There is never a shortage of lies…er I mean fishing information at the Debating Table in the Bakery in Rainy River. Even the restricted attendance due to the pandemic cannot restrict the free flow of information on this vital topic. With ice-out nearly upon us a review of the winter season on the river and lake is mandatory at this time of year to get the records in order for next year.
Personally, I have not done a lot of ice fishing… it simply takes too much effort to get a big enough hole in the ice to get the boat launched. But I digress.
Petr Pyechuk, sporting his full winter beard and flowing curly white locks was holding forth on this past (at least we hope its past) winter’s activity on the ice.
“My buddy was adamant about fishing in comfort this past winter so he super insulated his hut and
installed a gas heater complete with a couple of 100 lb propane tanks. Wanted that shack warm! No cold fishing for him,” emphasized Petr as he stroked his luxuriant beard.
‘Boy that’s a lot of effort and expense just to do a little ice fishing. How much per fish do you figure it cost him,” I wondered aloud as I mentally tried to calculate his expenses.
“Oh no, it didn’t cost him anything per fish because he only went fishing twice and didn’t catch anything either time,” explained Petr, but there was always a warm shack for us to stop at when we were out for a walk. We sure appreciated his thoughtfulness,” Petr explained as he held out his cup for his 5th refill.
Of course all that heat in the shack did cause a bit of a problem. Melted the runners right down into the ice and then when the propane ran out and the water came up onto the ice with all this snow she froze things down real tight. Caused him a sight of exercise when he went to pull the shack off the river last week,” said Petr shaking his mane at the effort expended.
“Bud chopped and gouged for two full days and still never broke ‘er loose. I finally had to go give him a hand and show him how a real pro did it,” he added with a modicum of modesty.
“So what did you use? One of them special chain saws Pickle has in his junk…er, I mean antique
collection,” I asked trying to accurately record this adventure for all those wannabe ice fishing experts.
“Nope! No need. I just cracked open the hose connection on that propane tank, closed the door tight, stood back and triggered the remote starter on that heater. Made quite a bang but lifted that hut a good 15 ft straight up,” Petr said detailing the operation.
“Geez that sounds dangerous! It’s a wonder you didn’t get hurt, let alone wreck something,” I said
amazed there wasn’t a tragedy.”
Well there was a bit of shrapnel, and the hut is completely disassembled ready for summer storage. We still haven’t found the propane cylinder and the smashed hood on my snow machine…. maybe I’ll just make a vandalism claim on my insurance.
Makes you wonder what hijinx are coming up after ice-out and serious open water fishing gets underway.
