ICE SAFETY CHART

Matthew Pauley / Jerry Pauley
Target: Lake Trout and Whitefish
in the Innisfil area

Mike Heyink
GO HERE FOR MAP

 "Help one, help all"

Ice Fishing Secret Tip You Might Know, and Yet, Maybe Not! 
 A Great Story For you anyway

"OLD BILL"
by Mark Daul

Some years back I learned a little thing from an old timer who loved his ice fishing and never shared many of his secret tactics with anyone. This one he shared with me. He was always the most successful fisherman in any ice fishing community. Lets just call him "Old Bill". 

One day some guys were talking in my tackle shop about their recent weekend outing at a local hot spot and they were complaining about how slow the fishing was that weekend. Old Bill was listening to them from a short distance over. After these weekend fishermen left, Old Bill told me he was there in the same spot fishing and he had a really terrific morning fishing, and in fact had left after only a few hours because he had plenty of fish. He told me the same group of fishermen were there when he was, and were still fishing after he left. 

Everyone was fishing open air including Old Bill ~ [no huts etc.] Old Bill told me his secret tactic after they left and I was sworn to secrecy and wasn't supposed to tell anyone, especially "those guys". Well, Old Bill is gone now, and I feel it's OK to share this story at this time. I'm sure other hard water anglers know about this, but at the same time there are just as many that don't. Those that do, probably are reluctant to tell too many others. Well, here it is. It is so simple, I don't want you to get mad at me, but I had never thought of it until Old Bill swore me to secrecy.

Old Bill always fished with his 5 gallon plastic pail that he had fixed up to look like he was carrying his fishing supplies in it and it also served as a warm cushioned seat with a wooden top.  He carried a separate minnow bucket if he was using minnows that day. Most often he used mousee grubs or spikes on small jigs.

The cushioned seat top was fastened securely and a small hinged opening cut on one side. [for perch, crappies] Through the opening he could reach in and supposedly fetch his ice jigs or other things. He didn't do that, it was only a decoy. His things were kept in his snowmobile suit pockets or strapped to the outside of his bucket within those small plastic containers. The inside of the bucket was lined with a black plastic garbage bag. The kind you can't see through.

When Old Bill would catch a fish, instead of standing up and drawing attention, he quietly removed the hook and silently slid it into his bucket. He would occasionally rotate himself with his bucket trying to keep his back to the other fishermen. With a big old heavy suit, or coat on, it was hard for anyone to see whatever activity there was around his bucket.

Whenever another fisherman came around and asked him, "how ya doin", Old Bill would say, "oh, not too good,... got a couple", or, "boy, is it slow!" And they would walk away and go back to where they were or roam around the ice asking questions like that of other fishermen.

Old Bill said that if you tell someone that you are catching fish, now they want to be your friend and fish right next to you. That involves them cutting another hole next to you, then his buddy comes over to do the same thing, then another, and another, and pretty soon there is a crowd around you and away goes all the fish!

The moral of this story is, there are lots of fish for everyone but when ice fishing, "mums the word", and all that racket on the ice sure doesn't help, especially in shallow water if you found the honey hole. The black plastic bag kept prying eyes from looking through a opaque plastic bucket especially if the sun is shining right. No water is needed mostly because it is so cold, the fish freeze, therefore staying nice and fresh until you get home.

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