Articles by Noel Vick

Lethargic they were. Tight-lipped, if you know what I mean. The little suckers flat-out shut down. I’m saying their mouths were sewn shut. Not active; not neutral; but utterly off. The...View article

One of the planet’s most dynamic and enigmatic entities—or possibly nonentities—is also deadly silent. It’s a ghost, or Poltergeist, as Steven Spielberg would say. To believers, unannounced...View article

I made the mistake of sticking a quarter in him. For the next hour of an animated phone conversation, he talked nonstop, first wearing out my right ear and then making my left ear sweat. The information...View article

Nothing’s more archaic from a 30,000-foot view. Slabs of wood blotting the icescape, each timorously exposing a bent flag, the flag closer to surrender than a victory march. From the cab of an unredeemed...View article

Perch really do go on and off their diets. At times they eat sparingly, as though they’re fasting for a wedding or class reunion, wishing to fit into that special dress or mothballed cheerleader outfit....View article

Brian “Bro” Brosdahl is a storyteller in that cite-an-example-to-make-a-point sort of way. For instance, when I asked what he’d done last winter to turn ice fishing on its ear, he muttered, “Midflats,”...View article

My first inclination was to discount him as a McNutt in need of medication—he, being Mike McNett, half of Team Prowler, champions of last winter’s North American Ice Fishing Championship presented...View article

Seems most everything these days is brazen, in-your-face, if you will. Delicacies are bygones—the world is a harsher place. There’s nothing subtle about MTV or Hummers; supersized meals or Reality...View article

Docks. Lily pads. Slop. It’s all good. Whisper the word “Toad” or “Popper” to a bass fisherman and watch his eyes fixate on an imaginary blow-up in the pencil reeds. He might even reel-down...View article

At close range, with their bulbous and dreamy eyes, panfish—especially bluegills and crappies, but also perch—examine foodstuff for scrumptiousness and authenticity. Some items, both lures and real...View article

It’s war, out there. We conduct reconnaissance, furrowing out fish and then struggling to stay below the radar of highly mobile “units.” We battle the elements, too, always seeming to be over-...View article

Pattern this. Pattern that. It’s about us understanding them. Knowing where they’ll be and when, and then giving ‘em what they want. Ice fishing patterns are trickier yet. It’s not like tracing...View article

Now the suds, jukebox, and atmosphere are in place 24/7, however its patrons aren’t. Like clockwork, though, traffic flows to an apogee right around the witching hour, thus achieving maximum density...View article

Albert Einstein demonstrated that a large amount of energy could be released from a small amount of matter. His Theory of Relativity (E=mc2) was published in 1905, and despite the renowned scientist’s...View article

“Sight-fishing won’t lie to you,” he declared. When it comes to ice fishing, sight-fishing especially, Tony Boshold is a Zen master, and thankfully, a generous one. In the December 2007 In-Fisherman,...View article