Another new experience on my Nuffield scholarship! I had the
opportunity to go Ice fishing on a frozen lake. We drove out onto the lake in a
big ol four wheel drive pickup truck, (something I would not have done on my
own), but when the locals are all doing it you know it is pretty safe.
Conditions were a pretty cool minus 20 deg C, but this did not stop us. My host
Arnold, expertly maneuvered the two stoke post hole borer to drill two 30cm
holes in the ice about 1m apart.
He then erected a fishing tent over top and
put a gas burner inside to provide us with warmth.
I climbed inside with his
mate Gary and we dropped our lines in. The fishing rod was only about a foot
long (Any longer and it wouldn’t have fitted in the tent) and we fished with a
single hook and a maggot (I think gent is the polite Australian term).
Interestingly in Alberta
you are not allowed to use barbed hooks, and it is a $100 fine if you are
caught using one. Inside the fishing tent is quite bright as the light reflects
through the snow into the tent. Through the hole in the 75cm thick ice, you can
see right down to the bottom of the lake, a couple of metres below. Unfortunately
the fished must have been able to smell the Australian, ‘cause I had no luck
and came home empty handed, but keen to try it again one day
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