Ice Fishing the Buffalo River Headwaters

When the snow gets more than a foot deep on Tamarac Lake snowshoes and a sled are the only way out. No vehicles are allowed on Tamarac as it is part of the National Wildlife Refuge System. I can take a power auger out there, but even that takes a notch out of the Wilderness Applause Meter when it's cranked up.

So here's the plan. First, don't take too much stuff. From the farm it's about a 10 mile drive to Tamarac and 15 minutes will get you there with time to spare. A decent pair of these new fange-dangled lightweight snowshoes are nice. Mine are made in Canada (www.gvsnowshoes.com) and weigh abouut two pounds and clip on like a dream with standard ski type bindings. I have a ten-foot long pull rope on a medium sized Otter@ sled to haul gear to my fishing spots. I also hook a deer hauling double-shoulder sling harness to the rope so the pull is from my shoulders and not from my hands and arms. I have an old pair of Moon@ bamboo cross-country ski poles so my arms get to help pull. The poles do provide some stability as well. That is the hauling get-up.

For fishing gear I use an Aqua-Vu "VPG"@ graph (www.naturevisioninc.com) to locate fish. The"Vertical Picto-Graph" is a Nature Vision Inc. tool. A black and white readout, sonar type unit that tells me where in the vertical water column objects (fish I hope) are stationed when I drill a hole in the right place. As fish move in and out of the cone of the sonar signal they show up as narrow to wide bands on the depth labelled graph. Wide is nice if you want to catch and clean less fish for dinner. Get it?

My ice auger is a fourstroke lightweight machine made by StrikeMaster@ (http://www.strikemaster.com/power.html) of Big Lake, Minnesota. It runs best on non-oxygenated regular gas and is easy to handle and nice for drilling a bundle of search holes when fish have not been previously located. A tank of gas can last me all season. I carry a collapsible snow shovel (like the avalanche guys use) to clear snow/ice/slush around the hole and for creating a nice level place for my bucket and other gear. Makes a nice snow berm to deflect the wind from your hole and keeps some of the snow from blowing in it as well. I carry a cell phone and a compass with me too, just in case the blizzard hits and I'm sleeping on the bucket. If it gets too windy, I go home. Don't need to be an idiot. This kind of trek-fishing is full monte-outdoors and this is supposed to be fun, kinda.

Two small 24-28" long fairly flexible ice rods and open-faced ice fishing sized reels are all I take on a trip. When fish are biting one rig is all I can handle. I have a medium sized plastic lure box and it's too big. It only takes a few sizes and colors of lures for sunfish or perch if they are biting. It they are not biting I go home and call my friends Gale and Mike and talk about the weather. A container of live bait goes too. I prefer maggots, but in Northwestern Minnesota golden grubs seem the rule, so that's what I can find and what I use. I like to take some small minnow along for jigging for walleyes, but on Tamarac Lake the northern pike are pests and I leave the minnows home for other lakes in this headwaters region.

I use a five-gallon plastic bucket to hold stuff and a small backpack to take extra gear along, like gloves, a facemask for wind protection, a small thermos of tea, an ice scoop to clean out the ice chips from the augered hole, and a couple of lightweight rod holders to keep my rods off the ice and out of my hands all the time. Other stuff is up to you, but it's all weight in the sled. If you're pulling a half mile or so out onto a lake you don't want more stuff unless you want more work out. OK, throw in a bag to hold your fish if you want. If you like to go to lakes where you can use a snow machine or four-wheeler or your car to haul your stuff, bring an easy chair and the kitchen sink if you like.

Oh there's one more item. A stick about one inch in diameter and about six feet long. This is the official GPS of any Minnesota ice fisherman worth his salt. You'll need this stick to erect in the ice hole that produces the daily catch. You place the stick in the whole pointing to the stars and out of the hole about four feet. You'll need plenty of stick showing just in case you don't get out for a while again. This is your 'marker'. It will freeze in the hole overnight pointing to the Milky Way. It is your so called "GPS" locator for next time. Snow is the culprit. If it snows more than four feet before you get back, don't get back. Stay home. That's too much snow to trek through on snow shoes for ice fishing. Wait until spring thaw in late February or early March takes the snow down to the ice again and your stick will point the way to where you left off.

Tamarac is my ice fishing wilderness experience in Minnesota. There are no cabins on this lake and in winter there is no noise except an occasional raven or round of ice cracking to keep me company. Now and then there is another friend of the silence of it all out there too, but you can count on him or her being quite too. It's used in summer by boaters with outboard motors, but in winter it's all mine and the shushhh of my snowshoes. Sometimes I get to hear a fish flopping in my plastic bag to go home for dinner. Like a good boy scout I go prepared. But, who really cares about catching fish in a place like this.