Catch of the season
By Kate Elizabeth Queram kqueram@dnronline.com Pat Velanzon holds up a largemouth bass he caught in January in the Port Republic area. Velanzon, who learned to fish as a child in Connecticut, looks forward to the freezing temperatures in the Valley so he can enjoy his old pastime.
For most Valley residents, the heavy snowfalls and frigid temperatures at the end of 2009 were reasons to hunker down at home, swaddled in blankets and sheltered from the elements. For Pat Velanzon, the harsh weather provided the perfect incentive to slip outside for an hour ? or five.
Velanzon, 62, of Port Republic relishes Virginia?s rare cold snaps, because they give him the opportunity to indulge in one of his favorite passions: ice fishing. When temperatures plummet and local ponds and lakes freeze over, Velanzon takes to the ice. You may think he?s crazy, but that?s OK. He?s used to it.
?Most people say ?You do?? like [disbelief] almost, or ?You?ve got to be crazy,? ? he said. ?And I affirm that I am. Most people don?t like cold weather.?
For Velanzon, who began ice fishing at the age of 12 in Connecticut, ?cold? is a relative term. His on-the-ice expeditions there regularly exposed him to temperatures well below zero, meaning the Valley?s lows in the teens are a comparative tropical paradise.
Velanzon had fished with his father as a child, but taught himself how to ice fish in the ?60s, mostly out of curiosity. ?It was a thing people did in Connecticut when it was cold, and I wanted to try it,? he said.
His first forays didn?t go so well. Initially, Velanzon was using what he equated to a ?big metal bar? to poke a hole through the ice. Intending to chip away a 12-by-12-inch hole, his finished product ? through 22 inches of ice ? was only 3-by-3-inches. The process, he added, left him surrounded by small chunks of ice; he slipped on one, fell and banged his head.
?And I thought, ?There has to be an easier way,? ? he recalled.
In 1969, Velanzon purchased an ice auger (a small metal shovel attached to a hand-cranked, rotating pole, used to scoop out holes in the ice) and a pair of ice creepers (spiked metal frames that strap onto shoes for enhanced traction). He?s been ice fishing ? with the same equipment ? almost every winter since.
Thirty-seven of those winters have been in the Valley. Velanzon moved here with his wife Kathy in 1972, and worked 31 years as a Brethren pastor in two area churches until retiring in December. He fishes mostly private ponds in Port Republic and McGaheysville, angling for bluegill, crappie, largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, walleye, perch, northern pike and muskie. To test the ice, Velanzon usually walks along the edge of the pond and then drills a test hole.
?I give the temperature time,? he said. ?Once ponds are frozen over, two or three days isn?t sufficient. A week is usually good.?
He knows the pond is ready to fish when the ice is about 4.5 inches thick, he said.
?That just seems to hold this fat body of mine,? he said.
For bait, Velanzon uses either live minnows or grubs; this year, for the first time ever, he sent away for the latter.
?I used to knock the bark off of the firewood I had and I?d get white wax grubs. It?s a lot of work,? he said. ?I can buy 1,000 for $9 from this place in Wisconsin, and it would take me a year to dig that many.?
On a good fishing day, Velanzon will bring home about 20 fish. On his best day ever, he caught 70 in about five hours. Every time he goes out, Velanzon said, he catches something ? but a bad day here and there just makes ice fishing more attractive to him.
?It?s one of my greatest passions,? he said, ?because of the challenge of it.?
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