Patient ice fishermen rewarded with camaraderie and serenity

By Margaret Krueger of the Daily Times staff
Friday, February 11, 2005 10:32 PM CST

The serenity of Rock Lake in the winter draws many ice fishermen to the Jefferson County lake. Fishermen enjoy the outdoors as well as the indoors on the lake, dotted with ice shanties. Pictured is Harry Graves, a daily visitor to the lake who enjoys jig pole fishing for bluegills and crappies. (Margaret Krueger/Daily Times)

LAKE MILLS - Someone forgot to tell the fish about all the action on top which currently exceeds any activity below the ice.

Ice fishermen who fish daily on Rock Lake say the fish are being quite coy about going for bait this year.

Of course, the same fishermen point in a wide arc to the far sides of the lake when asked where the fish are "really" biting, hoping potential anglers will head the other way.

Day after day, even in blustery weather, ice fishermen can be seen on the lake, seeking elusive northern and panfish. Some prefer to drive out on the lake to their special spot by an ice shanty while others trudge out on the ice pulling a sled filled with an auger and fishing gear. The fancier sleds provide their own shelter from the elements, much like a pop-up tent. Each day the fishermen show up, one way or another, even if the fish don't.

Harry Graves of Lake Mills considers himself more of an outdoorsman than a fisherman, but carting fishing gear gives him an excuse to get on the lake.

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"I don't care if I catch a fish. It doesn't make any difference to me. I enjoy being outside and active. I worked in a factory for 33 years and being outdoors is all that matters to me," said Graves, who has been fishing the lake on a regular basis since retiring and moving here in 1998.

Like his shanty-sharing buddy, John Epperson of Lake Mills, he prefers jig pole fishing for bluegills, crappies and other pan fish rather than using tip-ups for northerns. "You have to coax the fish into biting and I like them better for eating," Graves explained.

For Epperson, who has been ice fishing on the lake since 1951, taking hold of a jig pole in any weather is as good as it gets.

"I prefer jig fishing because it is more of a challenge. You have to be more hardy to get out on the ice. Anyone can sit watching TV, sipping a beer by the fireplace and watching out the window for the flags to pop on their tip-ups," said Epperson, who travels from shore to shanty by all-terrain vehicle.

Troy Wegner of Lake Mills leaves most of the jig pole fishing to his wife, Patty, while he goes after bigger prey with tip-ups. He hopes to surpass the legal size of 26 inches for northerns by at least a foot. He baits a tip-up with a good-size minnow, using the theory of the bigger the bait the bigger the catch.

Wegner has all the comforts of home in his ice shanty, considered the best of the bunch by his neighbors, even though it has few frills. "The radio died," related Patty, angling for a bluegill through a hole drilled in the ice below a small trap door in the shanty floor.

"It's been slow this year. There's nothing," said Wegner, although a half-filled pail of crappies was spotted in his shanty.

Closing the curtains in a fish shanty highlights the ice hole below with a nice yellow-green glow, giving the angler a look down nine feet through 16 inches of ice to the bottom of the lake. Patty joins her husband on the lake a couple times during the week to join the camaraderie among the daily stalwarts, who tend to stay off the ice on busy weekends when the "tourists" muck up the ice and serenity.

The men are biding their time until the peak season when the days are longer and the ice starts its slow thaw. "By the end of February, the pan fish start to take an interest in the bait," Graves predicted.

Like a true fisherman, Wegner tells a tall tale about how the fish know spring is on the way. He says when the ice starts to melt, the water falls through all the fishing holes in the ice. When the fish feel the warmer water, they know spring is coming and they need to fatten up for spawning. The waxworms start looking tasty, and bingo, the fish wind up topside.

The men hope to be coming out on lake long after March 10 when the cozy shanties with portable heaters have to be off the ice.

"We like it when it's quiet out here. We shoot the bull about politics, sports, weather or whatever. If the fish are biting, we talk about what good fishermen we are," said Graves, who hates to miss a day in case the fish decide to cooperate, or worse yet, someone else might be there to cash in on his daily coaxing.