It was a Friday in my sophomore year of high school I watched in
amazement as the Eskimos ice fished on tv. I could do that, I thought to
myself! I call my best friend Ben and told him that we were great fisherman and
how hard could this possible be? We made plans to meet at my house at dawn the
next morning.
7:30 Ben shows up gear in hand. I grab mine; we mount our trusty ten speeds, and start up the frozen street. It was pretty freaking cold but we did not notice. We were filled with adrenaline and excitement about our new angling experience. As we traveled and faces got chapped we talked about our indoor soccer team, breasts, fishing, boobs, an upcoming party and back to women.
Mill pond my first true spot that belong to just me, well it had to. I could not drive and the mud hole was the only body of water in the neighborhood. We got there and I was already cold, but there was NO WAY I was going to say anything. At 15 you never blink first! Ben asks me “how do we make the hole?” Since I did not see the beginning of the show I guess on how I thought this must be done. “Dude I brought tools” The way I figured it I saw a guy sculpting ice with a chisel. Soooo that how we must do it! I pulled out a hammer and my dads brand new chisel.
WACK, SMACK, and BOOM!!! So it went and went and went on. About an hour in and on my turn to chisel Ben is getting his pole out. I say “dude you have to take off the top halve of your rod.” He asks me why and I say “not sure man I just know they have to be short.” With each slam of John Henry’s hammer water and ice splashed us in our faces and all over our ill-outfitted bodies. At the 2 hour mark we broke through! Unfortunately our hole was only 2 inches wide.
By now I am freaking freezing and I cannot feeling my face, hands, or feet. We are fishing though! Hell we just worked our pubescent asses off. So we bait up both our now stunted zebco 202’s. We put on bread. Yes, bread. I forgot to mention that mill pond was a dingy carp pond!
So here are these two poor son of as guns are covered in frozen water and ice, fishing with two zebco 202s that are missing the top halves, two lines, two bobbers, and two big balls of bread fishing for carp. The species least ice fished for. Could you only imagine if we would have hooked one?
So finally I tell my friend I am wicked cold. He agrees that he is dying as well. We admit defeat and start home. Mill pond was about 2 miles from home and to add insult to injury, about half way we realize that we are not going to make it!!!! I HAVE NEVER EVER BEEN THAT COLD. We were smart enough to know we were in trouble and stopped at a friend’s house. Her mom welcomed us with open arms got us dried off, called our folks, slowly warmed our hands, and got us some hot chocolate and food.
It was truly lucky we did not get frost bite that day. When we got older and became skilled ice anglers every time we went one of us would say something in reference to that fated day. Ben even added the cliff notes version of the story during his speech at my wedding.
With hard water coming up I wanted everyone to have a chuckle and look forward to a great season. Stay Safe.
PondBoy
7:30 Ben shows up gear in hand. I grab mine; we mount our trusty ten speeds, and start up the frozen street. It was pretty freaking cold but we did not notice. We were filled with adrenaline and excitement about our new angling experience. As we traveled and faces got chapped we talked about our indoor soccer team, breasts, fishing, boobs, an upcoming party and back to women.
Mill pond my first true spot that belong to just me, well it had to. I could not drive and the mud hole was the only body of water in the neighborhood. We got there and I was already cold, but there was NO WAY I was going to say anything. At 15 you never blink first! Ben asks me “how do we make the hole?” Since I did not see the beginning of the show I guess on how I thought this must be done. “Dude I brought tools” The way I figured it I saw a guy sculpting ice with a chisel. Soooo that how we must do it! I pulled out a hammer and my dads brand new chisel.
WACK, SMACK, and BOOM!!! So it went and went and went on. About an hour in and on my turn to chisel Ben is getting his pole out. I say “dude you have to take off the top halve of your rod.” He asks me why and I say “not sure man I just know they have to be short.” With each slam of John Henry’s hammer water and ice splashed us in our faces and all over our ill-outfitted bodies. At the 2 hour mark we broke through! Unfortunately our hole was only 2 inches wide.
By now I am freaking freezing and I cannot feeling my face, hands, or feet. We are fishing though! Hell we just worked our pubescent asses off. So we bait up both our now stunted zebco 202’s. We put on bread. Yes, bread. I forgot to mention that mill pond was a dingy carp pond!
So here are these two poor son of as guns are covered in frozen water and ice, fishing with two zebco 202s that are missing the top halves, two lines, two bobbers, and two big balls of bread fishing for carp. The species least ice fished for. Could you only imagine if we would have hooked one?
So finally I tell my friend I am wicked cold. He agrees that he is dying as well. We admit defeat and start home. Mill pond was about 2 miles from home and to add insult to injury, about half way we realize that we are not going to make it!!!! I HAVE NEVER EVER BEEN THAT COLD. We were smart enough to know we were in trouble and stopped at a friend’s house. Her mom welcomed us with open arms got us dried off, called our folks, slowly warmed our hands, and got us some hot chocolate and food.
It was truly lucky we did not get frost bite that day. When we got older and became skilled ice anglers every time we went one of us would say something in reference to that fated day. Ben even added the cliff notes version of the story during his speech at my wedding.
With hard water coming up I wanted everyone to have a chuckle and look forward to a great season. Stay Safe.
PondBoy
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