Those Who Remain Will Be Championship.

    The national holiday of Championship Sunday entails watching the 2 games to determine who'll be in the Super Bowl, another national holiday. About 3 decades ago when our ambition was larger that our waistlines I and 2 buddies set out to do some perch fishing. We planned to go out to Stoney Point just south of Fermi power plant. Power plant as in electricity, cooling towers, radioactive rods and warm water discharge. We got there early so we could fish 4 or 5 hours and get back to Ho's house to clean fish and watch the games.

  We got out on the ice by 7am and headed due east to find the deepest water with safe ice. This was the typical strategy we used then, deep water meaning bigger fish and most fish caught. The strategy only worked once but that was how we rolled back then. So about 100 yards from shore we encountered a crack in the ice, thorough inspection gave 12 inches of ice thickness on both sides. At the time the recommendations for travel on ice were much different than today, I'm sure due to liability issues. A car or truck was usually driven on just 8 inches, so we had plenty of safe ice.

   The Navy Vet says "no guts no glory" in his best Admiral Farragut impression. So unlike the 400 odd people fishing on the landward side of the crack we ventured out to find the big ones. Big for our quarry the perch is 8 or 9 inches. Catch 25 and you get a pound of boneless fillets, an average catch is about 10 to 15 with a limit being 50. After catching and cleaning the going rate of 10 to $12 a pound is really a good buy. We were lucky that an empty fishing hut was available to us where the ice thickness/water depth formula had just become to our liking. The hut held all 3 of us and had holes drilled before with only 3 to 4 inches of ice on them. Ho used his brand new Xmas present to drill thru the ice with gas powered ease. We set up quickly and were soon fishing. Shortly another jumper came by and asked how we were doing and in the tradition of fisherman all over the world we told him our luck was pretty good, not having any fish just the great borrowed hut. The sun was out and the hut warming with it which called for refreshments to keep our body temps down, life was good.

   We weren't catching any fish and had just a couple of almost bites, maybe from fish swimming by. That's what made it seem odd that all 3 of our bobbers went way down under the surface of the water indicating a nice bite from a bigger fish. We all pulled up lines to check for a small fish on or lost bait, nothing. All bait was untouched and no fish or fish scales present. As I was getting my line back in the water I could see the jumper that came by earlier jogging into shore, I thought it was strange just like my bobber heading back down under the ice like a gang of fish were fighting for it and yes my buddies were dealing with the same. When I peered outside to where the jumper was about 200 yards away I saw open water. Not water on the ice, water with no ice on it. I exited the hut, leaving my bobber flailing in the hole, as I looked to shore there were about 50 to 75 jumpers standing on the lake edge of the crack not able to jump back the 10 yard distance. I brought in my line and packed up my gear to the dismay of the others. I told them they weren't still fishing anymore, they were trolling because the ice we were on was moving. After many expletives and charges of making up a story, which I hear from them often, they finally came out to take a look and then believed me.

   They packed up and we headed to the crack to find out what was going on and the crack was now 25 yards wide and getting bigger. One poor soul was rapidly pacing back and forth on a 100 yard path of ice repeating to himself that the ice must meet back up somewhere and after about 15 minutes of this he bolted north, never to be seen again. About that time a Coast Guard helicopter showed up to get a party that was stranded way out without any safe ice to come back on. As they're picking them off the ice Roc says to Ho, "You know they won't take your fishing equipment off the ice with you when they rescue you". Ho made us promise to go home and get a canoe to come back and get him and the coveted gas powered ice auger. We wouldn't agree, being Championship Sunday and all. He became very agitated and started pacing back and forth, we were still talking him down when the Coast Guard showed up with 3 or 4 boats and started ferrying the rest of us jumpers back to safety.

   The rescuers just kept saying to themselves, " Why on Championship Sunday would this have to happen..." We sheepishly told them we were sorry and thanked them profusely for coming to get us. They weren't sure about Ho since he had the ice auger bungie corded to his body. I guess it was just his way of saying he wasn't leaving it behind but they didn't care they took everything and did it making sure everyone was safe. So here's a big thanks again to the Coast Guard, I'm sure today there'd be some monetary responsibilities exchanged for that service. We remained past the crack too long and became Championship Sunday Evacuees.