My opinions on all this stuff have changed and matured over the last thirty years or so and I now know what works for me and I don’t worry about the cold too much anymore. This isn’t to say the danger posed by hypothermia and frostbite aren’t real though.
Read more "Just the Basics: Winter Warmth"Now, in mid-February we have, if anything, an over-abundance of both ice and snow. This is as it should be.
Read more "Great Big Winter"Winter is certainly here now in western Pennsylvania, though the season took a long time making up its mind this year. We ice fishermen are still waiting (most of us, at least). The woods has taken on the stillness and quiet that accompanies shorter days and long and frigid nights. The forest takes […]
Read more "Signs of Life"I took my snow boot liners out for washing and the boots themselves went in the shower. The sled’s about to be locked away in the basement. This week the tip-ups and jig lines will be worked over in preparation for next season. All in all, I’m just saying that the ice fishing season has […]
Read more "Reflections on Ice"I stumbled downhill through the persistent snow that still blanketed the forest floor here on the lake’s south slope. It wasn’t really easy to get the big sled down here without a trail but that’s what keeps this spot mine alone all winter long. I had little light left and I would reach […]
Read more "Serenity Now"I don’t think animals worry a lot. Even when there’s snow covering the green grass in April, the birds are moving right ahead with nesting and the groundhogs just wait for some afternoon sun to dispel the chill. The animals simply move ahead with life, providing for their own needs and starting a 2018 generation […]
Read more "A Farewell to Winter"When I was a little kid in Newfoundland, Canada, I followed dad on the adventures he thought we should go on – adventures to far off places and strange country that I now know were neither far off nor all that strange. We went up and down streams for mud trout, drove down to […]
Read more "Longing for Ice"I’ve been fishing the creek that flows within sight of my back window nearly every morning lately. It just puts me in a good frame of mind to carry with me through the rest of the day, a way of thinking that keeps my focus on the natural and elemental. And I wonder sometimes about […]
Read more "A Good Winter on the Creek"
the dying fish 