Anyone who has visited the lake can attest to the fact that wind action can drive the water in both basins upwards of 6 feet. Sometimes more. This phenomenon can be very dangerous for boaters, property owners and of course, the Fishers. South or North currents can move or even destroy the nets. Even duck hunters can attest to the problems they faced with a sudden rise or drop in the lake level.

Commercial fishers who regard the lake as family ask her  to settle down and  make ice evenly. This allows for a good freeze and easier for the jigger to help set the nets. This was the case one year when I lived as a preschooler at our fall and winter fishing station on Humbuck Bay. (The charts call it Humbug Bay or Washoe Bay.)  For some reason  the Humbuck name stuck with my family. Icelanders love their 'by names' (nicknames). Anyway, that year the bay froze like glass. This caused much excitement as my father and his crew could get an earlier then normal start on the winter fishing season.

Then suddenly an unusual thing happened. The wind uncharacteristically turned to blow strongly from the South. This continued at gale force for  several days forcing the ice to crack with a sickening loud boom. The south wind forced the water level down as our water moved through the Channel and then to the North basin. This caused considerable stress on the frozen ice as there was no support from the water underneath. My Afi said in a low voice, “Ghost ice”. Meaning the ice was like a ghostly shroud  but nothing in the body. As my Father and his crew watched helplessly a giant crack appeared in the Bay as if an unseen force tore open the frozen ice revealing over a mile of open water.

All the work put into setting the nets was lost. More important this was wartime. Everything was rationed. You could not just call up if you had a phone and say “send me more gear”. Cotton and linen was being used to supply our fighting men and women. Of equal importance, all our supplies came by rail to Riverton and then by Cat train, which needed thick ice to travel on.  How to salvage the situation? A desperate plan was formed. The crew hauled a fishing skiff out of storage and securely mounted it to the sleigh. With oars in the boat the Crew would push the sleigh/boat on the ice near the shore. Then launch the craft into the mist from the open water.

It looked like a ghostly pirate ship to us kids on shore. But it did the trick. The crew was able to pull some of their  nets into the boat where there was open water. Of course where the nets were under the ice this was impossible. The back-breaking and dangerous work continued during all the daylight hours. Then just as quickly the wind changed to the North. A thin sheet of ice formed. However with the wind and current the salvage operation was suspended as the ice did not freeze until well after Christmas as I wrote in my story previously published story”A Cookhouse Christmas”. My father and I walked out in the bay some weeks later. With a slight hint of a tear he pointed out to us Kids the costly nets frozen useless in the ice. He very positively added that we would handle this set back by taking the good with the bad.

​

December 2019