Author Topic: How old to be to quit ice fishing? (Read 1498 times)

todalake · « **on:** Dec 09, 2018, 01:59 PM »

I couldn't find the thread of how long guys/gals have been fishing. I didn't take up ice fishing until I retired 10 years ago. Since then acquired all the goodies needed. Since I turn 75 next month, wondered how many more years I got.

mi500 · « **Reply #1 on:** Dec 09, 2018, 02:04 PM »

Get a younger guy to haul your gear, set up your shack, drill your holes and then haul you out to a pre warmed up shack then don’t quit.

Osage · « **Reply #2 on:** Dec 09, 2018, 02:08 PM »

You got as long as your want to overrides your can't do.

RyanW · « **Reply #3 on:** Dec 09, 2018, 02:17 PM »

I assume I’m going to die one way or another ice fishing. There’s many ways it can happen. Some that don’t involve ice fishing at all. How many years I get to enjoy time on the ice isn’t up to me. I’ll never stop fishing. Even when I’m dead and feeding the worms. Worms make great bait.

mrjohnny · « **Reply #4 on:** Dec 09, 2018, 02:32 PM »

My friend drown while fishing..just saying..

Oldbear · « **Reply #5 on:** Dec 09, 2018, 03:04 PM »

I hope I'm fishing into eternity some where.

esox_xtm · « **Reply #6 on:** Dec 09, 2018, 03:16 PM »

Don't. Just don't.
You got 10 years on me but I won't ever be ready to wonder when. Newly retired, I finally have the time to fish when and where I want (for the most part). I'm grabbin' all I can get without worrying about what's left.

Heck, I could walk out to the road to collect yesterdays' mail and get clipped by some bozo and it would be the last thing I ever do. That's stupid, you say. I've had three people crash land in the mouth of my drive in the last 20 years. One took out the mailbox and another only missed it by less than a foot. Not so much...

So, what am I doing here? Taking a break from trimming out some frozen venison for sausage, watching the Packer game and then I'll be getting my ice stuff organized for a quickie Wednesday morning with kayl and then 5 days of fishing and sausage making @ St. Germain. Life is good.

Maybe I'll just leave the mail in the box...

skifisher · « **Reply #7 on:** Dec 09, 2018, 03:33 PM »

“...when they pry the auger from my ice cold hands.”
Really though, my only hope is that when I’m called I’m doing something I love.
Life is like a piece of fishing line...you never quite know how long it is, how many knots it has, or how strong it is until it breaks. I guess the only thing to do is keep on fishin’!

Unclegillhunter · « **Reply #8 on:** Dec 09, 2018, 03:44 PM »

Just turning 65, switched some stuff out to make for a less heavy load. See a guy every year on a lake we both fish. He was 86 last season. You have as long as you still want to do it!
Long may your run!
Keep it safe! JDL

32footsteps · « **Reply #9 on:** Dec 09, 2018, 03:54 PM »

My grandpa fished until he was 89. The following June he was buried. Never drove on the ice. Never sat in a shack. Never used an auger. He’d sit on a bucket fishing out of a hole he cut with a chisel and he fished a ton. No electronics...nothing. The man still caught an insane amount of fish. Based on many threads here and other places there’s no way he should’ve wasted his time but he did what worked for him and was darn successful at it.

lefty2053 · « **Reply #10 on:** Dec 09, 2018, 04:07 PM »

I will fish until I can't. Only 65 now and had a rough time yesterday climbing a short hill pulling a sled. I took my Sled down this slope which was over a foot of Snow and had to carry it back in pieces. Didn't even fish this lake but thought I could. I ended up fishing another lake.

stinkyfingers · « **Reply #11 on:** Dec 09, 2018, 04:14 PM »

Been at this maybe 45 years though the details of the early days are fuzzy. I know there was a dull spoon auger in there at the beginning that almost killed me. Staring hard at 70 and while I know I'm in the fourth quarter, I haven't heard the two minute warning yet. Of course, most often we don't hear it. Blind now in one eye and nowhere near as strong as I once was, I'm also a better fisherman now than at any other time in my life. Just go like hell until you drop off the twig.

ticktoc · « **Reply #12 on:** Dec 09, 2018, 05:08 PM »

Just be smart about it try and go out with others. I meet up with older guys and do the dragging and drilling for them. I quite enjoy seeing them out on the hard water happy. That's just me though. Good luck and be safe

Iceassin · « **Reply #13 on:** Dec 09, 2018, 05:19 PM »

According to my last will and testament I am not to be dragged off the ice until the hole in the ground has been dug...just hope it isn't too soon. By the way, I turn 63 on Friday and I plan to be on somewhere.

esox_xtm · « **Reply #14 on:** Dec 09, 2018, 05:38 PM »

Quote from: skifisher on Dec 09, 2018, 03:33 PM

“...when they pry the auger from my ice cold hands.”
Really though, my only hope is that when I’m called I’m doing something I love.
Life is like a piece of fishing line...you never quite know how long it is, how many knots it has, or how strong it is until it breaks. I guess the only thing to do is keep on fishin’!

