Scott Soderquist
Guest WriterIím not sure who it was that said, ěcatching fish is easy, itís finding them thatís tough.î One of my Dadís favorite sayings when we had the time to ice fish together was that most fishermen couldnít find their butt if it were taped to their forehead. Those werenít exactly the words he used but you get the picture.
As you can guess, my Dad hated big crowds on the ice and firmly believed we were always being followed to our next hot spot. If the fish were biting we would stay on a spot until the bite would slow down. Eventually the guys would show up with their butts taped to their foreheads and he would make us pack up our gear and move away.
Fishing back in the old days with my Dad was simple and enjoyable. We didnít own one of those new fancy dancy gas ice augers, oh no, they were to danged noisy and scared all the darn fish away. What we did have however was this big, heavy, nasty, red, homemade jobbie my Dad actually made in his machine shop. Let me tell you it cut ice like a hot knife through steel. To say the least, it was a painful ordeal cutting holes with that old beast but it was all part of the deal. Itís what we had at the time.
Rarely did we ever drive a vehicle on the ice. My Dad never really trusted the ice even at its thickest times. He showed good caution when it came to our safety on the ice and I was often reminded what to do in case we went in what he called ěthe Drink.î Besides he called it good exercise for us to walk and he was no doubt probably right. We would walk to a specific area using the triangular positions of the dead tree on the north shore lined up with the white boat house and 50 paces from the last point we crossed to get to Dadís secret honey hole. We usually had good luck catching crappies in that spot for a couple of seasons in a row, that is until the year the dead tree fell in the high winds of a storm and some knucklehead painted the old boat house a different color. We never could quite find Dadís old hole or the crappies like we used to.
Dad has been gone a few years and I miss him. I learned a ton of stuff from him about fishing and all the things in life only a father can teach his son. Iíve learned that itís not always about how many fish you catch or even how big they are. Itís about having fun and enjoying the outdoors with friends and loved ones and donít forget the most important thing of all...The memories that will last a lifetime.
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