Intrepid reporter Babs Young trekked across the frozen tundra that is Torch Lake to bring you this special report.
This guy was ice fishing on Torch Lake the other day. The ice is almost 3 feet thick and he and his friends just drove their truck out there with no problem. He told me that it [the lake] was 60 feet deep there. Don’t think this ice will go away any time soon.
Our nameless subject is all muffled up, but not to worry. He is not up to No Good. It’s just that it’s pretty cold out there, even inside the shanty, and . . . maybe he called in sick-of-winter. Maybe he went home with a nice whitefish for his supper. That would make him a hero.
One thing I’m sure of. He did not join the long line of people who have caught Fierce Muskies after I promised you there were none in Torch Lake. You cannot catch a fierce muskie through a hole that size.
The subject is much on my mind as I just read a story in last week’s Antrim Review about a world record muskie caught in Lake Bellaire. For those of you not from Around Here, Lake Bellaire is a close neighbor to Torch Lake. In fact they are connected to each other in the Chain of Lakes that wends its way through Antrim County all the way to Grand Traverse Bay. Here is a dandy map, courtesy of Wikipedia Creative Commons:
Back in October the Review had reported that A new state record Muskie, quite possibly Michigan’s largest ever caught with a rod and reel, was caught in Lake Bellaire on Saturday, October 13. It went on to say that the monster, caught by Joe Seeburger of Portage, weighed in at 58 pounds and was 59 inches long, with a 29-inch girth, thus besting the previous state record muskie caught by Kyle Anderson in Torch Lake back in 2009.
You remember Kyle’s triumph and my disgrace. I told you all about it here. Anyway, the latest fish story was duly submitted to the International Game Fish Association (IGFA), which has dubbed it a world record and one of the best record catches of any kind of game fish during 2013. In the world.
Well I’ll be a muskie’s uncle. Be careful out there, Babs.
Torch Lake Views 
P.j. grath
March 17, 2014
Yesterday we saw ice boaters who had driven their trucks and boat trailers out onto the ice of Grand Traverse Bay. Local farmer tells me the frost goes down 88 inches — uh, somewhere near here? Under the paved roads? Not under the heavy, deep snow cover in our fields and yards, I’m sure. And I found out more about why sewer pipes are freezing in the village and not at our house, and it has to do with snow cover versus plowed streets and compacted earth versus non, but I think I’ve said enough.
Ice fishing? No, thanks. Don’t even want a cold beer.
Gerry
March 17, 2014
And yet one day it will all melt . . . Amazing how many fishing shanties have found their way to the bottom of various local bodies of water. Also trucks, snowmobiles, the Evans Hotel.
I don’t even want a cold muskie.
uphilldowndale
March 17, 2014
Fishing in a little box, fishing for a large monster of a fish, dear me no. Not my cup of tea. I’ll stick to frozen fish fingers from the supermarket.
Gerry
March 17, 2014
I am with you as to the little box, although watching fish dream by on a fish cam is mesmerizing. However, if you had ever tasted fresh whitefish from Michigan waters you would be spoiled for frozen fish fingers forever. Muskie, well, no. Come to think of it, muskie is possibly one of the components of frozen fish fingers.
Ed LaFreniere
March 17, 2014
A muskie’s uncle, eh? Sounds as if that glass of wine in front of the fireplace gave you a pretty good jump on thawing your sense of humor. Glad to see that you are making progress – and no longer feeling like such a cold fish!
Gerry
March 17, 2014
You are shameless.
tootlepedal
March 17, 2014
Some people just can’t stop having fun.
Gerry
March 18, 2014
We’re just made that way.
Belinda
March 17, 2014
The Evans Hotel? Is that the one that fell thru the ice when being moved? Isn’t that where Noree lived when she was a child? Is the Brownwood still opened in the summer?
Gerry
March 18, 2014
Yes, yes and yes. C’mon up.
sybil
March 18, 2014
Nothing like fresh fish. Wonderful to know where your food is coming from.
Gerry
March 18, 2014
It would be very interesting to know where those fish have been. Maybe there is a secret tunnel from Torch Lake to the Bay.
WOL
March 18, 2014
Found out why you call it “muskie.” Per wikipedia: “The muskellunge (Esox masquinongy), also known as muskelunge, muscallonge, milliganong, or maskinonge (and often abbreviated “muskie” or “musky”) The common name comes from the Ojibwa word maashkinoozhe, meaning “ugly pike”, by way of French masque allongé (modified from the Ojibwa word by folk etymology), “elongated face.” The French common name is masquinongé or maskinongé.” I am assured that it is a species of pike, which suggests to me another reason not to fool with it. I believe I’ll adopt a live and let live policy by staying here in Texas in the blowing dust and eschew the iced over lake, snow, ice fishing, etc. I suspect the reason for ice fishing is the same as for the Vikings standing knee deep in snow on the edge of the fjord seriously considering . . . i.e., getting out of the house. With beer.
Gerry
March 19, 2014
Now that comment is an excellent present on this sniveling day. (Mama Nature’s the one with the runny nose. I’m just fine, not to worry.)
You know why the Vikings gave up and went home after establishing their settlement in Vinland,* don’t you? They were scared off by the muskies.
*Vinland (or L’Anse Aux Meadows according to the French, who famously renamed everything) was in present-day Newfoundland. It’s now a Canadian National Park and an international world heritage site and I have unaccountably never been there. Another road trip for The List.
Dawn
March 19, 2014
Ice fishing does not sound fun. We used to watch a guy sit on a bucket and fish all day. He was there when we got up, he was there when the sun went down. My Mom said he either loved fishing a lot or had a really bad marriage.
Gerry
March 19, 2014
Sounds like a bit of a chicken-egg puzzle. I think of almost all fishing as meditative. Then there’s the actually catching something good to eat part.
shoreacres
March 19, 2014
Reading WOL’s comment, I began to feel a niggling bit of something jarring loose in my memory. Elongated face? Ah, yes..
Gerry
March 19, 2014
There you go. Those Maine francophones knew what they were talking about.
WOL
March 24, 2014
The comments on Ice fishing remind me of the big difference between fishing and catching fish, as in the following exchange:
Passerby: Catching anything?
Fisherman: Naw. Just fishing.
Gerry
March 25, 2014
Although I am lucky at catching fish, I completely relate to “just fishing.”