An Outdoorsman’s Journal: A trip to remember

Hello friends, This week’s column is all over the map: good, bad, danger and sad! I have to be very vague to fit it all in! Saturday, Feb. 24 – High 40, low 26 The pups and I arrived in Kipling, Mich., which is on the north end of Little Bay de Noc, just as day became night. We actually arrived with a snowmobile in tow and were coming from another trip. There was not enough daylight to head out on the ice, and so two golden retrievers, both in heat, and their papa slept in the cab of my truck.

Sunday, Feb. 25 – High 44, low 30 Here is where the crazy sets in. The landing I wanted to use had too much open water and so I had to change my plan. I would be pulling four sleds with my Polaris Classic. I figured I would have to travel about 3 miles to get to where I wanted to live, fish and camp for the next three nights. My first challenge was jumping an expansion crack while pulling four sleds; today, it was easy. Next, I had traveled maybe 2 miles when I came to open water. I stopped, let the dogs have a break and went around what was maybe an acre of water in the middle of a sea of ice.

I went by a camp of pop-up shacks, and they would end up being about 800 yards from where I decided to make my camp, which is where three rivers come into the north end of Little Bay de Noc. There was open water 100 yards from camp, and I put out three tip-ups and started the job of building camp with my Eskimo shack as my base. At noon I had a flag, and it was fish on. It was a good one. After a 10-minute battle my line went limp.

Towards dark, I pulled a tipup and started jigging in my shack with a Buckshot jigging spoon tipped with a minnow. After a bit, I had a hit and landed a 19-inch walleye. That made me very happy.

No more action and at about 9 o’clock I could hear an airboat. It was being launched from shore and came across some open water with red and blue lights on. I knew this was not good. The boat was well lit, kind of like a carp shooter’s boat, and when it pulled up it had “Masonville Fire Department” on it. There were several people in it, and I was asked if I was the one that went through the ice. I told them I was on good ice and was fine. I watched as this rig and another coming from my southwest approached the open water I had driven around. Then I watched what was a rescue operation of two airboats trying to help people in the water. I figured/hoped all was well as they went back and forth to shore several times. This experience was very much a bummer to witness! Monday, Feb. 26 – High 51, low 29 I had a light go off on one of my tip-ups at 5:30; the fight was awesome and was I ever surprised when I caught a beautiful rainbow trout. I went back to the shack. It was still dark and I figured I might as well jig. I was working a Buckshot jigging spoon and it got smacked really hard. The fight was on and it was a challenge. Lo and behold, I caught a 29-inch walleye.

An hour later, it is light out and my daughter Selina calls me from Missoula, Mont., and I get a flag where I caught the trout. I put Selina on speakerphone and it is “fight on,” as I was spooled in no time. I talked Selina through the whole experience and holy moly, I caught another 29-inch walleye.

By 10 a.m. I was getting nervous about last night’s experience and the expansion crack I would have to jump. I broke camp and headed back to my truck, the crack expanded, and I was scared to jump it with four sleds in tow. I made the jump, was electrified with relief, looked behind me and saw that my rope had broken and three sleds were on the other side of the crack.

Everything worked out until I went to a local sport shop and found out some really bad news. A snowmobile and a UTV and occupants went into the open water and one of the fishermen did not survive. Like I said in the beginning of this column, this one would be all over the map! Sunset

Mark Walters