Every winter it’s the same. I find myself being asked a question that to me has obvious answers. To many others, however, it involves some incredulous reasoning. Why do I ice fish? Why do I submit myself to the ice and snow and to the buffeting winter winds when I could sit by the television or read or do an array of other indoor things?

The answer lies in the fact that to me, winter is every bit as beautiful as summer. As far as temperatures are concerned our winters are just as bearable as our summers. We can add clothing against unusual cold just as we can remove clothing to adjust for unusual heat. One is as easy as the other to do. Only skiers, ice fishermen, trappers and a few hunters seem to understand that fact.

With the business of proper clothing aside, the argument for enjoying the Michigan outdoors in wintertime centers around the love we have for special activities. With me it’s the element of surprise. You never know for sure what you may pull up through that hold in the ice. Also with me it is the fringe benefits, special experiences and sights that I get just from being outside at a time when most people aren’t.

Most people’s movements are as predictable as the migratory routes of waterfowl. Their paths are as worn and regular as the paths of muskrats in a swamp, which is why those creatures are so easy to trap.

But as ice fisherman walks on water. I like that thought. He walks on frozen water, equipped with everything he needs for comfort and sustenance for anything from a couple of hours to a full day. Fishing equipment, food, light, heat, and a dozen small items are all compacted and balanced in such a way that the fisherman can be self sufficient and yet stride from place to place at a moment’s notice.

Once that special set of equipment has been gathered and organized, the ice fisherman is ready to enjoy.

I’ve had some firsts in the way of experiences. Once while fishing on first ice, just out from a big prominent muskrat lodge, I suddenly had one of the residents of that mound, surface in one of my freshly drilled holes. Your guess is as good as mine as to which of us was the more startled.

Another time I made a friend when I showed him how to bend the handle of his ice skimmer to form a kind of gaff hook. He was able to land a four-pound northern pike on a hand rod when otherwise it probably would have broken his two-pound test line.

Add to those events the convenience of getting on lakes that would be difficult in the summer and you can begin to see the attractions of winter ice. And beyond the fishing there are the especially lovely sunsets that can be appreciated so much more from the flat surfaces of lakes.

Finally there are the evenings when the sudden appearance of a full moon has added a memory to a winter outing. Or there are the black evenings flecked with snowflakes, when the lanterns of other anglers have popped into bright specks of warmth and light to extend the pleasures of the day.

If you can see and feel these things, you can understand why I ice fish. You too can answer the question. Why do you ice fish?