Warmed by success

AFTON - Nothing keeps an ice angler warm on a cold winter day like biting fish.

When a bitter January wind howls, as it did early last week in Union County, you can pile on clothing until you can barely move, and if you are sitting outside on an overturned bucket, you still will shiver unless the fish cooperate.

Heated tents will of course keep the cold at bay, but their limited mobility also can frustrate finding the active fish that elevate the angler from comfort to warm well-being.

On Monday of last week, our first of four days on the Union County ice, the temperature topped out at 15 degrees and the annoyingly audible wind blew such big bows in my line that my little jig took forever to reach bottom in 26 feet of water.

Two members of our party, Richard Brace of Cedar Rapids and Dean Baragary of Monti, took shelter in their tents, while Bill Sloan of Quasqueton, Dan Brace of Winthrop and I toughed it out on the ice.

Though I changed holes frequently, in an attempt both to find fish and generate warmth, I had just five bites in four hours. Frozen lake water encrusted my line and clogged the top eye of my rod. The rapidly refreezing holes required near constant attention with the skimmer. Neither gloves nor chemical hand warmers could dispel the numbness of my fingers.

As my hope for an evening bite faded and my once intermittent shivers became constant, I wished for nightfall so we could quit.

Though it was not much warmer the next morning, the wind had subsided, and the screens on our electronic fish finders, more or less blank the preceding day, immediately lit up with the red blips signifying fish.

For the next two-and-a-half days, the red blips kept rising up to bend our rods.

A steady succession of 'keeper” bluegills, supplemented by crappies, catfish and one 22.5-inch walleye, enabled us to pocket our gloves, raise the ear flaps on our caps and forget about winter.

Hooksets and reel cranks surely burned a few calories, but it was, I believe, the fish-induced release of discomfort-dulling, happiness-heightening neurochemicals that kept us laughing at the cold.

l Comments: (319) 934-3172; orlan.love@thegazette.com