Ice-fishing is ceasing in central Maine

Fishing season is upon us, and for some areas it is proving to be a tough transition from ice-fishing to open water.

Your Scribe makes this statement based on a drive past Long Pond in Belgrade in mid-March.

In the middle of the lake stood a forlorn fishing shack.

It stood alone perhaps because ice-out had come to the shore.

In fact, the sector in front of the Village Inn in Belgrade Lakes Village showed at least 100 feet of open water before the (thin) ice started.

So anyone wanting to pull their shack form the lake must have been facing a tough proposition.

Quick questions, to which I don’t know the answers:

Would a fishing shack float, buoyant like a cork so it could be pulled in by a boat when the entire lake melts?.

Or would it go down like a gear-laiden Titanic, and join the decades of detritus left by generations of earnest anglers?

Here are my thoughts on ice-fishing, a staple in Cabin Country where my camp is:

Ice-fishing is a drain on the state’s fishing stocks.

Though overfishing in winter is not documented as a reason why there aren’t as many lunkers in summer as there were in “the good old days,” the pressure of year-round angling must make a difference.

Secondly, vehicles on the ice that sometimes visit the shacks is one of the dumbest traditions we have in Maine.

This wasn’t much of a winter for taking the clunker for a spin on the ice, but in the past many thrill seekers – some say inebriated thrill seekers – are wont to take their cars and trucks on the ice.

This is stupid, dangerous and just generally lame.

It reminds me of a story I covered while a newsman in Waterville in the early ‘90s.

On Messalonskee Lake, I believe, a young couple and their child went for a ride before dinner. Their vehicle crashed through the ice, and sank.

The next day, a pair of neighbors checked their house. The trio was missing, of course.

This pair got into a small truck, and went out on the lake in search. That vehicle, too, went through the ice.

Five lives were lost in all.

Which isn’t to say that those who own that fishing shack on Long Pond are going to do anything stupid.

But Your Scribe hopes the shack floats, and that it can be pulled out by a good old-fashioned powerboat as soon as all the ice is out.

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