Open water ice fishing with the Cisco Kid//Ted Peck
Mike Norton’s invitation to try open water ice fishing was just too good to pass up. In a year where open water options have dwindled and safe ice angling opportunities were a long time coming any chance to get your string stretched is welcome.
A chance to try this new technique on Big Green Lake, perhaps the most enigmatic body of water in Wisconsin, was just icing on the cake.
Not only is Big Green our state’s deepest inland lake. These waters contain solid populations of several fish species found in just a few fisheries within Wisconsin borders which remain active in cold water when other species have all but shut down.
Lake trout, the Seeforellen strain of brown trout and magnum ciscoes all call Big Green home.
Both species of salmonids and the ciscoes are active to sometimes aggressive thru the ice all winter long. But herein lies another twist on the enigmatic Big Green : because of size and depth this clear lake is one of the last in our state to freeze over.
Leave it to Mike Norton, the 4th generation of the Norton family to make a living fishing these waters to figure a way to get hooked up.
The genesis of Norton’s open water ice fishing epiphany came after the winter of 1980—the second in a series of three brutal winters. Big Green froze over early that year, with Norton and other bucketeers heading out on the hardwater well before Christmas.
One of the crowd foregathered managed to somehow snag several of this lake’s magnum ciscoes, which grow to an average weight of two pounds on a hearty diet consisting mostly of zooplankton and other invertebrates.
Word got out and by the winter of 1981 it was common to see a couple hundred ice anglers out there foul-hooking these silvery fish.
“And then a warden came out there just like Gary Cooper in ‘High Noon’ Norton remembers. “He said ‘The snagging stops now! You’re gonna have to figure out how to catch these fish legally or face a ticket!”
Figuring out how to catch a fish that feeds primarily on tiny organisms in water over 50 feet deep proved challenging . Norton studied ciscoes, discovering that these fish spawn in Big Green for about a month beginning in mid-December. When spawning, ciscoes are aggressive and will strike half-ounce glow-in-the-dark jigging spoons.
Mild winters the next couple of years kept all but the most hearty from venturing out to take advantage of this bite. Norton came up with the idea of combining an ice shanty over the hull of a boat—and the ‘Cisco Shuttle’ was born.
This 26 foot watercraft has an enclosed cabin heated by a wood stove with anglers using ice gear to fish thru trap doors along the gunnels. A skirt around the edge of the Cisco Shuttle keeps cold wind from blowing up thru the trap door holes.
The aggressive cisco bite on Big Green will only last a few more days. But if you hurry you can still fill the unusual limit in place for these fish : 25 pounds plus one fish.
“Most folks see ciscoes as just a baitfish” Norton said “But ciscoes here are huge—more like whitefish…and every bit as tasty”.
According to Norton, ciscoes are good “broiled, boiled, baked, steamed or smoked…and they’re macho, too!”
Macho?
“Why else would a man leave his beautiful wife in posh digs like the Heidel House to sit out on a cold and windy lake? “ Norton smirked “Ciscoes are macho, that’s why!”
Glancing thru a porthole of the Cisco Shuttle towards the Heidel House resort a half mile away I thought about my wife waking up on our New Year’s Eve getaway all alone.
But a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do. Open water ice fishing in a brand new year. Rolling up shirtsleeves as Norton threw another log in the stove we got back to work.
Ciscoes are macho, all right. Don’t tell the womenfolk. It’s brutal out here. Just brutal.
IF YOU GO:
Mike Norton (920) 295-3617
Heidel House Resort (800) 444-2812
Green Lake Chamber of commerce (920) 294-3231