Dateline, Alexandria, MN

[Dub]

This piece appeared in today’s Cedar Rapids Gazette. It’s rare that “Alec” gets mentioned on our local paper (commonly known as “The Gadget” or “The 5th Street Rag”).


www.thegazette.com/sports/finding-success-and-fish-on-the-ice/?ml_sub=2395084525173478848&ml_sub_hash=b6d4&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the_gazette_daily_news_sports_opinion&utm_term=2024-01-18

[TKennedy]

I never got ice fishing. I didn’t have much free time when I was working and sitting in a fish house seemed like a pretty unproductive way to spend it. I’m an outlier though. It’s a big deal around here. Our lake which used to be solid enough for the kids to skate on thanksgiving was still open at Christmas this year. I think that’s a first.

Dub I think the first time we met was at Bill’s Rosejam and I did the ice fishing song.

[billhammond]

Jan 18, 2024 16:13:04 GMT -5 TKennedy said:

I never got ice fishing.

By the time you cut the hole in the ice big enough for your boat, you're too tired to fish!


(Old Ole & Lena joke)

[Dub]

I’ve never been nerested in ice fishing. For one thing, I’ve heard that ice is cold.

I haven’t fished at all in 25 years or so. My RA makes casting awkward and painful. I used to love warm weather fishing though. I’d make my own rods and lures, study the maps of lake bottoms and the whole thing.

Still, the best part was slowly boating around a beautiful lake or stream.

[Dub]

Jan 18, 2024 16:13:04 GMT -5 TKennedy said:

Dub I think the first time we met was at Bill’s Rosejam and I did the ice fishing song.

Boy, what year was that? Those were fun times.

[TKennedy]

Remember the song? One of my old bands The Barking Frogs. Rough live recording.

[Marty]

I've said it before. The guy that invented Ice Fishing as a recreational past time must have had some serious marital problems.

There was a bar on White Bear Lake that used to put a wrecked car out on the ice every Winter and take bets on the date it would drop in the lake. 

[Dub]

Jan 18, 2024 18:52:05 GMT -5 TKennedy said:

Remember the song? One of my old bands The Barking Frogs. Rough live recording.

Yes, I remember the song. I just can't remember the RoseJam date.

[paleo]

Little Falls, MN used to put a car on the frozen Mississippi river, just above the Dam. I believe it was a fund raiser for something.

[howard lee]

Twenty-six years ago, I dated a woman from Minneapolis (and this was after my first marriage to another Minnesotan tanked—don't ask) who was erudite and well-educated, and worked as a writer and editor here in New York. I agreed to accompany her on a visit to Minneapolis around the winter holidays, and met her family. She had a younger brother who was the total opposite of her; outdoorsy, sportif, trucker-cap-wearing, beer-drinking kind of guy. He was congenial and outgoing. He insisted on bringing us along to his ice-fishing camp on some lake or other.

I was amazed at the scene that unfolded before me as we drove up: there were huts of all types arranged all over the ice. It looked like an upscale Hooverville. His was like a little cabin. It boasted a generator, heater, refrigerator stocked with cans of beer and snacks, comfortable seating, a rug, a window, and a hole in the ice through which he dropped his fishing lines. Since I grew up in the city here, I had never been in a place like this. We didn't catch any fish that morning.

That was the last time I went ice fishing. Eventually, when it became clear that she wanted me to clear out my meager post-divorce savings account to travel with her on some hare-brained junket to Madagascar, we parted company.

[drlj]

A trip to Madagascar might have done wonders for you.

[howard lee]

Jan 19, 2024 7:48:01 GMT -5 drlj said:

A trip to Madagascar might have done wonders for you.

Perhaps. It was 1997. I had $4K in savings. The trip was projected to cost $5K. I was also paying $1100 a month in child support, plus apartment maintenance in a co-op, utilities, food, occasional new clothing. It just wasn't going to happen.

I guess I could have bagged some rosewood. That would have made it worthwhile, eh? 😁

[dradtke]

Jan 19, 2024 7:39:13 GMT -5 howard lee said:

 We didn't catch any fish that morning.

Catching fish is beside the point.

[dradtke]

So, Sven an Ole sign up as a team against the Norvegians in the local ice fishing contest. They're not having any luck, but down the lake they can see that the Norvegians are catching a whole lotta fish. So Sven, he decides to sneak along the shore and spy on them to see what they're doing. After a while he comes back and says, he says, "Ole," he says, "dey cut holes in de ice!"

[epaul]

When I was a young buck up on the farm, most my fellow young bucks were either farmers or worked in construction and other seasonal jobs. Seasonal is the key to what follows. Summers were filled with long hours of work. Winters were not. Winter was the quiet time. Making winter the perfect time for extended play. Snowmobiles, ice-fishing, hunting, cards, beer.

I just watched a segment on NPR concerning mental health issues related to a lack of having male to male friendships and get togethers. And the efforts some were making to re-establish activates and outings for men that would offer the opportunity for men to get together with other men and talk man stuff. (Robert Bly was way ahead of the game on this one)

Well, if male friendships and get togethers are important for the male psyche, spending six hours or so in an ice house with a group of your fellow men drinking beer, eating beans, and playing cards will get it done (also it will clear out your sinuses like nothing else).

[coachdoc]

Jan 19, 2024 10:38:22 GMT -5 dradtke said:

Jan 19, 2024 7:39:13 GMT -5 howard lee said:

 We didn't catch any fish that morning.

Catching fish is beside the point.

It is true. When I lived on the Warner River I would fish without a hoop on the line. It was too bucolic to do anything beyond stand there on the bank and appreciate.