At the Big One, whilst looking around all the stalls and stands we came across one manned by Diana and Steve Crook all about ice fishing, Hurf and myself stopped and had a long chat with them both and it was fascinating stuff, talking to them, they both obviously have a huge passion for this style of fishing and certainly know their stuff. I asked if they’d fancy doing a guest post for the blog and true to their word, here it is. If you’d like to find out more, their contact details are at the bottom and I’m sure they’d love to hear from you.
Ice- Fishing, why it’s so cool!!
If you think we have just had a hard, cold winter the you might want to try fishing in -40c and sometimes -50c (with a wind chill)! We are Diana and Steve Crook from Surrey and every winter since 2005 we have travelled to Manitoba, Canada for some serious ice-fishing!
We mainly fish for northern pike but also have a go for walleye and lake trout, fishing on the frozen Red River and its creeks and the many lakes that are present in Manitoba, so many in fact that even living in the province you would not be able to fish all the water in a life time!!
To reach the many fishing locations you have to drive on the Ice. Special care has to be taken as breaking through the ice is not an option!
Ice should be a minimum 15″ thick before driving on, take a long rope, shovel, mobile phone, full tank of fuel and tell someone where you are going and never drive on the ice on your own! Windows down and no seat-belts when on the ice.
The ice can sometimes be up to 4′ thick so drilling with an auger is strongly advised as you don’t want to take all day to drill the holes! We use an Eskimo 51cc auger with a 10″ blade, big enough for the pike. After drilling the holes, the water will start freezing again very quickly so we use ‘Tip-Ups’ for our fishing instead of the traditional ice-rods as Tip-Ups’ are designed to work under the ice. Please visit our web site www.esoxonice.co.uk where all will be explained.
It’s not just the fishing that attracts us to Canada but the vast amount of unfished water the open spaces, wildlife and of course the winter weather which on some days can be a total white out or glorious sunshine with sun rises called a ‘sun-dog’.
Sun dog at Maria Creek, reflection of the sun through ice crystals.
We must also add that the Canadian people are probably the friendliest people you will ever meet.
So, if you can brave the cold, fancy fishing in the true ‘wild’ to catch uncaught fish then you might just want to give it a go, the rewards are just superb!
Please have a look at our web site www.esoxonice.co.uk where everything is explained about this very ‘cold’ method of fishing. We also do talks complete with a tackle display and slide show for clubs.
*All images courtesy of Diana and Steve Crook
