by Naomi Elkins

Saturday, February 5, was a nice, mild day, with temperatures reaching the low 50’s in the Philly area, so naturally I had my doubts about going on my first-time-ever ice fishing outing. I thought the warm air would melt a lot of ice and make it too thin to stand on. Well, I was wrong! First, it was around 36 degrees way up in Netcong where we would be fishing, and second the ice was about a foot thick because of all the cold days we’ve had the past three weeks. And also I learned, ice doesn’t melt that fast when it’s covered with snow because it helps insulate the ice against warm temperatures.

We arrived at Lake Musconetcong early that afternoon and the walk out to the area was scary enough. There were slushy spots on the ice where your foot would break through and a "pocket" of water was under the surface. Luckily, the slush holes were shallow, and I had on waterproof insulated boots and wool socks with liners. Everyone who went was bundled up real well and no one was cold.

When we got out to the place in the lake, Keith told everyone about ice fishing, and what to do if you fall in. He said not to panic, but catch your breath, relax, and crawl out from the same direction where you fell in because the ice where you just walked would be more likely to support your weight. He also said that it was better to crawl a ways from where you fell in rather than stand up and walk because crawling distributes your weight across the ice which makes it less likely that it will break again.

Keith and Len, who was Keith’s assistant, both brought ice augers. The augers looked like giant drill bits with a small engine and handles on the non-pointy end. It sounds like a lawn mover and makes nice holes that are 8" in diameter. It appears to be heavy and cumbersome to carry out on the ice and you probably need some strength to hold the handles while drilling. My shoulder was injured so I didn’t try to use one.

We used short rods, about 18" long, with tiny lures called fairy jigs. They have little metal things on them that flutter like fairy wings and attract fish. For bait we used these fly larvae things called "mousies". They’re slightly squishy and hard to put on the hook. It looks pretty gross, but it catches fish! Keith’s other assistant, Jay, had another type of larvae called wax worms for bait. He caught a bunch of fish with them.