Quick Quip...

How to keep Ice-fishing holes open overnight: Take a lesson from the Eskimo people from around the world, and build a small "igloo" of snow over the hole. Not only will it insulate it from the nasty overnight winds, snow and frigid temperatires, it'll make the darned thing easier to find the next day!

What's New...

Hey! The Forums are UP! So now to work on other areas...

The Derby is once again in flux. We weren't getting enough of a response to make it pay for itself, so we'll have to try to find some sponsors to kick in some prizes, etc.. In the meantime, all entries are now FREE so send yours in!

We've just added some new links to the Net-Links Page in the Resource Center, and redesigned the page to enable you to return to TFN easier.

The Trophy Gallery in the Resource Center is starting to get some nice pics, so send yours in -- We'll make you famous!

This Issue...

First of all, I'd like to officially welcom the folks at Outdoor Life Radio and Bass'n Gal for choosing TFN as their official Web-home, and look for some more great input soon! February is sort of a 'catch-all' month (pardon the pun), so there's a bit of everything in this issue.

Beef of the Month...

Anyone who watched the news or read a paper in the last week or two of January probably saw the story about the Great Angler Airlift that occurred on Lake Simcoe, Ontario when a major pressure crack opened just off-shore, stranding hundreds of hard-water enthusiasts. What bothered me about the whole situation was not that the story was reported badly (although little background information was collected); nor was it that hardly any concern was paid to the potential danger the fisherfolk faced. No, what sent me through the roof was the criticism directed toward the sport in general and the anglers in particular, much of which was attributable to the slant put on the story by the media. So I will take this opportunity to defend both ice-fishing and it's enthusiasts, and stick it to those in the media who had a collective brain-cramp when deciding how to report the story.

First of all, ice-fishing is not a dangerous passtime. Like any activity, it can be made dangerous through stupidity, but I would hazzard to guess that there are more injuries and fatalities in skiing, snowmobiling, or even outdoor skating during the winter months than in ice-fishing. And any of those folks who think that venturing out onto a hard crust over frigid water is silly and dangerous can perhaps explain to this writer the relative safety and intelligence of:

• strapping a couple of boards on their feet, waiting in line for an hour in order to sit in a cold metal and wood chair suspended (in the wind) above the trees so that they can slide down a hill at high speeds while trying to avoid said trees as well as rocks, chairlift supports and other skiiers, including children.
• getting on a machine that costs thousands of dollars in order to race across the same ice, beside (and across) roads, or even through forests at speeds that make turning (let alone stopping) more of a theoretical rather than practical concept.
• tying on blades that are sharper than most knives to slide around, carving lines in the same ice, while attempting not to go through, or at least fall and tear an interior-cruciate or anterior-cruciate ligament.

And let's not even get into hockey. (Of course, being from Toronto, the home of the mighty Maple Leafs, no-one here wants to talk about hockey anyway, except perhaps to mumble that everyone should be fired.)

The fact that pressure caused by the ice contracting while freezing in the middle of Lake Simcoe forced it to 'break-away' from shore is not something that could necessarily have been calculated, or even guessed. Small cracks occur all the time without incidence or notice. It was more of a freak that it happened so dramatically along such a long stretch of shore. But the anglers were less at fault than those who knowingly live on the San Andreas fault.

The thought that ice-fishing is dangerous by definition is ludicrous, and anyone ignorant enough to believe so should have their head examined.

However, much of the public was affected by the cinicism and sarcasm presented by the media. No sooner was it announced that the cost for the Airlift was about $500,000, than the usual group of 'social activists' jumped on the band wagon and demanded to know who was going to pay for it. Of course, the answer is the government. But because governments are paid with taxes, these twits started ranting and raving that the taxpayer was being 'hard-done-by' because of the stupidity of the people who ventured out on the ice.

All I can say to those who expressed this opinion is GET A LIFE! Fishing, more than any other sport or passtime, is responsible for more taxes going into government coffers. And less and less of that money is returned to conserving the resource that makes this grab possible. Let me ask those who so quickly judged the stranded anglers: who pays for the medical services required by injured skiiers, snowmobilers and skaters? And who pays for the medical attention needed by all those hockey players and even kids on (or off) their tobbogans?

In Ontario, the answer is the taxpayer.

And what passtime is recognized by government as being the most responsible for tourism dollars coming into, and being spent in the province?

In Ontario, the answer is fishing.

Now don't get me wrong. I also ski, tobbagon, skate, play hockey and even get on a snowmobile from time to time (I have to do all this and drink beer in order to maintain my Canadian status, eh?). But no-one begrudges those who take part in these other activities, so why take it out on the angler?

Have a little common sense. And if you are one of those media types who wrote or spoke before thinking your story through, you should either go back to journalism school, or at least be forced to sit through 48 un-interrupted hours of televised figure-skating.

Until next month...
(tight lines, get it wet, good fishin', see you on the water (ice?), etc., etc.).

Scott M. Binnie, Managing Editor