Did ya ever try to explain this sport?

[ice_shack]

I got a client down in southern FL that was telling me he wanted a conference call set up on Friday. I told him that wasn't going to happen because I was going ice fishing. I kind of thought he was strange because he had never heard of it but he thinks that I am the strange one. Now this could be somewhat true but he is having a real hard time trying to understand just what this is all about and "why in the sam hell anyone would want to even do such a thing". I tried to invite him up but he refuses to go north of Alabama cause it's to cold. (wimp)

Anybody else have these conversations with friends or family?

[Carp-fisher]

Yeah, I tried to explain my addiction to ice fishing to my girlfriend's french roommate and a room full of her french friends. I think they were mocking me for a while, but this weekend I brought over a bag full of freshly cleaned rainbow trout. Evidently they eat trout in France, so they have seemed to have quit treating me like a country bumpkin. Not like I care anyway what they think of me anyway, as I tried to explain to my girlfriend (she's Chinese), I feel sorry for them because they are french.

[Piker]

Many times. There's a few things that can be shocking to them.

1. The ones that have heard of it think of a guy sitting on a five-gallon bucket.

2. Some have asked about the boat

3. Most can't believe that we'd actually drive a pickup out there.

4. Then when you tell them you've got a huge house on wheels that you fish out of, cook food in and sleep in that usually really throws them off.

"Hey, get in here. OK, tell him what you just told me. He goes ice fishing."

[korn_fish]

good call on not having a conference call. Could have done that from your fishhouse though When that late afternoon conference call was scheduled, I just told people that I would be out of the office and I would call in from home. However, bobber went down and I got excited and yelled fish on. Needless to say, now it is hard to convince people here that I am actually working from home when I say that I am out of the office

[The Chemist]

I had to explain alot of things to those in the south. I went to college in Montgomery Ala. Here are a few

1. What state Minnesota was in

2. How do we get anywhere when it snows (note that when more than about 1/2" of snow falls the town shuts down)

3. How do you cast your line out in a fish house.

4. Why would you want to go out and fish through ice.

5. We actually go outside when it drops below 30°? I in turn said you go outside when it is above 100°, it's the same thing just opposite ends of the spectrum.

My fiance' in college actually broke off the engagement after she came up for New Years, we spent 3 days at the cabin and she thought it was soo cold and thinking that I only wanted to live up here she told me it was over on our way back to school. I thank her to this day for making that decision.

[hovermn]

A friends wife from Cali heard that I was building an ice house. She was very confused by this, wondering why I'd spend so much time and money building something that would melt in a few months. Yeah, she thought that I was building an igloo :-) I had a good laugh out of it! Even after I told her that the retractable wheeled house would be climate controled she still thought I was nuts!

After telling someone at work about the ice house and all of its accessories, they asked why I don't just stay at home, why bring everything on the lake. I smiled and said that I've tried fishing in the bathtub, but the fish just don't seem to bite! LOL

[Northland Sportsman]

Last year my Mom lived in Oklahoma and her friends had no idea what she was talking about when she told them I was ice fishing. I had to take some pictures to prove to them that people actualy drove out on frzen lakes and drilled hole through the ice to fish. I guess thos southern folks just don't get the cold weather activities - they stay in the house if it drops to 30 degrees. I feel soory for them.

[ice_shack]

Good idea, I think I will bring the digital camera next trip and email some pics to the guy. I think I need to go to the Gull lake tourney, that would make a great pic!

[Gissert]

In '97, I was in England for a month for maintenance training on a new aircraft type we were getting.

I had some pictures in my briefcase from my LOW trips. The Brits were amazed that we would actually go out on ice, let alone fish through it. Once they saw pictures of the bomber, they really thought I was around the bend. They were also fascinated with snomobiles, and they got a real kick out of the ice auger. When I drew a diagram of how a Vexilar functioned, they thought I was joking. Pretty soon I had blokes from other classes asking to see photos in between classes. It was fun for all of us, and I made some good friends whilst there. I came home talking funny, however.

My brother had something very funny happen to him on Minnetonka a few years back. He was fishing fairly close to shore and was by himself. A young couple who appeared to be from India were frolicking on some new snow. They kept getting closer, and closer to him. Once they noticed my brother staring at his ice hole, they came over. The man was quite curious, and asked, "What is it you are doing?" My brother replied, "I'm fishing." After a blank stare, it dawned on them that they were on a frozen lake, and had not realized it, LOL. I suppose it just looked like a snow covered field to them.

[Ed Carlson]

I was doing a ice fishing clinic on the Red river when some very recent college exchange students dropped in for the lessons on ice fishing.

Three college aged galls were from Jamaica, two more were from Nigeria, and a few from Brazil...none had even seen snow 3 days prior or a frozen lake or river.

The first trick was trying to convince them that we can indeed walk on ice/water. The next was the idea we fished through the ice, man that blew there minds.

Before you knew it I had the group on Jamaica galls around a hole and jigging. They thought this was pretty Kewl and there friends back home would never believe this was possible.

What really blew there minds was the electronics we used. I got them onto the Vex quick enough and it was a big hit. Yet when I got out the Aqua-Vu they reacted like I had a Top-Secret Alien technology or something..that completely sealed the deal and they were glued to the screen tell they about froze up. Real troopers once they understood it was not all about freezing your buns off in the pursuit of a fish.

