flag which pops up in the air. We usually race to the flag. The first one there is the one that gets to pull in the fish. You can put out several tip-ups per person. (another friend Rick with my son Kevin)
While we wait for the flags to pop up we collect wood from the woods to make a fire. This is to keep warm and cook food we bring for the day.

Once a flag pops up you slowly pull the trap out of the hole. Then we need to quickly pull the fishing line to set the hook in the fish then pull the fish through the hole. (Rick setting hook on a fish we caught)




This is a large mouth bass that Kevin caught.


Ice fishing is a fun time for all … the worst thing is when I take pictures I find that I am not in any of them …

Deep Sea Fishing - Kennebunkport, ME

I chartered a boat out of Kennebunkport, ME and took Megan and Kevin deep sea fishing. After catching some bait fish coming out of the river we started to troll for Blue fish. We paralleled the coast line going south. After an hour or so Kevin started to get sea sick. I called Pam and we headed north to drop Kevin off at Cape Porpoise. No luck with blue fish so we fished the remainder of the morning for Stripped Bass. We stayed in in the channel at Cape Porpoise and had some success. I hooked several fish but didn't seem to be able to get them in the boat. MUST have been the bait fish ... hehe ...

Megan caught this nice 33 inch bass. In Maine this is called a slot fish. You can keep fish under 27 inches or over 44 inches but fish in the middle are considered breeding fish so we had to let this one go.

We had a great time and will do it again.