ice fishing

We got better at ice fishing. Correction. Jane got better at ice fishing. I got better at taking pictures of Jane while ice fishing. 😉

This February day was just perfect. Yes, the ice was crazy, with lots of currents, thawing, shifting, and a generally chaotic surface, but the weather was balmy. Most people were out for a stroll, including young families.

We set up “camp”. I dug a hole (you can see the ice staff stuck in the ice), and Jane and a friend got busy.

So it starts with a tug on the line. Now, Uummannaq fjord is really, really deep, and so it’s easy to have a line that is fifty metres or longer. Easy. So there’s nothing but hard work when you get a nibble. Which makes it very important for me to preserve my role as photographer!

If you’re unlucky you snag an old fishing line on the bottom – feels like you’ve got a whale on the other end – and it’s hopeless. But, if you’re lucky, this happens:

Followed by this:

And this:

Depending on “where” we were fishing, the dogs got the catch.

Chris

Jane fished. I just took photos! Actually, that’s not entirely true. Jane made me dig the hole in the sea ice first.

The mittens Jane is using are made of sealskin. They have opposable thumbs – meaning there is a thumb on both sides of the mitten. When fishing like this you pull a wet line – freezing cold – through your mittens. When one side is sopping wet, you switch them around and use the other side. The gloves were made locally, and the woman who sewed them also gave Jane a pair of wool mittens to wear inside – also with two thumbs!

I just do the grunt work, using the tuk or ‘ice staff’ to dig the hole in the ice. On a good day such as this chilly January 25th, it can get busy on the ice.