The Real Survivor Island

WOW!!!! I fished in an impromptu ice fishing derby yesterday at Long Pond near Smithville Flats, NY yesterday and I have to say that was the most incredible weather I have ever fished in. The average wind speed was 40-50 mph with gusts to 60-70! Not near but complete white out conditions at most times and near at all times. My friend skip was using his Fish Trap, Voyager model, ice fishing shelter and I have to tell you I was more than impressed that it survived intact over 8 hours in those conditions. My fish trap is a little older and a little tattered, so I thought I would just use and test a ice sled, with a fold out wind break built into, that I have been prototyping. The little sled worked flawlessly and made an incredible difference when you were behind it but the holes were filling in so fast with snow that  it was nearly  impossible to jig. There were four of us and we huddled up in Skips sheltered and worked about 8 tip ups. 3 fish were caught, two pickerel and one nice bass about 3 pounds. All day I thought of how the troops at Valley Forge or on Admiral Perry’s expedition felt as we hunkered in. Several times I thought that we had reached escape velocity. To summarize, we were border line insane to be out there but years of experience and good equipment allowed us to fish in relative comfort. All my inventions I have been working on in the ice fishing related field worked perfectly under what I consider the ultimate in  rigorous  test conditions and was the real reason that I fished in this arctic nightmare. The only thing we were missing yesterday was a visit from a Polar Bear or Penguin and I thought I saw a Yeti but it turned out to be a member of  another group that was fishing nearby. I am now working on getting my inventions manufactured and available for your purchase via my website and in stores for next season. Fish hard, fish often and don’t fish in what we did yesterday.