Ice Fishing....and the tranqility of the land

The serenity of the land here is breathtaking. as some may know I am now on a Reserve in North Western Ontario, Sandy Lake First Nation. I am able, with hindsight from the last 2 reserves to see what true hospitality is like. Of all the Reserves, I have lived on or even visited, the people of the Sandy Lake First Nation are the finest people to date. Of course I will give more info on that topic later, but today my post is about the incedible ice fishing expereience I had yesterday. Those of you who followed my old blog Adventures in the North, know I am not a novice when it comes to the art of ice fishing. However, yesterday I had the best expereince because of the people here.

We set out in the afternoon, my friend Judi who is a local her 2 aunties, Sarah and Ellen  a fellow teacher friend of mine Roberta and myself for a day of ice fishing. It was beautiful warm at -17 C and  -22C with the windchill, the overcast sky and a light wind made it warm...okay let me clarify; for th past 2 weeks I have been making the 20 minute walk to the school in temps that have been -38 C (-48C with the windchill) so beleive me when I say yesterday was warm....LOL!

Our journey came as we left the sand pit and began the 40+ km drive on the winter road to a lovely place called Lemonade Lake. The picture above is is my view as we arrived in the middle of the bay. Judi , myself and the ladies began to unload her truck for the trek out on to the lake, when another community member pulled up on his skidoo and his sleigh instructing us to load up the sleigh and climb in that he would take us out to the bay where others were fishing. I must say in this community, people take care of one another, and there is never any expectation of compensation for them doing an act of kindness, it is just their way. Of course the people here are always reciprocating anyway, doing something kind and generous as a thank you.

So we were now out on the lake and then 2 other community members got Judi's new gas auger and began to make our ice fishing holes as shown in the photo below, each of us had 3 holes made, for a total of 15 holes and 15 willow branches with our lines attached for the fish.

as we took the ice scoops, ( slotted spoon that looked like it was for deep frying) we removed the slushy ice from each hole

and then Judi began to attach the hooks and minnows to the lines to attach then to the willow branches.

The point of the willow branch is that they bend easily, so we can see when the fish is at the line and we can go from one line to the next and simply pull up the line with a beautiful (hopefully) a pickerel on the line.

Here we do not like the "Jack Fish" also now as Pike to most Ontario fishermen. Its a extremely boney fish and very fishy tasting, often times they are reused a bate or to feed the dogs, as Roberta took 3 of the pike caught for Ginger.

More people arrived and as it grew colder and darker one group set a fire to give heat and light.

After 21 fish and  3 1/2 hours on the lake it was dark and we began to pack up. Once gain those with skidoos ensured that we got all our gear in the sleigh and drove the ladies back to shore. Roberta and I made the short trek to the shore as I had come with my head lamp and the movement kept my feet from feeling frozen.

Once on shore Judi began feeding everyone, cutting portions of a huge sandwich for other fishermen and passing around fig newtons and chocolate. It was wonderful, and what I enjoyed the most was that we were also so happy to just be sitting on the lake, there was very little conversation, at times as I closed my eye,s I could hear the soft howl of the wind and nothing else, you'd be surprised that there were about 30 people out there as they could not be heard.

Fishing by its nature is a patience game and one of relaxing and contemplating not the sport for high energy seekers, and that is fine by me, give me a willow stick, a length of line, a hook and a hole in the ice and I am in Nirvana.  All made more enjoyable by the giving nature of the people of Sandy Lake.