Ice Fishing in the NEK

Before winter set in, Beth and I set some goals of things to do, places to see, parties to host…you’ve gotta have goals, and DO things over the winter, otherwise spring rolls around and you realize it’s been a long time since you’ve been outside.

Now, this list has morphed and changed, things have been added, this have been determined as slightly unrealistic….one surprise addition was “learn how to ice fish”. This was inspired by a trip to the islands where we saw tons of guys ice fishing one Saturday morning. I’ve seen ice fishing happen, but it just struck me this winter & I wanted to learn how! Beth was on board with the idea. Well...one thing led to another and we found a class in Island Pond. Island Pond is in the heart of the Northeast Kingdom about 2.5 hours away from Burlington (the north east corner of VT) and is also New England’s snowmobile capital, as many trails from Quebec, NH and Maine converge there. There literally are just as many snowmobiles as cars. We stopped at a gas station, and we were the only people who’d driven a car there! (we got some coffee and were the only ones without snowmobile helmets!)

We met up at the Town Hall, which we had directions to, but you know, it’s one of those towns where it’s just easier to drive around till you find it! The class was taught by an Americorps Vista (named Greg) that works for a nature preserve in the Northeast Kingdom. In addition to Beth and I, there was a dad from Montpelier and his two elementary school age sons. We walked out on to the pond, and Greg drove his truck out. We scouted out a locale, and then some other elementary school age kids came out from the woods to join us, oh and Greg just knew them (small town). We started with a 10 inch auger & drilled some holes, I think we did about 9 total. Then you scoop the ice out of the hole and make it nice and clean. Then you drop in a “tip up” which is a reel with bait on it and this contraption where when a fish bites the bait, a flag pops up. Pretty sweet set up! We also set up some holes for jigging, where you have a pole and bait (usually maggots, but we used worms). We also set up a fire, like—built a fire on the ice! Crazy! It was a really gray day, but super picturesque setting. We fished for several hours with the wiz of snowmobiles crossing the pond constantly. We later saw the blessing of the snowmobiles (pictured below). As far as the catching fish part, It was unsuccessful, but we had fun! We started to get cold and hungry, so said thank you and goodbye to our new friends and got some lunch.

Ready for Part 2? So the place we ate at was called The Yellow Daisy or something hippy like that. We walked and were greeted with lovely live music, accordion, few guitars, a bass. The café was very organic inside with lots of raw wood, plants, a gorgeous bar with dried flowers embedded in it. Clearly when we walked in we looked like out of towners as a friendly older woman from behind the bar suggested we have a seat at the bar, as it was a full house. We were very warmly welcomed and were given some folksy hand written menus, drinks were listed on chalkboards above. I think her name was Bernadette or something like that, anyway, she asked us where we were from, because clearly it wasn’t there. We told her, and she said “oh yeah, a bunch of us are taking a bus down there next weekend.” Kind of struck me as strange, but maybe that’s how small northern towns work, “hey bus trip to the city”. We both settled on a bowl of soup and a drink. We chit chatted with the woman and she kept using this term “….in the community ”finally beth asked…well turns out the people that operate this dining establishment live in a commune! Well, we just had a field day drilling them with questions. Though they say they study the gospels & book of Acts, they didn’t admit to being “Christians”. When we were ready to leave and asked for our bill, the guy we’d been chatting with said “eh..lets just call it $5 each”…I think we got the evangelism discount. Oh, while we were eating, a mom of one of the little boys in our ice fishing class came in, and we said “hi” it was like we were locals! She said to the people working, hey, you all are slammed, need a hand in the kitchen? Seriously? Love the small town. As we walked out of the restaurant, still processing what we’d just experienced, we saw Greg across the street and cordially smiled & waved. Seriously, I think we met half the town. After this adventure we headed back toward Burlington, with a few delicious stops, including “Rainbow Sweets” a ridiculous bakery run by a precious Italian (?) man. We got these crème brulee-esque cream puffs atop a puff pastry and topped with the best whipped crème I’ve had in my life. After that we went to the Cabot cheese factory for a tour and tasting. (this place is in the middle of no where, and so unassuming!). Well, that just about wraps up out NEK adventure.