Brrrrrrrrr, it seems like the Ice Age has returned to New Hampshire a bit early this year! The continuous train of cold days and even colder nights seems like it might be a forecast for an early start to the ice fishing season. Ice fishing has always been a great tradition in New Hampshire and probably in most of the New England states.

It is a fun time to get together with family and friends and do some fishing and cooking and just have some camaraderie. Much like hunting or deer camp it is a good way to build new friendships and refresh old ones and build a history that you can transfer through the generations through storytelling and memories.

One of my favorite memories and tales alludes to the title of this article, The Baker Pond Monster!. Baker Pond is located in Wentworth, New Hampshire, and is usually referred to as Upper Baker Pond and Lower Baker Pond. One Friday evening after work, I got a call from a nephew who said they were mounting an expedition to fish the upper pond as they heard it had some giant northern pike in it.

I told him I might swing up and join them. I checked the weather for the next day and it looked good so the next morning, I hit the highway from Concord and headed for Wentworth. I wasn't exactly sure where anybody was so after a little circling I located my ice fishing party. There were a good assortment of adults and children and dogs which always makes things more entertaining.

We finally got our ice safari organized and headed out on the ice. My nephew Big Sean, who is aptly named being a mountainous figure of a lad broke out his power auger and started drilling holes every which way. Eventually everything was set up with tip ups and jigging poles. Personally, I always found the tip ups boring to watch and always like to use a jigging hole and a jigging pole.

The kids and dogs were running all over the ice having a great time. It was a nice sunny day with a bright blue sky and slight breeze. One of my nieces affectionately known as Baby D, was about six or seven years old and quite a curious child who could fire off questions like a trial lawyer. At one point, we were both sitting about 20-feet from each other jigging in our freshly drilled holes.

There wasn't much action going on so she wandered over too Big Sean and apparently was interrogating him so using an AEM (Adult Evasive Maneuver) he casually suggested to her that Uncle Jimmy (Me) looked lonely and she might consider paying him a visit, which she promptly did.

We had some good bonding time and I answered a myriad of questions on multiple subjects. I finally tried my own AEM and I pointed at her overturned five-gallon pail seat with her jigging pole sitting on it and told her you might want to go check your pole you might have a monster fish on it, and I swear on The Fishermans Bible, no sooner were the words out of my mouth then her jigging pole came flying off the pail and zipped across the ice and went right down the jigging hole and disappeared!.

We both ran over to the hole along with Big Sean and that was it, the jigging pole was never to be seen again. BabyD gave me a reproachful look and said you owe me a fishing pole Uncle Jimmy!. There was much speculation on what could have pulled the pole away that fast, everything from a beaver to one of the alleged giant northern pike.

That was a lot of years ago and to this day I have never witnessed something like that happen again. And that my friends, is how the legend of The Baker Pond Monster was born!.

James Taber lives in Woodsville, NH

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