THE CASE OF THE SUBMERGED MINNOW BUCKET

THE CASE OF THE SUBMERGED MINNOW BUCKET

On Wednesday January 17 my buddy Irv and I went up to Lake Simcoe to set up the huts and get ready for the ice fishing season. There is a real shortage of minnows and after a considerable length of time trying to get minnows we succeeded. Our huts are out about 6 miles from Beaverton so did not get there until about 9 A.M. At that point we put the minnows in the bucket and hung them down the hole while we cleaned and set up the huts. At aprox. 11 A.M. we had everything ready so we pulled up the bucket and put 4 minnows on the lines and sent the bucket back down the hole. In a few

minutes a fish came along and stole my minnow so I went to pull the bucket and the handle broke and down it went to the bottom full of minnows. For the next 2 hours we spent trying to retrieve it and finally gave up. At this point I went for a walk to see if anyone had a few minnows that they could spare. I found a couple of guys who loaned us 24 minnows and I promised to return the favor. We started fishing again and for the afternoon we had 6 hits and caught 3 fish. All were white fish.

When I got home I proceeded to get some magnets ready, and some heavy line with large hooks to try and get the bucket back only for the supply of minnows.
On Saturday January 20 I went back up with all the equipment prepared to do what was necessary to retrieve the bucket. When I got there I figured I might as well put a line down first while I got set up and maybe catch a fish. In a few Minutes a fish came onto the screen and I took my line to see if I could catch it. All of a sudden I felt a heavy weight and guess what. YES I had hooked my bucket and brought it up full of minnows. You may think this is strange however this is only one of many items that we have retrieved. The list consists of two rod holders, a radio, a rod and reel, and now a full minnow bucket. I wonder what it will be next week.