An Outdoorsman’s Journal: 4 days on the frozen waters of Lake Superior

Hello friends, Whowouldhavethoughtthatadaythatwouldreach80degreesinNecedahwouldseemyself and three good friends, Rick Miotke, Jeff Moll, and his son Nate, heading out onto the ice for a couple of miles and four days of winter camping at Ashland on Lake Superior.

On this same day, a UTV would go through the ice due to the current and warm weather.

Friday, March 14 — High 56, low 29 Two round trips by two ATVs pulling multiple sleds and people ensured that our gang of four was ready to start building our camp, which would consist of three Eskimo ice shacks and a whole lot of gear. For myself this is my favorite “ice escape” of the year, and that is because whether it is on a jig pole or a tip-up, you never know what you are going to catch until you see it. On this trip we would catch smelt, coho salmon, brown trout, northern pike, perch, burbot, splake, and have a $5 per big fish bet on each, so as you can imagine, there was a lot of competition. Today was all about travel, getting our gear out a couple of miles, setting up camp, fishing, and having fun. I cannot remember the exact facts, but at night’s end we had a couple of perch and a coho. Someone, late in the evening, may have sabotaged the length of one of the perch. Very late in the evening when it was just the Jeff and Mark show, I had a heck of a good fight with what would be a 23.5-inch walleye that had a Floy tag attached to it, which is used to study fish populations and angler catch.

Saturday, March 15 — High 49, low 26 Today there would be a major windstorm that wreaked havoc on our camp and made it so that almost constant thought was required to keep our shacks from blowing away. Our gang of four had a blast and caught some beautiful fish, including a couple of perch just under 13 inches in length, several burbot, smelt, one northern pike, a splake, brown trout, and one heck of a lot of laughing. We eat great meals. Last night Nate made steak; tonight Rick made wild rice soup. About 10ish I caught a 22.5-inch walleye. About 3 a.m., I caught a 26-inch walleye that propelled the “Elder Moll” and myself to fish until 4:30 a.m. Sunday, March 16 — High 28, low 19 We have witnessed spring and now winter on this trip. The winter part is a good thing because though there is a good 24 inches of ice, it was getting a bit on the weak side. Today would be a day of coho on the rather small side but very tasty, with more getting away than we would catch. The“Elder Moll”was on a rather“cold streak,” as in not catching much, but today that would turn around, as he caught a 21-inch splake and what would beat the winning coho. Rick had big burbot, Nate had big gator, and I would take big perch, walleye, and brown trout.

A trip like this is a constant test, as in not falling on the ice or through it, fatigue is huge, and how to adjust to actually catch what you are after. And then, of course, there is the weather.

We had so much fun that we are going to keep doing it until we are too old to do it.

And with that I would have to say, I think my winter sports are about over until next fall.

Sunset

Mark Walters