SPORTS
East Oregonian
A11
Tuesday, February 8, 2022
Ice fi shing cures the winter doldrums
DENNIS
DAUBLE
THE NATURAL WORLD
T
hirty minutes on the
ice and my rod tip has
not twitched once. I
have jigged every which way I
know how and never once felt
tension. I dropped my off ering
until line went slack, reeled up
two cranks, and pretended I
did not care. Two lure swaps
have also not led to action. I
haven’t given up though. A
school of hungry yellow perch
should be close by.
A short toss of a corn-
hole bag away, Scott sits in
a canvas chair and stares
at a tiny Thill slip bobber
as if doing so will provide
answers to the meaning of
life. Three fat perch fl op
beside his gear bag, indicat-
ing a patient approach can
pay off .
Scott wasted little time
putting a 1/8-ounce Triple
Teaser in the strike zone, that
magic “within one foot of the
Dennis Dauble/Contributed Photo
bottom” layer where yellow
perch are said to reside. They Scott Abernethy demonstrates how a two-hook rig under a slip bobber can lead to a double.
reside there because water
perch each.”
has a unique property of
to fi sh and what they were
farm country. Our route took
Ken: “Yeah, but they’re
being most dense at approx-
using.”
us past orchard workers trim-
Midwesterners that don’t
imately 38 degrees Fahren-
Thus began the typical
ming apple trees, covered
know any better. Bobber fi sh- slow dance that often occurs
heit, a feature that results in
haystacks, circle irrigation
ing when it’s nice out is bad
conditions being warmest at
between two busy retir-
pivots and steel-sided ware-
the bottom of iced-over lakes. enough. Standing on ice and
ees. What day? When and
houses the size of a foot-
With area streams closed
freezing your butt waiting for where to meet? The fi ve-
ball fi eld. A quick review of
to steelhead fi shing, seasonal a bobber to sink is not that
day weather report showed
Google Maps led to a county
aff ective disorder hit me hard intriguing.”
warming to 36 degrees F
road south of Royal City and
this year. Hoping to bust out
Rejection often leads to
and no wind at mid-week.
basalt outcrops fl anked with
of my funk, I checked in
introspection. In this case I
A 9 a.m. start time would
big sage and rabbitbrush.
with a fl ycaster friend a week decided someone having a
ensure roads were free of
Flocks of geese honked
prior. Conversation went
Great Lakes heritage would
ice and not lead to circadian
noisily as they circled over a
something like this:
more likely embrace the idea misalignment.
series of cattail-lined ponds.
Call tired
for of looking
an appointment
to avoid waiting!
All drive-
FREE!
Me: “I’m
of ice fi shing now
than someone
Scott rolled It’s
into the
Crossing over railroad tracks
out the window and waiting
who favored dragging Wooly way while I laced up my
onto an ice-glazed gravel
Otoscope 1,200-gram
Ear Inspection*
for snow to melt. Are you up
Buggers behind FREE
his fl Video
oat tube
insulated Bliz-
road, we reached 171-acre
This show-all Picture of your ear canal is displayed on a color monitor,
for an ice fi shing adventure?” on a warm spring
day.
As
if
zard
Stalkers.
Gear
checked
Red
so you’ll see exactly what we see to determine if you could be helped by a hearing
aid. Rock Lake before noon.
Ken: “As much as I’d like
to affi rm my supposition, a
and loaded, we skirted the
The quarter-mile trek
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an outing, I’m not much of a
friend from Michigan
shared
perimeter
of
the
Hanford
from
the parking area
This Audiometric evaluation will precisely show you what you’ve been missing and if you
fan. Is the ice even stable?”
a hot tip. “A source
under leaden
involved frozen chunks of
can be reported
helped by a hearing Reservation
aid.
Me: “Mullie and Doober catching 100 perch a day at
skies, crossed the mighty
slush over 8 inches of clear
FREE Package of Hearing Aid Batteries
were on the ice two days
Red Rock Lake,”
he
said.
Columbia
River
and
contin-
Two folding chairs, gear
If you now wear a hearing aid, you will receive one FREE package of Hearing Aid ice.
Batteries.
ago. They caught a dozen
“I have good info
wide-open
bags and a hand-power ice
If we on
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Dennis Dauble/Contributed Photo
Extra gear can easily be strapped onto a vintage sled. Unless
it’s subfreezing and the wind howls from the north. In which
case you might wish for a larger sled to carry a tent and pro-
pane heater.
auger strapped to a circa
1950 Flexible Flyer steel
runner sled scraped along.
Shouts of glee from anglers
sheltered inside a blue nylon
tent provided incentive to set
up station next to a fl ock of
freshly augered holes.
Ice fi shing gear is scaled
down in size. I paid $25 for
a 42-inch-long, light-ac-
tion “Ugly Stick” spin-
ning rod and open-face
reel loaded with 50 yards
of monofi lament line. For
comparison, a friend from
Minnesota dropped a C-note
on a 36-inch ice rod and free-
fall inline reel. His purchase
seemed extravagant, but
then again, I own a 5-weight
Winston boron fl y rod with
serial numbers etched in
cursive above each ferrule.
Each to their own it seems.
Unlike most other fi sh that
frequent western waterways,
perch are active feeders all
year long. However, patience
is required to hook these soft
biters. Downsizing my termi-
nal lure to a Swedish Pimple
and attaching a worm-baited
dropper hook up the line
quickly led to a dozen perch
fl opping at my feet. Watching
one rod instead of hopping
back and forth between
two also improved hookset
percentage. The majority of
a newly populated tackle box
remained in place though,
suggesting that ice fi shing
— along with most forms of
angling — leads to purchas-
ing way too much gear.
I’ve since heard reports
of hand-size crappie and
bluegill pulled through area
ice. A friend from Minne-
sota tells of taking walleye,
holdover rainbows, and a
largemouth bass. Assuming
subfreezing temperatures
remain in eff ect, I plan to
give ice fi shing another try.
Freezing your butt off wait-
ing for a bobber to sink sure
beats looking out the dining
room window and grousing
about lost opportunity for
steelhead.
———
Dennis Dauble is the
author of “Bury Me with My
Fly Rod” and the recently
released, “Chasing Ghost
Trout.” Contact him via his
website at DennisDauble-
Books.com.
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Cross Blue Shield Association and its independent licensees
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specific providers trademarks
are used by Miracle-Ear for nominative
purposes solely
only: to truthfully identify the
Technology
source of the services about which information is provided. Such trademarks are solely the property of their respective owners. The aids must be returned within 30 days of delivery pursuant to terms of your purchase agreement and 100% of the purchase will be refunded.
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