Fishing that day was as slow as slow can get but they did not care, this was an experience they would never forget. Me too, it was a hoot showing a totally new sporting experience like Ice Fishing to folks from a whole separate culture.

Oh...did I mention they were not too hard to look at...that didn't hurt either...Eh.

[SteveWilson]

I had a good one a couple of weeks ago. It was my kids first time on the ice and my six year old daughter was jiging over a hole when a family from Oregon came out on the ice and wanted to see what we were doing. Since my daughter wasn't having much success I brought the Vexilar over to her hole and helped her get her lure down to fish. As she was explaining what ice fishing was a nice size crapie bit and she set the hook nicely and brought the fish up - it was her first one. The look on her face explained the sport clearly to those folk's from Oregon.

[icehousebob]

I was an extra on the 'Grumpy Old Men' ice fishing scenes and it was funny to watch the Californios in terror of walking on 30 inches of ice. But a few years ago my #2 son did a winter trip to Jamaica and tried to tell the locals that he had been driving his car on the ice a few days before. Some didn't believe him and some said, "That's too cold ,mon".When my daughter was going to the U of M morris, an older prof took a new prof on a winter tour of the area. All of a sudden, the new prof turned and said,I thought you said there was no problem of homeless people in this area." He was told that there wasn't. "Well, what about those poor people living in those shacks?" It was explained to him that he was looking at a group of fish houses on a frozen lake.

[slick814]

I lived in NC for a couple of years in the mid '90's... hard to explain to someone that you can actually go on the ice, when the most they've seen is MAYBE a skimming... they have a hard time believing that it gets as thick as it does.

The best way to explain it is with as many pics as you can find, maybe a video?

Another thing you might try is to get hold of the most recent Minnesota Conservation Volunteer... put out by the DNR. This issue is all about ice fishing & life in the winter, mostly ice fishing. It explains the tourney's, gear, shantytowns, etc... might be a good introduction for someone.

[The Grebe]

I worked for many years in vegetable oil processing, first for Cargill and then for Sks. Along with the processing, we would load the tankers that came into the plant.

Alot of the truckers were from down south and they could not believe our weather. We were loading during a January thaw, when the temperature got up into the 50's, in our tee shirts and truckers from Georgia had big heavy coats on and they were still shivering! They thought we were nuts! They could'nt figure out how we could stand it...I don't know, it seemed pretty warm to us?

If the good folks from down south think that our 50 degrees is cold, to the point of them having to wear cold weather gear, I can see where it would be very hard to convince someone from that warmer climate, that ice fishing is really enjoyable.

Then again, noodling, or paddling around a Croc filled Bayou in a little Piroque does'nt really appeal to me! Different storkes for different folks!

[Mankato-Ice-Man]

I do computer support for the company I work for and have folks from coast to coast in warmer weather states that always ask me about ice fishing when I talk to them. Since I would out of our corp. office, some of them will come to Mankato from time to time for meetings or whatever. I hope to get the chance to at least take a longer lunch hour and drive them out on the lake if not get some time for an "off site" meeting and take them fishing for a couple of hours or even some eveing fishing.

The think they find hardest to believe is that you can sit there in your jeans and sweatshirt once you get the heater going.

Never had luck explaining how a vexilar works or telling them an underwater camera is not what divers use to take pictures. Oh well. I cant wait to get a few of them out there so they can go to the next meeting and tell people what they actually got to do when they had a meeting in Minnesota.

[tdk]

I was stationed with a guy from Alanta just outside of Boston. A lake on base froze over and I told him let's go out there. He said no way, only God can walk on water. Another guy that I was stationed with from Cali. thought that we had snow all year. My son is stationed in Okinowa right now, I sent him some pictures of his truck and dirt bike in the snow in Dec. Some friends of his that live there, couldn't believe that we were even out in it. I'm glad some people can't handle the cold like we do here. It keeps the undesirables out. I wouldn't want to see the lakes get anymore crowded than they are now.

[SteveWilson]

Now explaining ice fishing to southerners is nothing in comparison to explaining Ice Hockey to a Saudi customs officer. I use to play in pickup hockey games over in Bahrain every few weeks and when I would drive back to Saudi the customs folk's never could understand what goalie equipment was for - had to show them some pictures !!

[abens1078]

I love the quick, jerky movement a first timer makes when that ice makes a good pop right under them. I also like how they won't go back out if you have one day of weather over 32 degrees. The best has to be..."You have your heater running while your truck is 10' away...doesn't it fall in?"

[fishin789]

You can have a lot of fun with the newbies and ice fishing. A gal I knew that lived in Ohio came up for a visit. She's never been on ice so I took her ice fishing.She was all worried that the ice was breaking when you would hear the cracking noises.Then she noticed the colored depth weight I had clipped to my jacket and asked what it was. I told her it was a sending unit for if you fell in the lake they could find your body.Her eyes got huge. then she says."I don't have one." So I clipped one on her and let her take it home with her.Boy did I get an e-mail messege a few days later after she got back home and someone that knew what it was told her what it was. LOL

We also worked with a guy that was from CA. when we got him out to the fish house everytime the ice would pop or crack he would bail out of the house.should have seen him run when one of them running cracks kept getting louder and closer to us.