Ice fisherman tackles winter blues

Average temperatures in the Burlington area were 26 degrees below freezing on Sunday. Gerry Hartley and his wife Cathy spent the day outside on Lake Champlain ice fishing.

“I prefer the solitude of winter fishing,” Hartley insisted, in spite of temperatures. “It’s peaceful out there; the ice kind of makes noises and groans. And in the summer I might be out on my boat and I’m risking the wind and the waves, sunburn. In the summer I have to rely on the intelligence of other people, the same way you would with cars and other drivers, you have to trust people to be safe with their boats.”

That’s saying nothing of the excitement of pulling the fish through the ice.

“I fish for perch,” Hartley explained, “Sometimes you can get into a good school of perch. It’s exciting. Sometimes they’re nice and big and it’s bite after bite after bite.”

Hartley, who fishes almost exclusively on Lake Champlain, writes a blog about his experiences.

“I don’t fish enough,” Hartley said. “The blog gives me another avenue to surround myself with fishing. I just want to share it with others. I really like the sport.”

Hartley is not alone. The most recent Fishing, Hunting, and Wildlife recreation survey taken by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service noted that in 2006, 114,000 state residents and nonresidents 16 years old and older fished in Vermont.

Not all of these anglers do it simply for sport.

“I myself have never sold a fish,” Hartley said. “We keep a lot of fish for ourselves, to eat, or we share them with family. If they are packaged properly they can last up to a year.”

But some of Hartley’s fellow anglers look to share their catch with a broader audience.

“There are people that will go out and catch a five-gallon bucket and will have 15 to 20 pounds to sell, for whatever the market is,” Hartley explained. “Most of it goes to tackle shops, and they in turn sell it to raise sea food. And a lot of the fish do end up around Champlain in local restaurants.”

Hartley’s personal preference is Yellow Perch, but Northern Pike and Crappie are also among Lake Champlain’s most highly sought species.

“Crappie and Perch are pan fish in Vermont,” Hartley explained. “They are not considered game fish, and non-game fish can be sold without having a special license.”

This allows more Vermont fishermen to participate in the commercial fishing industry, a practice that Hartley recognizes as essential to the livelihood of many of his peers.

“There are a lot of people that do it to supplement their income in the winter,” Hartley observed. “A lot of people have seasonal jobs that don’t give them employment in winter.”

But as commercial fishing has grown in Vermont, the fish population has changed.

“The conditions are pretty good,” Hartley said, “with the exception of undersize perch. I attribute this to commercial fishing.”

For several years Vermont placed a limit on perch fishing.

“This curtailed the commercial fishermen,” Hartley explained. “The perch population grew. But then six or seven years ago Vermont came back with unlimited catch. Since then, the size of the perch has reduced.”

But Hartley is more concerned about other threats to Lake Champlain fishing. Recently a species of fish called Alewife has posed a problem to Vermont anglers.

“Alewife is an invasive species,” Hartley said. “They don’t tolerate a fast temperature change. In the last few years the temperature dropped quickly and millions died off. Now the fish you’re fishing for don’t want to go for your bait that’s moving around, they want to go for the dead and dying fish that are easier to catch.”

Additionally, fish populations have been diminished by the lake’s growing problem with Sea Lamprey.

“They’ve overpopulated the lake,” Hartley stated. “They’re a parasite. They attach themselves to fish and suck the fluids out of them, killing them.”

Hartley also noted Lake Champlain’s continuing battle with silt and phosphorous loading.

“When farmers spread manure everything runs downhill. The lake is the lowest point, it runs there and brings phosphorous with it. But,” Hartley observed, “not all of it is coming from farmers’ fields.”

Another concern to Vermont fishermen as of late is the demolition of the Champlain Bridge and the construction of the new bridge that will start in the spring.

“It is a phenomenal area to fish for salmon,” Hartley said of the region around the bridge. “People are a little bit worried about what it will be like this spring. They are worried that fishing there will be diminished.”

But Todd Flint, who has fished around the Champlain Bridge for 25 years, expressed a different priority.

“I’m pretty sure they won’t let us fish there until construction is over,” Flint acknowledged. “But the hardship and inconvenience that it has caused all the people in the area on a day to day basis and in regards to their very livelihoods is much greater in comparison to my recreational habits. Let’s just get everything back to normal and finish the construction. The fish will always be there. It’s a big lake.”

About the lake, Hartley echoed Flint’s sentiment.

“It’s one heck of a big, beautiful resource.”

You can read Hartley’s blog at

http://lakechamplainfishing.blogspot.com/