There’s a brief online article about Minnesota on the Smithsonian website! So, I thought I’d share it with all of you.
It’s 10 below, and the ice is 3 feet thick, so let’s go fishing
**Seriously. Take plenty of bait, don’t forget your bucket and stay warm. You might catch a walleye. You could even win a prize. **
In upper Minnesota, ice fishing is what a lot of people do in the wintertime. East of Brainerd on Mille Lacs Lake, the ice is burdened with more than 5,000 ice-fishing houses, some of them outfitted with all the comforts of home — carpeting, TV, bunk beds, you name it. But all you really need to catch fish is a hole in the ice, a bucket to sit on and a rod, reel and baited hook.
There are four classes of fish in Mille Lacs Lake: fish everyone eats, like walleye and perch; fish some people eat, like tullibee; fish no one admits eating, like eelpout; and fish you accuse others of eating, like carp. According to one Minnesota ice fisherman,“Carp’s considered a delicacy in Iowa and Nebraska.”
Each winter the Brainerd Jaycees sponsor an Ice Fishing Extravaganza. The first 100 anglers who catch a fish larger than eight ounces each win a bucket full of tackle.Whoever catches the hundredth-largest fish wins a new pickup.
For more information about this topic, explore the Archives of Smithsonian Magazine:
- The Battle of the Dams (November 98) - A Creek Defies the Odds (December 97) - Claws (October 97) - When the Fish Cops Reel in a Suspect, It’s Usually a Keeper (February 97)
Abstract of an article by Verlyn Klinkenborg. Originally published in the December 1996 issue of Smithsonian. All rights reserved.
