Marr Park hosts ice fishing clinic

    Marr Park was the scene of many smiling faces Saturday afternoon. The Washington County Conservation Education Center hosted a day of ice fishing on one of its frozen ponds. There were four tents set up on the pond for the kids to ice fish inside. In one tent, fishermen kept watch of the fish through a television connected to an underwater camera. When the tents overflowed with people, more holes were drilled outside them. 

    Steve Anderson, director of the Washington County Conservation, used a battery-operated drill connected to an auger to make the holes, which were about six inches wide. Then he scooped out the flush with a large spoon. Kids sat on a row of buckets positioned a few feet from their holes, waiting for a bite. Most of the kids used waxworms as bait, which are the larvae of wax moths.  

    Ainsworth resident Tori Brush hadn?t been sitting for more than a few minutes when she felt a tug on her line. She frantically reeled it in. When she finally yanked her hook out of the water, she saw a redear sunfish dangling from her pole.

    It was not the first time Brush had ever pulled a fish from the ice. Brush, daughter of Allen and Janel Brush, has gone ice fishing a few other times ? at Marr Park in previous years and at a pond near Crawfordsville.

    ?This is probably the fourth fish I?ve ever caught,? said Brush. ?I?ve caught a few bluegill and a crappie.?

    Mark Ecklor Jr. of Washington wore his ice skates to the event. After cutting a few grooves in the ice, he sat down on a bucket to fish with his mother Kim and his father Mark Ecklor Sr. Ecklor Sr. has fond memories of ice fishing on the frozen ponds of Minnesota, famous for its 10,000 lakes.

    ?We had a tent like the ones here,? he said. ?We had a heater in there. We were catching all kinds of fish. It was really fun.?

    Ecklor Sr. said he and his family enjoy coming to Marr Park to fish and camp. One thing he likes about ice fishing is that it doesn?t require a lot of expensive equipment.

    ?You need a little pole, a drill, and that?s about it,? he said. ?You drop the line through the hole and then raise it up from the bottom a little bit. That?s where the fish are.?

    Tracy Fisher and his son Nicholas were on the pond, too. Tracy said he?s fished about half-a-dozen times in the past four years, but has passed on the opportunity in recent years.

    ?The last two years, I didn?t feel the ice was safe enough,? he said. ?The ice should be about 4-6 inches to ice fish on. If you?re unsure, you can drill a hole in the ice to find out.?

    Tracy said he has a local farmer friend who lets him fish from his pond in the summer.

    ?We have had pretty good luck catching bluegill there in the summer,? he said. ?I fish for blue gill, and he (Nicholas) caught a bass one year. It was about 16 inches long, which is pretty long.?

    Tracy brought along his own hand-operated drill to the event. He said the drill is wide enough to allow most fish to fit through the hole. 

    ?I?ve heard of guys catching catfish while ice fishing but the hole wasn?t big enough to pull them up,? he said.

For more, see our Jan. 17 print edition.