Soon after the river begins to flow in earnest, it opens up the ice at its mouth at Marcil Lake, our water source. That signals that it is time to do some fishing there.
As it is but a short distance from town, people get out there frequently to fish, before or as the fish begin to migrate down to the ocean. First of all setting up shop at the river's mouth, fishing from the edge of the ice or in holes near it, followed quickly by setting up where the river exits the lake.
There is but a short period of time to do this, as not only will the fish be moving out of the lake soon, but this ice that is safe now, will soon candle (rot) and be unsafe.
On sunny spring days, like we've had lately, it is a sublimely delightful place to be. We dropped Leah and her sister off there yesterday evening while we went exploring elsewhere.
At 7:30 we picked them up as they made the walk back across the ice.
Comments
2 responses
Wow! I didn’t know that ice can ROT! There are just so many unique things about the arctic that I find out about everyday from yours and other northern blogs.
Thanks for keeping such a good blog!
Fresh water ice “candles” and loses its strength. It can still be relatively think but it won’t support you. The easiest way for me to describe it, is that it turns into long vertical crystals. The ones that break off like that are almost like windchimes in the water.
Sea Ice doesn’t lose its strength, but melts and/or breaks up.