John Smallwood, a Canadian resident, posted an article about a funny story that was sent to him about ice fishing.  It involves a huge fish caught on a frozen Minnesota lake and a black lab.  This story is titled “The Black Monster from the Lagoon”.  Take a look at this story posted on the getreeled.com forum, and let us know your funny and/or bizarre ice fishing stories by clicking here.

While there are many ways of doing this, unlike in the Arctic where I have ice fished, the Minnesotans tend to enjoy their creature comforts while winter fishing and build ice shacks which they tow out on the ice as soon as the ice will beat them. Some of these shacks are quite elaborate with TV, bunks for naps, cooking facilities, even a bar, etc and others quite simple, enough to protect from the weather. These shacks dot the lake often fairly close together over favorite fishing spots.In the middle of the shack floor a hole is cut in the ice, usually about 3 feet square, with a chain saw and the fishermen stand or sit around the hole jigging lures and hoping to catch a fish.

The fella who told me this story was in one of these shacks with son and his black Labrador dog, jigging away when he snagged a big (10 plus pounds) fish, and hauled it from the hole. The hook came out and the fish was wiggling around on the floor when it got back to the hole and it looked like it was going to escape. The Labrador, excited by the commotion, jumped on the fish just as it seemed it was going through the hole and disappeared through the hole with the fish in it’s jaws. The dog’s owner (and his son) were distraught by this incident as the dog was a family favorite and he wondered what he was going to tell the family when he came back without their pet. Just then he heard a commotion from a nearby shack and looking out saw three fellas bursting through the door of their shack and hightailing it across the ice.

It seemed that the dog, without losing the fish in its jaws had swam to their hole and appeared unexpectedly through their hole. Possibly in a blur of alcohol-fueled fright they thought that they had been attacked from some sort of sea monster and decided to exit the pop stand, chased by the dog and fish. The owner was happy to get his dog back and to have a good story to tell when visiting the more tame waters of Minipi in Labrador.

(Feature photo not of actual fish–via YouTube screenshot)