Icebox temps no problem for fishermen
MUDDYCREEK TWP — There's something fishy about Lake Arthur.
Instead of an empty and vast, white expanse awaiting the return of spring, tiny huts containing year-round lovers of the outdoors can be seen dotting the 3,225-acre lake after a prolonged cold snap.
Several huts, or “shanties” were set up on the lake near the Route 528 boat launch on Saturday.
One included a bubbling livebait tank, heater and ice-fishing rods belonging to Renfrew native Dennis Brownley.
Brownley fished on Saturday with his niece, Shelley Zoelle of Forward Township, and her friend, first-timer Heather Ishenbaugh of Forward Township.
The layered-up trio fished two holes in the floor of the shanty and four holes outside as steady snow fell in 16-degree temperatures.
“It's being out here,” Brownley said of his 50-year hobby. “Look at this. It's beautiful”
He explained that each fisherman is allowed to use five fishing devices at a time and no more than two devices per person in each hole, which can be no wider than 10 inches.
Fishermen can catch up to 50 panfish a day of any size, but the small fish are normally thrown back because the amount of meat does not make cleaning the fish worthwhile.
Most anglers nowadays have shanties like Brownley's, which can be set up or torn down in two minutes.
“It used to be you'd come out here and see a bunch of guys sitting on five gallon buckets,” Brownley said.
The fishermen drill holes in the thick ice where they think the fish are abundant, which on Saturday was almost on the other side of the lake from the parking lot.
Brownley watched the bobbers on the two short poles inside his shanty as well as the two “tip-ups” outside.The latter is a line suspended over a hole with a flag that pops up if a fish takes the bait.“Ooh! Got one!” Brownley exclaimed as he hurried to the hole with the tiny waving flag.The seasoned year-round fisherman pulled up a 16-inch large-mouth bass, which he marveled at briefly before dropping it back through the hole and into the frigid water.“They're terrible eating,” Brownley said.He prefers panfish, which was evidenced by several crappie laying in the snow near the shanty.Brownley also ice fishes for crappie overnight by shoveling a row of snow, drilling holes at either end and placing lanterns near the holes to attract feeder fish.“In 15-20 minutes you'll start catching crappies,” he said.Zoelle said her Uncle Denny and grandfather, William Brownley, taught her how to fish in both warm and cold weather when she was a very young child.“It's fun, and something people don't do anymore,” said Zoelle, a trained opera singer who teaches music in the Mars School District. “And I'm all about family tradition.”
Zoelle used a short fishing pole, known as a jigging rod, made for her by Brownley many years ago.The rod's handle is a mallard duck and is known in the family as “The Green Hornet” in honor of Zoelle's favorite movie, “Grumpy Old Men.” Walter Matthau's character in that movie was an avid ice fisherman and named his jigging rod The Green Hornet.As she scooped small ice chunks from her fishing hole, Zoelle explained that a live minnow is attached to the line several inches above a meal worm at the end. The minnow swims and moves the worm at the end of the line, which entices the fish to bite.Once a bobber moves, a yank of the line sets the hook in the fish's mouth and it can then be pulled out of the hole.Ishenbaugh thoroughly enjoyed her first foray into ice fishing.“It's amazing,” she said. “I couldn't believe I was going to walk on a lake where I fished from a boat in the summer.”Zoelle said while many may scratch their head at the thought of spending a freezing cold day on a frozen lake, she said the world might be better off if more people do.“Get away from the TV and do something fun,” she said. “I'd rather live life than watch other people live on a screen.”
