Standing On A Frozen Lake, Looking Through A Hole In The Ice

Let me preface this article by stating that I love to fish. There is nothing on this earth like standing up to my thighs in a flowing river, trying to entice a fish to take my offering. That being said, ice fishing has never had the same effect on me.

I don't know if it's the fact that your feet get colder than that frozen burrito that’s been in the back of your freezer for the past two years or the mind numbing boredom that comes with standing in the middle of a frozen lake? Whatever it is, it's usually very little fun. The fact that I've never developed my ice fishing skills probably has something to do with it as well, but who wants to worry about such minor details?

So here I am, in the great state of Montana, with winter bearing down on me like and angry bear. That means that fishing for me is done for at least six months. It's an amazing thing, because I've never been able to have any luck river fishing in this state during the winter. When I was growing up in Pennsylvania we caught trout in the winter all the time, but here in the great white north, no such luck. I'm sure there's some great explanation for this, I've just never bothered to figure it out. At the end of the day, it's really too cold for me to want to fish in the winter anyway. I just wish the winter wasn't so freakin' long. Running a marathon has nothing on the winters in Montana.

Because the winters are so long and drawn out in this God forsaken state, I get cabin fever and invariably end up talking myself into spending the day standing on a frozen lake. Then I'm right back where I was the prior year, just like the movie 'groundhog day', standing on that frozen lake, looking through a hole in the ice. It's a sad state of affairs.