From the Panhandle: North Idaho Blog

Frigid Piscine Pursuits in the Panhandle

By Cate Huisman, 12-02-10

	Lake Pend Oreille in winter.

In the excitement and enjoyment of significantly greater than usual snowfall over the past few weeks, the challenge of getting to Grandma’s house for the turkey, the closing of schools due to extreme cold, the general search for snow shovels, and the scramble to get the car off the street before the plow arrived, I’m not at all sure that adequate appreciation has been shown for some of the gnarliest participants in this frigid drama: the diehard anglers who participate in the Lake Pend Oreille Idaho Club’s Fall Fishing Derby.

From the 20th of November through Thanksgiving Day and last weekend, these dedicated fishermen went down to the lake in boats and competed to see who could haul in the largest mackinaw and rainbow. The LPOIC’s website notes that Dean Granberg won the former competition with a 16 pound, 13 ounce mackinaw, and Sean Reiber won the latter with an 11 pound, 5 ounce rainbow.

Nobody mentions that the warmest the weather ever got during this period was 32 degrees; the average was just over 25 degrees. On the two days just before Thanksgiving, the high was 12. Snow fell every day but one.

I’m impressed with Sandpoint’s winter wunderkinds, like ski racer Scott Snow and the snowboarding Holland brothers; and I’m impressed with all the local hunters who trudge through the snow to feed their families every winter. But I have to say that I think that casting a line from a small boat perched perilously on tossing waves over frigid depths is the most exceptional of winter undertakings, and my hat is off (just briefly in this cold) to Granberg, Reiber, and their boatbound brethren for braving the lake in this weather.

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