The ice was talking

We were looking for the first steelhead of the spring, and Betsie Bay below highway M-22 between Frankfort and Elberta was filled with ice floes.

The above expression is an old one. Old-timers occasionally utter the phrase 'the ice is talking' during any period between freeze-up and ice-out.

It can happen with two feet of ice or a mass of floating ice floes. Common to most fishermen is the loud crack as the ice heaves during the winter. It's something like shifting plates of land during an other. One plate of ice meets another, pushed itself under another plate of ice, and there is a booming noise.

One of nature's neat early-spring sound

Today, as we looked across the ice from the Frankfort side, in hopes of leaping a few leaping steelhead moving upstream, the talking ice was more list a soft and intimate conversation.

There were soft little hisses, almost like a purring cat, and the occasional clanging aa two ice floes collided. The sounds the ice was making include what sounded like a soft chuckle as if someone were softly laughing at a joke.

We've all heard the gurgling of river water washing around the end of a fallen tree in the water, and that sound was hear today.

Another one of the many sounds was a soft murmuring, strangely similar to two people speaking very softly or whispering. It is a soft sibiland noise, and one must listen closely to differentiate between the other sounds.

We checked the Bay from several locations, and everywhere except at the M-22 bridge where the only sound we could hear was the sluicing sound of river water flowing beneath our feet.

Understanding the many sounds of talking ice

Everywhere we went was the sound of the water saying goodbye to winter, and welcoming in what we hope will be an early spring.

Try as hard as we could, it was impossible to find any steelhead today. We need a soft and warm rain, a rise in current flow, and the rising level of river water caused by a building run-off.

That rain, snowmelt from the swamps, with peck away at any remaining river fish, and that shelf ice will break away from land, making its own form of ice talk.

It's quite obvious that anglers have more time to wait. Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame Guide Mark Rinckey of Honor (231) 325-6901 summed it up quite well.

"It's anyone's guess how long it will take for the steelhead to arrive," he said. "It could be a week, two weeks or longe, and it all depends on the weather. One thing is certain: the fish won't be running until the ice is out of the bay, and some warm falls to raise the water temperature."
Listen to the words of steelhead guide Mark Rinckey.

"Snow melt, and rising water levels in the river, will trigger steelhead runs. Like many things in nature, we have to wait until all the conditions are right, and then the fish will come."

Until then, my day today with Rinckey, and my oldest son David, was enough. Speaking only for myself, I found the very rewarding.

I don't really know what the ice was telling me except to be patient in my wait for the spring spawning run. That point was made very obvious as I listened to the ice talk.

Posted via email from Dave Richey Outdoors