The Ice is Three Feet Thick

Several weeks ago several men went up to northern Maine for a men's retreat.  We stayed in a wood's camp made available by one of the couples in our church.   They were very gracious it allowing us the enjoy this very special place.  We had a great time building relationships, studying the Bible, eating lots of man food and on Saturday we went Ice Fishing.

There might be several readers of this blog not familiar with this activity.  You might wonder when casting the line how you would catch a fish trapped underneath the ice.  Well you actually need to cut a hole in the ice.  Back in the days of yore this might have been done with a special axe and was certianly a lot of work.  Myself I have a manual ice auger.   It has knives on the bottom and as you rotate it cuts (scrapes) the ice and the auger blades drag the ice up out of the hole you are making.  A manual auger is a lot of work when drilling through 10 - 15" of ice.  The hole is about 8" and you need to make 3 - 5 holes in which you suspend a trap with a reel of fishing line down into the hole.  If look carefully at the picture in the lower right is a trap set in a hole.

Fortunately that day we had a gas powered auger, which you hold while the motor drills the hole.  Great, we started the first hole and the auger went lower and lower and lower.  Just when we thought the motor was going to come to rest on the ice the bottom broke through.   The ice was three feet thick.  We went on to drill 12 more holes since 3 of us had a license and traps.

When we had a great day on the ice.  Some might wonder at our sanity but ice fishing is a great social activity.  Your traps are about 15 - 20 ' apart in a random pattern with little flags that pop up when a fish strikes.  So you can stand around and just talk, drink cocoa, eat and watch for the action.

Well we had several takes on the lines that day but we were not able to bring them to the surface.  We did discover later when consulting a depth chart that the lake was at least 40' deep where we were fishing.  I know I had my lines only down about 25'.

While we were waiting around as men often do our minds turned to more humorous topics.  We got out the camera and had some fun.  Here is a picture of a potential catch that day.

Well how does this tie into the topic of this blog.  Next time we will be looking at our next passage of scripture where in verse 10 Jesus told Simon "Don't be afraid, I will make you catcher's of men".  Below is the entire passage so that you can see what Jesus was really talking about.

Luke 5:1 One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret, with the people crowding around him and listening to the word of God, ²he saw at the water's edge two boats, left there by the fishermen, who were washing their nets. ³He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat.
 ⁴When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, "Put out into deep water, and let downthe nets for a catch."
 ⁵Simon answered, "Master, we've worked hard all night and haven't caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets."
 ⁶When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. ⁷So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink.
 ⁸When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus' knees and said, "Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!" ⁹For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken, ¹⁰and so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon's partners.
   Then Jesus said to Simon, "Don't be afraid; from now on you will catch men." ¹¹So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him.