Gitchi Gummi...

Yesterday I had to go to Ashland, WI for some repairs to my vehicle. My vehicle had to be towed the 45 miles to the dealership, so I followed along in my wife's car. (AAA is a good service to have when you live in the middle of the Chequamegon National Forest.) Since I realized that these repairs would take most of the day, I packed up my snowshoes and ice fishing equipment with the intent of fishing the Chequamegon Bay. I hadn't heard much about how the fishing has been on the bay, but, having had good experiences in the past, I thought I would give it a try.

After getting the preliminaries over with at the dealership, I just walked off their back parking lot down to and out on the bay. It was lightly snowing in the city, but once I got out on the bay the visibility dropped dramatically. A combination of a fine snowfall and a wind from the north-northwest made the trek out to one of my favorite spots a little dicey, requiring a compass to keep on track. After about a half-hour hike, I arrived at my destination and found a few other fellow fisherperons (there were a couple of attractive middle aged ladies jigging for perch) there also.

I dropped a couple of tip-ups after drilling a few holes with a hand auger (I don't ice fish enough to justify the purchase of a power auger) and then settled down to jigging too. Now, I am not a very patient person, and hard water fishing is really not my first choice for a winter activity, but, in this case, it was really the only way to await the completion of my vehicle repairs without having to sit for hours listening to soap operas on the dealership's TV in their waiting area. The perch weren't very cooperative, and neither were the salmon or trout. So, I left my jig pole to work itself and walked around to the other fisherpersons to strike up a conversation or two. Of course, I headed right for the ladies first.

They were friendly enough and allowed this stranger to sit down and talk fishing for awhile. Soon, however, the conversation turned to the economy and the employment situation in Ashland and the surrounding area. Both ladies were single parent mom's and worked as waitresses at a local restuarant. One of the women had three children at home, and the other, two still at home. In both cases they told me that they were out fishing to supplement their families's table fare. They also advised me that they had arranged to have their children, who were of age, get their hunting licenses and accompany their mothers when the ladies went deer hunting during the recent Wisconsin gun season; all in an effort to put food on the table. They were both proud to announce that their efforts had paid off and they had meat to last for some months.

Some political pundit announced the other day that there was a "jobless" economic recovery going on in the US. One of my friends emailed me about this and commented that a "jobless recovery" was like having a "meatless" hotdog. "What was the point?" The economy in northern Wisconsin is in pretty bad shape and it appears that it will be a long time in recovering.

Unfortunately, my ice fishing efforts did not produce anything, so I was unable to supplement the ladies catch. They had a few perch, but nowhere near their limit. The catch looked sufficient for one meal for 4-5 people, if everyone left the table hungry.

I headed back to the dealership late in the afternoon, thanking my "lucky stars" that I was still working. Unfortunately, I was told by the mechanic and the service department manager that they would have to hold on to my vehicle as they did not have the necessary parts on hand. They indicated that the earliest the parts could be delivered would be next week and the vehicle was not in drivable shape. This could only spell "expensive." So, I loaded up my wife's car and headed back home with mixed emotions about what I had seen, heard, and experienced that day.