By Louie Stout
Brian Glover shows off 2 of the 21 catfish he caught through the ice.The only thing missing at the Bremen, Ind. Conservation Club Ice Fishing Derby last month was Rod Serling introducing another bizarre segment of the legendary 1950s TV series, The Twilight Zone.
Serling would have been standing in the foreground of a group of joyous ice anglers probing the depths of Lake of the Woods, a popular fishing lake south of South Bend.
He would look stoically into the camera and say, Brian Glover and his buddies from Kimmell, Ind. drove to this northern Indiana natural lake thinking theyd catch a few fish and perhaps win some money. What they didnt know was that they were crossing over into the Twilight Zone.
Farfetched? Well, heres what happened that day:
The anglers rigged 3/8-ounce Northland Tackle Forage Minnow spoons on 36-inch ice rods spooled with 2-pound test line. They put a spike on each barb of the treble hook and lowered the lures into the water.
They were fishing 37 feet of water.
Our Vexilars (fish finders) lit up with fish suspended about 20 feet down, so thats the area we targeted, he said. The water was stacked with fish at that depth.
It didnt take long for the action to begin. Not with walleyes, panfish or white bass that are commonly caught at Lake of the Woods, but catfish!
And lots of them.
Now, catching an occasional catfish through the ice isnt all that unusual, but these anglers had hit the mother lode. Cats were coming out of the ice hole as fast as Glover and his buddies could drop a bait to them.
At one point I had five and another buddy had eight or nine on the ice, he recalled. Once I hit seven fish, it was one right after another. Everyone was watching; I had the Midas touch.
Glover had 21 fish on the ice when an Indiana Conservation Officer walked up and asked him if he knew the bag limit on channel catfish.
I told him there was no limit, but quickly found out thats only true on streams where I did most of my fishing while growing up in the Elkhart area, Glover lamented. The officer informed me that there is a 10-fish limit on channel cats caught from lakes. None of the other guys around me knew that, but I was the only one over my limit, so I got a ticket.
Glover, who considers himself a sportsman, was distraught. He says he would never keep over the limit and has always honored the laws that protect our fishing resources.
I really felt bad but the officer was very nice about it and told me not to be so hard on myself, he added. I was completely discombobulated.
Ah, but the bizarre story doesnt end there.
Glover propped his rod against his fish finder and walked away to buy a sandwich from a nearby on-the-ice vendor. When his back was turned, the rod zipped off his electronics and disappeared down the hole he was fishing.
Another catfish took the bait.
Glover freaked out. He grabbed another and dropped a bait down quickly hoping to snag his line. No luck.
If getting a ticket for violating the law werent bad enough, he just lost his favorite rod.
And the story doesnt end there
About 20 minutes later, a buddy fishing 20 feet away said he had caught my line, Glover said. I help him pull it up; we not only got my rod and reel back, but I got the catfish that had pulled it into the water. It was still on the hook!
Glover carried his 10 legal catfish to registration where winners were determined by length of fish. He finished second with 264½-inches of catfish. Brian Hensley of Edwardsburg won with 287½ inches comprising mostly of panfish and white bass. Glover also won bonus money for having the largest fish in the derby with a 10-pound channel and the largest catfish caught in the derby.
Glover says more than 60 catfish were caught that day by him and other anglers fishing the same area. If that werent remarkable enough, catfish are generally bottom feeders; to catch that many cats suspended that far off the bottom is pretty unusual.
As fun as that day was, it kinda put a damper on things, he said. I dont ever want to go through that embarrassment again.
And there stood Rod Serling, whispering into the camera It can happen in the Twilight Zone.