Ice Fishing Huts on Shediac Bay

This past Sunday was like most other Sundays in the Mann residence during the winter months. I usually park my butt on the couch, watch TV all day long while playing my guitar and maybe having a couple of beers or maybe a shot or two of Scotch.

It’s usually about this time of year I start feeling a bit of cabin fever as I don’t get out much in the winter due to health issues. Good thing I have a treadmill or I wouldn’t get any exercise in the winter.

So when the phone rang with Casey on the other end calling to see if I was interested in checking out his fishing hut they had just put out on Shediac Bay, I got excited. He wasn’t going for long, unless the fishing was hot, and just wanted to finish up a few things and to bring a couple of items they had forgotten on the first trip.

Casey’s lives at Hopewell Cape, such a gorgeous spot to live. Jenny and I really enjoy the drive through this area, especially the Rocks on the Fundy Bay.

Less than an hour later Casey was at my door ready to head off to Shediac by the sea. Just as I was heading out the door my son Steve handed me a flask with Scotch in it and said, ‘Just in case it’s chilly out there’.

Getting There From Here

We left Moncton heading towards Dieppe and then took Veterans Highway to Shediac. From there we we took route 133 until to the Queens Warf turn off where it was just about one minute to the end where we could see fishing huts.

Casey and a friend hauled his fish hut out onto Shediac Bay, in about 6 sections, and assembled it right on the spot.

It was pretty efficient with four side panels that bolted to the floor and roof. I’ll be it didn’t take long to put it up and it has plenty of elbow room inside as well.

The floor boards opened opposite the door revealing a big hole to fish through. You could bring a whale through that hole.

The first thing I saw when I looked down the hole was what looked like a big hunk of ice but it was on the bottom. It was white bed sheets, with a little floral pattern along the edges, sown together to make a big pillow cases filled with chains.

Sheets Sown Together With Chains

I told Casey I was telling his wife he was stealing bed sheet. Then he told me she was the one who sowed it all together. What a great wife.

We spent a few minutes tightening the bolts that hold the hut together to make sure the winds hadn’t loosened them. And then cleared the ice from the hole and settled in with a nice fresh cup of hot coffee.

He has a nice little stove that keeps the hut nice and cosy so there was no need for all the clothing I was wearing and I started peeling off one layer at a time. The only thing missing was a wide screen TV.

As it turned out the tide was just heading out and the water was really low. Plus we didn’t see any fish. The locals weren’t out there either which is usually an indicator that the fishing isn’t that hot at the moment.

We stay for a few hours and enjoy the Scotch Steve gave us along with a few snacks and then closed things up for the day and headed back to home. I am so looking forward to the next opportunity to go ice fishing.

Ice fishing is carried out on a frozen body of water. Lines and spears are part of the ice fishing gear together with other tools meant to break the hard surface and cut a hole for uniform access to the unfrozen depths underneath. The sitting position is preferred for ice fishing too, as the fishermen can stay either on special stools or directly on the ice. For some, ice fishing is all the more enjoyable as they have built real sheds or cabins around the ice openings, bringing the comfort of a bunk bed with them.

Ice Fishing is considered a popular and even necessary activity in the cold areas on our globe. Latvia, Norway, Finland, Germany, Russia, Estonia and other Northern countries have given ice fishing the rank of favorite pastime as it has long ceased to earn one’s living now. The Northern states and regions of the American continent where ice fishing still flourishes are Canada, Alaska, Colorado, Michigan and so on.

As for the type of fishing gear used for ice fishing, technologies now allow the use of more complex methods with superior results. A fishing line or a spear would surely prove worthless for this type of activity in the absence of a chisel or an ice saw to start things with. Remember that the ice break through is the one to come first. But despite the hole the freezing process is unstoppable, therefore most fishermen also carry a skimmer to remove that newly formed layer of ice. Most people also bring heaters along, not just to prevent ice formation but also to preserve a level of personal comfort too. That is why wooden huts or cabins which retain the heat indoors are held in high esteem by ice fishing fans.

Ice fishing is based on three different methods, each with its specifically designed tools. First, you can use small-sized rods with colorful little lures or baits. The second makes use of tip-ups that are a great means of catching fish in large quantities within a certain period of time. And last, there’s spear ice fishing for which you need a larger hole and fish decoys.

Whichever the choice from the three methods, things with ice fishing will never be like in the all days. It appears that today, sonars make fish detection piece of cake. Presently fishermen will make about 100 holes per day if they wished to catch large amounts of fish, very much unlike our ancestors who had to wait by the hole for the fish to come to them.