Izzat flag up? C'mon guys... my eyesight ain't so good anymore. Help me out...

Yep. Trying to downsize but it's not working very well. I like to play too much. I did buy into someone elses used clothes hanger (elliptical) and I am using it 5 days a week. Got it home I barely made 3 minutes <embarrassed> before my legs turned to rubber. I'm up to 7 minutes and I'm tappin' that 3x a day and it's been really good for me.

Had my great uncle out ice fishing years back. He was 88. Got into the blackberry and was in a contest with my pre-teen son on who could belly flop on a boat cushion and how far could they slide. I wanna be Harry...

Just remember, it's the journey! And... this ain't the end of it. Just don't believe there will be ice fishing after.

icebucketjohn · « **Reply #15 on:** Dec 09, 2018, 05:55 PM »

I'm 66., started ice fishing when I was years old... so that make 62 yrs I've been on the ice. Granted legs aren't as strong, stamina certainly reduced.... but I still get the adrenaline going every season.

COPD, and enlarged heart, a bout with prostate cancer hasn't deterred my anxiety for getting out on the ice, drilling holes and catching fish. (I'm strictly an Ice Fisherman... don't Soft Water Fish whasoever).

Absolutely LOVE IT and hope health issues don't put a complete Kabash to my frigid passion.

Dave R · « **Reply #16 on:** Dec 09, 2018, 06:04 PM »

I suspect your body will tell you when it's time. Whether you listen to it, well..............

SKIFFLAKEJIMMY · « **Reply #17 on:** Dec 09, 2018, 06:11 PM »

I don't remember my first fish. And I wonder which one will be my last. I am 68 and it becomes harder every year. AIN'T GONNA STOP. Keep on Truckin.

bullpine · « **Reply #18 on:** Dec 09, 2018, 06:36 PM »

If your lucky you will be ice fishing into your 80s. Just remember there bold ice fishermen and old ice fishermen, just no bold old ice fishermen.

DaleL57 · « **Reply #19 on:** Dec 09, 2018, 08:00 PM »

Going to be 62 in March.
Started falling in love with ice fishing 10 years ago.
Cause of all you old guys is why I love the sport.
Nothing like pulling a sled for someone that is having troubles doing it.

missoulafish · « **Reply #20 on:** Dec 09, 2018, 08:05 PM »

This is a great thread:)

Hoserman · « **Reply #21 on:** Dec 09, 2018, 08:09 PM »

I'll put it this way. I'm a 20 year old trapped in a 69 year old body. As long as I/we stay active it will keep the body loose and besides walking out on the ice in winter is darn good exercise. Right now I really don't have an OFF button.

RuttNutt · « **Reply #22 on:** Dec 09, 2018, 08:42 PM »

Get your “kid” to buy you cigs and beer- then you don’t have to quit!

“THE FIRST 90 YEARS OR SO..........THEY GO BY PRETTY FAST!”

motocross269 · « **Reply #23 on:** Dec 09, 2018, 08:44 PM »

I just read where a guy 82 years old just walked the Appalachian trail...That is over 2000 miles of walking in the mountains....

Just keep doing your best and I am sure you will have a lot of years left to fish...Look at old age as a blessing not a curse, my dad use to tell me "Never complain about getting old, not everyone has that opportunity"....I hope the lord has it in his plans that I can keep fishing for a long time yet..

jopes · « **Reply #24 on:** Dec 09, 2018, 09:25 PM »

My dad just turned 85. Still pulls his gear by hand, hand drills his own holes with a 6" lazer auger.

I pretty much go by the same thing he says. The day he can't fish is the day he dies.

Bearseatfish · « **Reply #25 on:** Dec 10, 2018, 06:26 AM »

get a wildcraft drive on the ice and stay warm. Good to go another 10+years.

Raquettedacker · « **Reply #26 on:** Dec 10, 2018, 06:33 AM »

IM NOT OLD.......
IM JUST WORN OUT.........

Went yesterday and did a lot of walking and im sore today..

kpd145 · « **Reply #27 on:** Dec 10, 2018, 06:42 AM »

When I first started ice fishing I went with an old guy. Had to be 75 ,name was Leo.

Great guy. I always helped him drag his fishing gear out, he taught me alot about ice fishing.

Leo passed away some years ago but when j last fished with him, he was 81 yrs old. He had a heart attack on morey pond one year. Scared tue crap out of me.

emmettid · « **Reply #28 on:** Dec 10, 2018, 07:02 AM »

as long as the GOOD LORD will allow me to. just turned 78

52isntbigenough · « **Reply #29 on:** Dec 10, 2018, 08:13 AM »

With how good the tech is in clothing and equipment these days, I can't imagine quitting until I was swimming with the fishes.

News:

Author Topic: How old to be to quit ice fishing? (Read 1498 times)