Ida ice tourney: cat entry - Ice Fishing Forum - Ice Fishing Forum

This is a way off the subject but this is the first thing that came to mind….
when I was younger, my grandfather would pay me a dollar for every live gopher I could catch. This was an easy an task for me because my grandpa took care of the local cemetery; so I would just run the hose over to the hole I seen a gopher go down and cover the other hole with a mason jar. When the gopher shot out of the hole and into the jar, I would slide the lid under and give it to gramps. A few years ago, while my grandpa was dying of cancer, I was running out of things to talk about in our conversations so I asked him what he did with all those live gophers I had caught for him. He smiled and said calmly….Bait! A bit confused, I sat there waiting for an explanation…..he says…..well, you get yerself a 1×6 board about 10″ long, you go down below Peavy’s papermill and set one of those gophers on that board with a treble hook tied to his back with a rubber band. Float the board down to the second hole and pull em’ off the board and let him swim to shore….If you don’t have a good musky in two trys I’ll kiss your a**! I sat there in shock for a while and let it sink in. It didn’t take long until we were both laughing and thinking of what I would have done if I knew exactly what he was doing with all those gophers! I’m sure I wouldn’t have given all of them to him….I still think about that every time I’m below the mill. Wonder if would still work?