(N)ice fishing

St. Mike’s students learn to ice fish

On their first time out ice fishing, St. Michael’s High School students Amber Robinson and Lydia Lemieux caught the only fish of the morning during a school fishing field trip.

St. Michael’s High School eighth graders Amber Robinson and Lydia Lemieux caught and released the only fish of the morning before the Low Down could snag a photo of their river monster – a perch about six inches long – so instead they are showing about how big their catch was. On Feb. 25 St. Mike’s students ventured out on the Gatineau River for some good old ice fishing. Hunter Cresswell photo

A group of 50 St. Michael’s High School in Low students strolled out onto the Gatineau River on the snowy morning of Feb. 25 but only eighth graders Robinson, of Cantley, and Lemieux, of Wakefield, caught one little fish – a perch about six inches long – which they released after unhooking it.

“We’ve never ice fished before,” Robinson told the Low Down.

“We thought the advanced group would [catch fish],” Lemieux said, referring to students who brought their own fishing gear from home.

Some students had tackle boxes, their own ice fishing rods, even a fish finder and they didn’t catch anything. Lemieux and Robinson used a wooden fishing rod made by the St. Mike’s carpentry class to reel in their river monster.

No that’s not a catch, just a bait minnow. St. Michael’s High School student and Farm Point resident Finlay Drake focuses on hooking the bait minnow before lowering it below the two-foot thick ice on Gatineau River in Low during a school ice fishing field trip on Feb. 25. Hunter Cresswell photo

For the past five years, except for last year due to COVID-19 restrictions, St. Mike’s students have been venturing out onto the river’s ice to spend part of their day fishing.

“I’m not helping, imagine you’re on your own in the woods and this is how you catch dinner,” St. Mike’s teacher and chaperone Matt Orlando jokingly told a trio of students grossed out about putting a bait minnow on their fishing hook — he then helped them.