A Warm Reception For The Coldest Sport Of Winter

By Steve Bigham

With more than a foot of ice on Newtown’s ponds and lakes, local fishermen are gathering their bait, packing up their tackle, and bundling up tight for what should be an excellent ice fishing season.

After a frigid December and more of the same here in January, a thick layer of ice over these bodies of water should remain until April.

While most people either head south or stay inside by the fireplace, ice fishermen revel in this arctic weather. For them, the cold air couldn’t have come soon enough. Armed with coffee and hot chocolate, bait and tackle, and ice drills, these hearty souls have been converging on Taunton Lake the past couple of weeks. They included a group this past weekend that enjoyed a cookout of hamburgers, sausage, venison, and, of course, fish. Big ones, too.

Dan Peck of Newtown pulled a 14-inch trout out of Taunton Lake Monday afternoon just two days after the Newtown Fish & Game Club stocked the popular fishing hole with brook trout.

John Verbanick, Jr, can often be seen trolling the lake under a hot summer sun, but dressed for the occasion, he weathered the cold Monday in hopes of reeling in the big one.

This year’s ice is about as thick as Taunton Lake ever gets and much thicker than it has been in recent years. Last year, the ice thickened to between 4-7 inches, but two years ago there was hardly any ice at all.

“Two inches of black ice will hold a man,” noted Charles Reichardt of Castle Hill Road, a longtime resident and fishing enthusiast.

Mr Reichardt warned those who venture out onto the ice to be aware of the different shades of ice. Snow ice, as he calls it, can be deceiving.

So what makes ice fishing so appealing to these sportsmen?

“When you’re ice fishing there’s a lot of camaraderie,” Mr Reichardt explained. “It’s a grueling sport. Hunting season is over, so you can either sit around the house and work for the old lady or you can get out there on the ice.”

The sport of ice fishing involves fishing through a hole in the ice, requiring no more than a baited hand line, but fishermen usually set up a number of tip-ups or flags in several holes. Minnows are usually used for bait.

“You need the little fish to catch the big fish,” noted one ice fisherman.

“Ice fishing is not as hectic,” Mr Reichardt said. “You can just sit around, make coffee, cook hot dogs and wait for the flags to go up. You drill your hole and just relax. You don’t have to worry about lugging a boat into the water.”