Modern Living: The Izaaks of Ice

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Once it was solely an occupation to for Eskimos and masochists. Hunkering down beside holes in icebound rivers and lakes, in temperatures that would give a seal the sniffles, the Izaak Waltons of midwinter would spend hours shivering and waiting for the tug on a line that told them a pike or a perch had been hooked.

Today, althogh ice-fishing is one of the fastest-growing sports in the U.S., the old bundled-up fisherman is fast becoming an imperiled species. At lakes from Maine to Michigan, most winter anglers now dangle their bait from inside heated shacks, many equipped with carpeting, color TV, stereos, stoves chemical toilets, bunks, closets and —the ultimate redundancy—refrigerators.

To devotees of deep-freeze fishing now at its seasonal peak, there is no other pastime quite like it. In the numbing months when outdoorsmen have little else to do, it is not only a rewarding sport—state and federal authorities estimate that ice anglers in the Northeast and Midwest catch at least as many fish each year as traditional fishermem—but a welcome weekend escape into a predominantly male world of tall tales poker and six-pack camaraderie. Each February, when the ice grows thick enough on lakes in the Northern states whole towns of ice-fishing shacks spring up, complete with telephones, electricity and posted roads—the exurbia-on-ice a Wisconsin's Lake Winnebago had a population of 30,000 last week.

Automated Fishing. Chopping holes through the ice and other such arduos labor these days is strictly for the Byrds. Gasoline-or electric-powered augers costing around $140 can drill through four feet of ice in seconds. Many fishermen keep their holes from freezing over with liberal injections of antifreeze. While most fishermen still knock together their own "bob-houses," more elegant prefabricated models can be bought for as little as $300 at sporting-goods stores, mounted on runners and towed onto the ice by snowmobile, car or truck (which can supply electricity for lights and appliances). The snowmobiles are also used for getting round the ice towns, but purists frown on them, complaining that their racket scares the fish away. Another factor in the growth of ice-fishing has been the development of thermal-layer underwear, which enables the shanty anglers to go calling on their neighbors in comfort. Many anglers bring along outhouses, furnished with "thunder mugs"-pots with disposable plastic liners. Even fishing is largely automated, thanks to the tip-up, a device that raises a red flag or sounds a buzzer when a fish bites. One Midwestern fisherman has trained a dog to rally round the flag and bark whenever it goes up, thus allowing its owner to concentrate on his poker game.