In much of the northern US it has been a brown, snow less winter of disheartened cross-country skiers and silent snowmobile trails. But the ice? Ah the ice and the joys of ice fishing.
The coldest weather in three years has frozen lakes big and small in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan and elsewhere across the northern US with 30cm-thick or more spans, strong enough to drive a truck across, yielding what some are calling the best ice fishing in a number of winters.
It is a sport where layers of clothes and rustic shanties stocked with beer, brandy and bravado test both human survival and luck that may depend simply on where a hole is drilled in the ice.
The reward, beyond adventure, is the chance to catch fish that some say have firm, winter-chastened flesh yielding a taste superior to anything caught in warm weather.
Or it may simply be a chance to hang out, drink, tell stories, play cards and cook lunch over a fire built on the ice, fishing or not. On some lakes whole ice-borne towns appear each winter.
"It's the most enjoyable form of suffering I know," said Kevin Shibilski, tourism secretary for the state of Wisconsin.
Tackling the fish
More ice fishing contests seem to be added to the calendar every year, he said, and "there's an important social aspect. You can walk around the ice and chat with other anglers. You can't do that in a boat."
The cold and ice are welcome this year, he said.
"Our economy has been hammered by this snow drought. We've declared a no-snow emergency and are marshalling all our advertising dollars" to convince tourists from nearby areas to come for other activities including indoor water parks and ice fishing.
The advertising is paying off because ice fishing has become an increasingly popular pursuit, one which has seen sales of ice fishing equipment grow by about 30 percent a year for nearly 10 years by some estimates.
And in the far north this year it is one of the few bright outdoor spots in a dry winter that has robbed resorts of their usual Nordic ski and snowmobile traffic and dropped the levels of the Mississippi River and the Great Lakes. January this year in northern Illinois was the second driest in 132 years.
The draw of the ice has also been deadly. Wisconsin and Minnesota have recorded at least 20 ice-related deaths. Even solidly frozen lakes can hide spring or current-related soft spots.
But here on Mirror Lake in central Wisconsin, on a recent Sunday, cracking the ice was the aim and it began before dawn in zero (-17.7?C) cold with a parade of headlights driving onto the glaze and the sound of power drills boring holes.
By first light the annual Delton Sportsmen's Club "Fisharee" had attracted about 150 vehicles -- shiny pick-up trucks outnumbering winter-bruised sedans -- and nearly as many huts.
The shanties ranged from collapsible wood and plastic frames to aluminium sided stove-equipped cubicles and newer lightweight, tent-like structures for one person or a family. Cars, trucks, four-wheelers and snowmobiles soon turned the spine of a long, narrow section of the lake into an impromptu Main Street.
Fish strike
Luck struck early for Bob Graack, a construction worker from Illinois, who grew up in Wisconsin. Fishing without a shanty, he pulled a 50.8cm smallmouth bass from one of several holes he was patrolling.
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