After a fresh snowfall earlier this week, Mark French and I were anxious to get back out on the pond for another ice fishing adventure. We loaded up the Argos and headed towards Bauline for a quick jaunt over the road.

The snowstorm earlier this week turned to freezing rain, and then went mild so there was a lot of water/slob on the ice. Bikes and even tracked Argos normally don't like this as water logged snow wont hold up the machine. Fortunately both machines powered through and we made it to our desired spot with much less water without drama.

First item on the to do list was to set our lines and get them fishing.

With lines set, we started setting up Mark's Eskimo 650XD insulated ice fishing shelter - turned hot tent. This unit is more than big enough for two of us so I left my own shelter at home today.

These Woods drill adaptors for the ice pegs are definitely worth the money. They work surprisingly well spinning in the pegs smooth and quick, I figured they may be wobbly but in fact they are not.

With the shelter and woodstove set up, I went down the pond onshore with the Argo and my Chinese 2500 top handle chainsaw to cut down some dead standing firewood to keep the stove going. The wood was wet from snow & drizzle but was not green so it burned quite well. I also chose sticks that wouldn't have to be split.

Project 6x6 punched back through the slush with ease and in no time we had the sticks chunked and stowed under the stove to dry. This inexpensive little saw continues to work fantastically, it's still on the OEM chain which I keep razor sharp. I also run the saw only with husky pre-mix fuel which does not go bad for a long time even sitting in the saw. 

As a bonus to an already fantastic day, we started catching a few trout. We threw back small ones but kept just a few pan size for breakfast.

The welding blanket is a safety measure to protect the wall of the shelter from the stove. It works quite well, the blanket gets warm but the wall behind it stays perfectly cool. The stove pipe exits the shelter though a custom made fire & heatproof stove jack which attaches in place of any window.

Before too long I had a snack in the pan, some of my recently made apple wood smoked Canadian Bacon which Mark hadn't had before.

Around suppertime we started getting the main feed on the go, Fresh Fish Stew.

Onions were chopped and fried up along with some bacon trimmings from my recent run of homemade bacon last week. A little salt and pepper were added at this time too.

This was fried in the pot to render out the bacon and brown up the onions.

While that cooked away we peeled and chunked up 10ish potatoes.

With onions cooked we added about 1.5L water, brought that to a boil, then put in the potato.

Cooking on the woodstove worked well, heat was adjusted as needed with the amount of fuel wood and the damper.

While I tended to the pot, Mark took a run down the pond in his Argo, in the process he sunk the machine in deep slop near the edge. A quick solo winch out and he was on his way again.

When the potatoes were tender, we added a few fillets of fresh fish which didn't take long to cook.

When the fish was cooked we broke up the large pieces and let it simmer off to the side while we made toast.

We seen the paper towel technique online and decided to give it a try. The paper towel serves two purposes: keep the bread clean, and keep it from sticking to the stove (which it did when we initially tried).

The trick worked great, the bread toasted beautifully and the towel didn't catch fire or scorch!

Another backwoods meal fit for a king! The flavours were perfect, we added a little more pepper and just a dash of salt to taste.

As the evening wore on the wind dropped right out so we were in no hurry to leave.

Finally around 10pm after an absolutely fantastic day we broke camp and headed for home. It would have been a perfect night to stay overnight if not for the forecasted rain on Sunday which would have made going home wet and miserable. Can't wait to get out again!

Cheers, MIKE

Copyright © 2011 Michael Smith