WINTER
by Jerry Kustich

My long-time friend Mark Weber recently posted on Facebook a stark ice-fishing photo from Georgetown Lake located in high country Montana some twenty or so miles from Anaconda. The pic took me back a few decades to the era when I was addicted to that frigid endeavor during Big Sky winters. If only to take a break from casting flies for trout until at least late February, ice-fishing provided the opportunity to target non-trout species like yellow perch, burbot or kokanee salmon while planning for more fly-fishing ventures in the year ahead.

I became acquainted with Georgetown Lake in the late 70s when I lived in northern Idaho. At one point in January 1977 I got the itch to take a winter camping trip to Montana to chase whitefish in the Bitterroot River and, on the recommendation from an acquaintance, to try to catch some kokanee salmon out of an ice covered Georgetown Lake. So after a few days of whitefishing on the river near Missoula and sleeping under my unheated pick-up camper shell, I headed up to Georgetown the morning of the third day to scout out the lake. Finding a bunch of holes abandoned near shore by early morning anglers, I hand drilled my hole through 20” of ice in mid afternoon, attached my maggot to a very small jig, sat on a bucket, and waited for a bite. When I finally caught a 9” kokanee at dark, I was hooked.

Upon rolling out of bed and jumping from the camper the next morning, the temperature registered -20 in the local campground. Needless to say, it took several cups of coffee at the nearby café to garner the gumption to head back out to the “hot spot” I had left the evening beforehand. It was likely close to zero when I arrived at the same place while observing other anglers in makeshift shelters accumulating small piles of salmon laying icy stiff on the snow next to them. Likely destined for the grill or the smoker, I later learned kokanee were delightful fare either way. And though it took a while for me to detect the small nibbles that would result in a fish, I once again stayed until dark as my catch rate improved slightly. The next day I did the same. Although the kokanee in the lake are typically small, I found the fun was in the challenge of trying to hook one.

So when I moved to Twin Bridges in 1983 and met Mark, a native Montanan, the next summer, we shared ice-fishing stories like old pros. And since Twin was only 75 miles from Georgetown Lake, we couldn’t wait until the water froze thick enough in December to hold cold-footed anglers anxious for the new ice-fishing season to begin. For many days throughout subsequent winters, Mark and I would leave town at 5:00 a.m., get on the ice at daybreak, sit on a bucket staring at our rod until dark, catch varying numbers of salmon, and then make the long drive home afterward. On sunny days or those when snow would drift high upon our legs during blizzards, we endured. Those were good times. Mark’s photo brought back those memories and I am glad he is still fishing Georgetown Lake like we did years ago. I sure do miss those days.