While newscasters grimace and groan at forecasts of snow and wind-chilled temperatures, people who fish on frozen water welcome the seasonable weather. Accordingly, when Ol’ Man Winter cranked up his ice-making machine in late November, ice fishermen began preparing for the season at hand. To the uninitiated, that ritual appears entirely pleasurable. However, if sinkers and sounders are among the contents of your Christmas stocking, you know that gathering your ice-fishing traps and trappings isn’t all play.

Consider, for example, the recovery of equipment “borrowed” from your pack basket. The attendant searches may start with you rummaging through tackle boxes, fishing vests, cabinets and other catchalls in your den. Eventually, your irritated muttering progresses to grumbling aloud, which prompts your wife to ask, “What can’t you find now?”

“My filleting knife.”

“Oh. Well … it’s in the kitchen. In the drawer where I keep the knives. That dessert I made for Christmas – the one you liked so much – called for pears and apples sliced real thin. Your filleting knife was perfect for that.”

Also among the missing are extra spools of line and leader material. It turns out that your resourceful spouse recognized that the green line and transparent leader were nearly invisible when used for tying decorations on the Christmas tree, wreaths, window boxes, doors, gifts, the cat, dog and anything else within her reach.

The consequences attendant to those items being pilfered from the pack basket can’t compare, however, with your discovery that the roll of toilet paper has been borrowed and not replaced. Likewise, your stretch-on ice creepers, which she discovered were nifty for tending the bird feeder when the yard was a glare of ice.

Although not as fastidious as fly fishermen when it comes to tackle, serious ice fishermen don’t venture forth without inspecting their traps and jig sticks. The checklist includes wingnuts, bolts, bushings, trigger mechanisms, and metal masts from which flags wave frantically when tripped, preferably by other than the wind. Reel shafts may need to be reset or straightened, drags might require minor adjustments.

As for terminal tackle, it’s doubtful that you’d set a flag at half-mast without examining lines, knots, leaders, hooks, and snap-swivels, if you use the latter. Granted, a hole drilled by a power ice auger appears as smooth as the cylinder walls of an engine. However, the tops and bottoms are rimmed with shards of sharp ice that damage lines, leaders and snap-swivels during tugs of war with fish that have their fins braced. Let’s face it, losing a trophy togue at the hole because of unchecked terminal tackle will leave you talking through clenched teeth.

Assuming that you remember punching through 20 inches or more of ice with a “spud,” you’re convinced that your power auger is a godsend. But in addition to the usual mechanical maintenance, the wonderfully efficient machine increases your mental file of the different fuel mixtures and spark plugs required by the auger, your snowmobile, and outboard motors of varying horsepower. In that respect, either your memory is as sharp as your filleting knife or your owner’s manuals are worn from frequent reference.

Ice shacks are like houses, always in need of repair. So this year, after several seasons of procrastination, you repair the sagging floor, replace the window seamed with duct tape, and reset the tow bar that was torn loose last winter.

Now, see if this strikes close to home: While repairing the shack, you notice the ladle has been lifted from the hooks alongside the stove. In long strides, then – while imagining yourself serving stew with an ice scoop – you march indignantly into the house and fetch the borrowed utensil. On returning to the shack, you make sure the spatula, two-tined fork and frying pan are in place.

So, with the dirty work done, you begin searching the community Internet – general store, gas station, hardware store, barber shop, even the castings of outdoors columnists – for information as to where to anchor your shack and rig your traps.

Pickerel and perch waters aside, word from Fisheries Region F biologists is that trap nettings at East Grand Lake last fall showed a healthy salmon population well stocked with 3-year-old fish. Regarding concerns about the lake’s landlocked alewives impacting smelts and salmon, biologist Nels Kramer says the impact on landlocks appears to be more behavioral than biological.

Because alewives school in midwater whereas smelts swarm near the surface, ice fishermen and openwater anglers accustomed to catching salmon “on top” are discovering they must fish deeper to catch landlocks feeding on alewives.

Smelt and salmonid populations are doing well at Cold Stream Pond in Enfield, also at Schoodic Lake, sprawling between Brownville and Lakeview Plantation. Togue are so abundant at Cold Stream, says Kramer, that new regulations are being considered for the fishery. At Schoodic, where salmon haven’t been stocked for several years, smelts are proliferating and togue are showing excellent growth rates.

Region C biologists Ron Brokaw and Rick Jordan report that a survey conducted at West Grand Lake last year showed the second-best growth rate in landlocked salmon since 1974. The average lengths of 2- and 3-year-old fish are 16.7 and 19 inches, respectively. Although ice fishing isn’t legal at West Grand until Feb. 1, most of Maine’s salmonid strongholds opened Jan. 1.

A word to the wise: Jordan allowed that if he were to tether baits under the ice at Green Lake in Hancock County, he’d concentrate on catching togue.

In conclusion, BEWARE! Owing to erratic weather – fluctuating temperatures, rain, wind, insulating snow that also makes thin ice appear as solid as a sidewalk – ice conditions on many of Maine’s lakes and ponds are chancy. Don’t let impatience turn what should be a memorable outdoors experience into an unforgettable tragedy.

Tom Hennessey’s columns can be accessed on the BDN Internet page at: www.bangornews.com.