An exercise in patience

Waiting for a bite

According to her status update, a Facebook friend of mine went ice fishing with a friend near Rockland today. She called it "The ultimate exercise in patience."

A lot of the river ice is slush covered at present, in poor condition because of the mild week we've had, wet and slippery on the surface, but the ice is still 18" thick on average (45cm).

New Year and very cold

The other night, out of doors at 30 below, we saw a girl set off to walk her dog across the Rideau River to the park on the other side. There's no danger of people falling through the ice now as it must have thickened considerably during the last couple of weeks.

The average thickness of the ice in Baitshop Bay by Petrie Island, on the Ottawa River, is now reported to be 30cm. Last reported ice condition: "excellent" for fishing.

Today the Rideau Canal was opened for skating which means the ice is of a good thickness there too.

All 7.8 kilometres of the Rideau Canal Skateway are now open between Rideau and Dows Lake, including Patterson Creek and the Hartwell Locks. Last night a full sweep and flooding was completed. Sweeping operations were completed this morning. We ask that skaters use extra caution this afternoon. There are many areas with very rough patches of ice and with the volume of skaters, the condition of the ice will continue to deteriorate throughout the rest of the day.

Happy New Year, Ottawa!

When to go fishing in winter

There's plenty of perch under the ice at Petrie Island

... ice fishing, that is.

The tributaries of the Ottawa River are frozen now, more or less. There's a rumour that the Rideau Canal will soon be open for skating, and the ice fishermen will also be getting impatient to practise their sport on the Ottawa River itself.

I came across a website that reports the current depth of the ice on the Ottawa near Petrie Island, a popular ice fishing spot. The ice there is already 10" (25cm) thick in places. This website is run by The Petrie Island Ice Fishermen's Association, PIIFA, an organisation that's been in existence for 10 years now.

It all started back in 2004 with a few ice fishermen sitting in a hut discussing ideas on how to combat the increase of vandalism, thefts and break-ins of that season. A few beers were shared and many ideas were tossed around. In the end, the group decided to start an association of ice fisherman. The main task of the association would be to bring hut owners together, so everyone could get to know each other and become a more tight-knit group for better security.

It has become, as they say, "huge" (and popular). Their website includes a fish catalogue, a page of wood stove recipes, and an Angler's Gallery of the proud fishermen with their catches.

The ice has to be 30cm thick before you are permitted to erect a hut on it. (Any day now.) All fishing huts must be off the ice by March 15th, but that leaves you plenty of time to catch fish till then.

Making the most of the ice

I mentioned the ice-fishing in this blog last month.

Here are a few of the temporary fishing huts on the Ottawa River, viewed from a couple of thousand feet. In the bottom right hand corner (click on the picture to enlarge it) you can see that the fisherman has made a row of eight holes with his auger. This particular cluster of huts on the south side of the river was a small one, but along other stretches, such as the north side, east of Gatineau, as shown in my second picture, the layout is so well organised you could call it a town, with visitors (either on snowmobiles or in vehicles on wheels) zipping along the ice streets. Some huts have little ice rinks in their front "yards."

It isn't only the fishermen who clear away the snow to make skating rinks on the river; shore-dwellers do this too. Here's a home-made rink just off shore by Old Highway 17, probably shared by the nearby homeowners who meet on the river for a game of hockey.

Meanwhile, in the city, sculptors have been playing with ice in a more professional way, etching stylized fish, for example, onto carved blocks, for Winterlude's "Crystal Garden."

Ice fishing

On the weather network nowadays, an online "gallery" of people's uploaded, weather-related photos can be accessed. Today someone posted pictures of the ice-fishing (pêche sur glace) taking place at the otherwise deserted Alymer Marina on the Ottawa River, an scene typical of January in our region. It must be one of the most uncomfortable sports out there, but I dare say that's part of the attraction. All down the Ottawa River are clusters of ice-fishing huts, veritable villages which materialize for a few weeks only to disappear again when the thaw threatens, sometimes with tragic consequences. Last year in March a fisherman left it too late to drive out across the ice and fetch his hut to shore.