I spent a night ice fishing and learned anything is possible

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • January 8, 2026

Thanks to cold temperatures to start the year, coastal smelt camps are opening after several years of poor ice conditions. A true cottage industry, these camps spring up almost overnight when the ice is safe and are busiest on weekends. You can usually tell which camps are hosting a few drinks by the increasing noise as the night goes on. My longtime fishing partner told a story of a drunken angler who fell into his race hole, only to pop up in a shack downstream. Another time, a muskrat popped into his shack, looked around and then departed. I guess anything is possible on the ice. ~ Tom Roth