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January 22, 2012

REDNECK QUAKER: Company important part of ice fishing

Kenny Bayless The Tribune-Star

My wife assigned me to find a long lake for her masters swim team to practice, even though it is below freezing and everything is covered in ice. It’s hard to think about swimming at this time of year, unless you’re a polar bear. So I shocked my memories with a strong cop of coffee and thought about a beautiful lake Seth and I camped on during a turkey banquet last year.

I value good, honest friendship more than gold and let me tell you if you ever meet Danny Helton, you will be a wealthy person. He stands like a big oak tree never moving in the wind and his word is rock solid with a heaving heart of gold. I came to know Danny last year from a summer time turkey get-together for the kids. Danny and family were gracious enough to let this local turkey chapter use their camping facilities on their lake, which is a beautiful place, and all the kids loved it.

OK, back to my mission the master of the universe sent me on — yes, my wife! Danny made my life easier when he grinned and said well sure they can swim in the lake.

By road and my truck’s odometer, the lake is well over .6 of a mile long and perfect for the masters to do a mile without stopping.

I know I’m getting off track here, ‘cause I’m supposed to be talking about ice fishing. When we pulled into the camp area and the lake went about as far as you could see, my wife was very excited and let me tell you that don’t happen very often.

We hadn’t gotten a fourth of the way down the lake when I spotted two guys kicked back in chairs with little short fishing poles and holes in the ice everywhere. So I told my wife to go on ahead and walk the lake while I talk to these good boys, and if the ice should happen to break and she falls in, she can start swim practice early.

She didn’t smile!

These guys were having the time of their lives just sitting there. Jeff Long was proud of being Danny’s friend since 1962 with true friendship stories of the past. Jeff is retired so he logs a lot of time hunting and fishing with his wife. They were fishing in about 12 feet of water and it’s amazing fish under snow-covered ice can tell the time of day for these guys said the best bites were early morning and late evening. Bee moths are their choice of bait for most species.

One big factor in a good day of fishing is the company you keep, they both said with a smile. “Shoot,” a bad day of fishing is still better than a good day at work! Jeff said it was unusual that Danny wasn’t with them because his favorite thing was being on the ice.

Jesse Moore moved to Terre Haute from Gary, Mich., and the past five years he’s loved to hunt the big white tails because the deer where he came from are so little.

Jesse tells me Gary, Mich., is in the Upper Peninsula area or the “U.P.” and there is a town called Tip Up Town from all the ice-fishing competitions. Tip up is an ice-fishing rig that is spring loaded and when a fish bites, it sets the hook on its own, so those hardcore fishermen can take a nap or not have to set their coffee down to set the hook! They catch a lot of Walleye, Northern Pike and Perch through the ice up there.

Jesse is fishing a foot off the bottom and says you may have to experiment a little because sometimes they are suspended in different areas. He said it was odd that when a train goes through, which is less than a quarter mile away, the fish stop biting for at least a half-hour. It must have something to do with vibration.

Jesse caught a little bluegill with Jeff making fun of it, then he caught a 15-inch crappie. Well, Jesse changed his attitude and said old buddy would you share your fishing hole:

I asked Jeff if Danny had ever laid block or brick and with a smile he asked what makes you ask, for “Yes,” he has laid masonry a lot. So I told him when we arrived I had to use the outhouse and was admiring how well it was built from brick.

Ha, that’s a redneck thing — admiring an outhouse!

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