Eskimo Ice Fishing

Ice fishing may be sport in today’s light.

In the past however, nomadic Eskimos had relied on ice fishing as a primary means of survival. Eskimo ice fishing would also include several different concepts, like the hunting of seals and sea lions for their oil and fur, and also the exploitation of these animals to capture fish. Seals and sea lions are left free but harnessed and their throats bound with cord. When they swam underwater to catch fish, the cords would prevent them from swallowing their catch.

The actual Eskimo ice fishing practice is really no different from today’s methods, chipping a hole in the ice and putting the lure through. Eskimos are usually padded warmly, but sometimes they would erect temporary igloos as shelters or else built a direct bonfire shielded from the wind by a snow wall. This would give them suitable heat during the duration of the Eskimo ice fishing.

There’s no fill on Eskimo ice fishing. Eskimo fishermen would catch all the fish they can, stringing unconsumed fish and drying them in the sun. They would salt these fishes and store them over periods as long as a year.

Meat can be available to Eskimos by the means of hunting snow borne animals. These include bear, moose, caribou and almost all mammals that the nomadic Eskimos happen to cross by. That is because game animals are very scarce in the artic region and leather and fur are very prized commodities. It is not uncommon that leather especially is reused, with leather garments aging several generations or else recycles to entirely new garments.

Because the purportedly solitariness of Eskimo ice fishing, many non Eskimos have taken ice fishing but as an extreme sport. As a sport of fishing, it is as challenging as it sounds. The first real challenge is patience. Though fishing is always an application of patience, compounded with the fact that it’s often bitterly cold, and there’s not much to see beyond an expanse blanket of white, Eskimo ice fishing is known to break down patience. That’s why Eskimo ice fishing is getting popular as a social activity than a solitary adventure, where groups of acquaintances will travel together and live together for a few days, with the sole purpose of Eskimo ice fishing.

As reflective to its solitary nature, Eskimo ice fishing had also become an increasingly popular rehabilitating pastime. For a sport, it gives the right amount of contemplative.

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