fish under the ice

Question
Even a few words would help ...

I'm in a song competition and the theme is "You're a fish living under the ice."

My questions: How does this environment change a fishes behavior? Do they move very slowly to conserve energy? How do they feed? Are they "bummed" about this in any way?

I'm sure different fish behave differently in different areas ... but I'm looking for some generalizations or perhaps one very specific example.

Like I wrote, any thing you can offer would be a help.

Thank you very much for any time you may spend on this ...

Joe.

Answer
Hi Joe,

Very interesting question, by far the strangest yet. That is OK though.

Fish are cold blooded so the water temp greatly influences their energy and feeding levels. Most still feed as they are caught through the ice too.

When it gets very cold out and it is "making ice" the ice often cracks very loudly. It is result of the ice actually contracting as it gets colder and a huge amount of stress occurs. Sometimes it heaves upward at cracks in excess of 10 feet high.

H2O has unique characteristics in that it is one of the few substances which becomes less dense in the solid for then liquid. That is why ice floats.

When the ice gets thick enough, usually about 10" thick, fisherman start driving vehicles out for fishing. I'm sure it is very noisy for the fish when a vehicle passes by. Sometimes it even causes the ice to crack a little. Someplaces like Madeline Island (Apostle Islands area) have a county highway on the ice to get there and back. I have heard of a few places in Canada which have major highways across lakes in the winter.

It is amusing to see lakes by heavily populated areas when literally towns of fishing shantys pop up. Even when the fish aren't bitting. I often wonder how many guys just do it to get away from their wives.

I wouldn't say a fish gets bummed, it is funny how people give a simple animal like a fish human attributes.

Hope this helps some anyways.

Hook Em' Hard,

Joe