stop the world and [smelt] with you

there's a very thin line between ice fishing and just sitting outside in a tiny shack with four other dudes, freezing your butts off.

as i've written about several times, the best way to get through the maine winters is too embrace it and develop some cold weather hobbies.  one that i've embraced is smelt fishing.  last year i spent about 60 bucks and bought what you might call the beginners smelt fishing package.  a couple poles, some line, some hooks, some weights and a bucket.  now i've never been one of those guys who buys all the top of the line equipment before getting into the hobby, i usually like to start out a hobby with crappy gear from garage sales or second hand stores and see if i like it first.  however since i had been out fishing a few times before and used other peoples equipment, i felt $60 was a alright price to pay for this seasonal hobby.

me and three other guys decided to head out one cold saturday night last month and drove to a new spot we had never been before.  upon arriving i saw the absolute tiniest ice shack i've ever seen, honestly i didn't know how four grown men were going to fit in it.  alas we did, though much of our equipment stayed outside and any time one of us had to go outside to relieve ourselves, all four people had to basically get out of the shack.  however we seemed to make it work. our lines went down in to the frozen water and we waited..

and waited...

and waited...

and waited...

finally, i got a bite and reeled up the first smelt of the night.  i placed him in the bucket and lowered my line again, almost instantly getting another bite.  i reeled up the second smelt of the night!

(side note, guys are simple creatures.  the fact that i was the guy who had hardly been smelt fishing and had brand new equipment, my pride was beaming after bringing up the first two tiny fish.)

then we waited ...

and waited....


after five hours of being in a small shack looking at frozen water we had a total of four fish that only two of us had caught.  at the end of the tide, we threw the four lucky fish back into the water and packed up our equipment.

although the night was in essence a bust, it was still a good time.  not only because i was the rookie who caught half the fish, but more so because it gave me five hours to catch up with friends and chat about life, work, marriage and fishing.  each one of us telling stories and getting advice on all those topics.

ice therapy