March 16, 2023 at 12:53 p.m.
The Lake Where You Live
Is this the end?
By Ted Rulseh-
I remember yesterday evening, trudging home from fishing over my favorite crib, tired to the bone. The foot of heavy snow wanted to trap my boots at each step. The electric auger with its leaden battery weighed down my right arm. My left hand carried the empty cooler that doubles as a chair, and a tote bag with six jigging rods, five shorn of their tungsten jigs, which I snagged on and lost to the brush and logs below the holes I drilled in the ice.
As I drilled, the auger bit went down, and down, and down, to a depth of almost 30 inches. On withdrawing the auger I had to use the skimmer to swat away the mound of snow and ice shavings around each hole, then dip out pounds of slush. I drilled several holes before finding one with no snags beneath it.
The fish bit on the fluorescent green jigs tipped with waxworms, but not as vigorously as earlier in the season. Those in the know tell me that toward March the fish migrate to water shallower than the 17 feet I had been working since December.
I started fishing at about 4:30. I caught and released several bluegills and rock bass and, around 5:30, one nice crappie. Then the bite ended. The snow, oppressive as I walked out to my spot, was more so on the return trip. I took slow steps, stumbling now and then, covering the roughly 200 yards back to our lakefront. Then I had to navigate the 63 steps from which I had laboriously shoveled heaps of crusted snow the day before.
I took them in three shifts, with long pauses for rest and breath. Now there's seven or eight more inches of snow on the lake, the wet and heavy kind. Maybe winter fishing has reached the point where the reward no longer justifies the effort. It's time to put the ice gear away and start to think of spring, still a long way off, but out there somewhere.
On Thursday, March 23 at 6:30 p.m, I'll be part of a special event at the North Lakeland Discovery Center. During an evening in their Natural Pages program, Minnesota author Paul Radomski and I will talk about our latest books.
Paul's is "Walleye: A Beautiful Fish of the Dark" (University of Minnesota Press), about the life cycle and characteristics of walleyes, and the challenges of sustaining and building healthy populations of these prized fish. I have read it and recommend it highly.
My book is "Ripple Effects: How We're Loving Our Lakes to Death" (The University of Wisconsin Press), about our northern lakes, the growing stresses they face, and what we can do to protect them. The center asks that you pre-register on their website (discoverycenter.net).
I hope to see you there.
Ted Rulseh is a writer, author and lake advocate who lives on Birch Lake in Oneida County. His new book, "Ripple Effects," has been released by UW Press. You can learn about it by visiting his website at https://thelakeguy.net.
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