This fisherman killed two birds with one stone…if one of those stones was his buddy’s pop-up shelter. Recently, Montana ice fisherman Sam Lungren and his friends went out on the ice to see if they could spear a pike or two. With a seven-prong spear in hand, they waited patiently for a narrow-faced fish to swim past their rectangular hole and take advantage of their live sucker minnow decoy.
According to Lungren, he and his fishing buddy Bill Siebrasse had been waiting for an hour before they finally saw the pike dart into their line of sight. Lungen ever so gently guided the hooked bait fish back towards their ice hole. The pike then bluffed the decoy, thinking it had the perfect shot. All the while, Billy lined up his spear and within seconds it soared into the water through the pike’s head.
Now, this is where the situation got a bit tricky. You see, when you’re spearfishing inside a heated shelter, you have to get the catch out onto the ice and fast. So, while Siebrasse pulled the speared pike back to the surface, the rest of the crew worked to unzip the Eskimo pop-up tent. The fisherman then launched the spear and the pike towards the ice, but the shot was a little too high. Siebrasse ended up spearing the door, and the fish dangled between the base of the prongs and the flapping fabric.
Oops.
Watch the clip here.
Fisherman Manages to Get Pike and Spear out on the Ice
Apparently, the tent belonged to another friend in the group, and it now has three spear holes through the door frame. Thankfully, though, they were at least able to free the pike from the fabric and plunge it out onto the ice. And with a good tent patch kit, they can fix those three holes pretty quickly.
According to Lungren, Siegrasse was the most experienced ice fisherman of the bunch, and the fact that he had plunged his brand-new spear into the tent was downright hilarious. Even better, the friend filming the debacle dropped his phone, adding to the chaos. At the end of the short clip, the phone landed face up, focusing on the dangling pike.
“None of us, save Bill, had ever tried ice spearing before. In fact, Bill and I had driven over to the nearby marina to purchase the spear, wooden glider decoy, and live decoy that very morning,” Lungen described. “It was just the thing we needed to reinvigorate a brutal ice expedition that had been partially foiled by yawning pressure cracks, high winds, and deep cold.”
Despite the mishap, Lungen and his friends seem eager to get back out onto the ice. Hopefully, next time, there won’t be any casualties to their equipment.
