 A
Closer Look at Winter Pike
by Mike Kallok, Mille Lacs Messenger Staff Writer
REPRINTED WITH PERMISSION FROM THE MILLE
LACS MESSENGER
 The first pike of the day cruised silently past the corner
of the hole. Its effortless movement was magnified by the knowledge that this
large fish was a top predator capable of crushing the bait, which hung
vertically, just inches from its path.
In the gin clear winter world beneath the ice of
Mille Lacs, the 11 feet of water looked more like 6, and the 40-inch pike
looked more like 50.
What type of melee would have ensued if this
fish would have taken the bait? Would it have been possible to land that fish?
How would it all have played out? These are the questions that any fanatic’s
unconscious mind will try to answer a hundred times in a fitful sleep as well
as the thoughts of someone whose nerves have just been frayed by the
expectation of that timeless connection between an angler and a big fish.
“Isn’t
this fun? Can you believe this?” Ivan Burandt
asked excitedly. “I had a muskie come through the other day that you
could have put a saddle on!” Burandt’s long time friend and fishing partner,
Everett Durandt exclaimed.
Like two kids, Burandt and Everett recounted
tales of fish they have landed this winter and ribbed each other over the fish
they have failed to catch since they began “viewing” for pike and muskie this
winter.
The
Beginning
Burandt has been
here long enough to remember spending winters spearing from a
darkhouse on Sherman’s Point
back in the 1970s and early 1980s, before the muskie stocking
program began in earnest, putting an end to winter spearing on Mille
Lacs. 
In the day of
underwater cameras and depth sounders, it would seem that all of
these advances are trying to accomplish
one thing: to bring a visual element into a sport which has
traditionally lacked it.
Sometimes,
though, innovation in the fishing world means taking something that
is known and applying it to a completely different situation.
For Burandt, it
meant taking what he had learned from spearing pike and using that
knowledge to get a better look at winter angling on Mille Lacs.
Armed with an ice
saw and an auger, Burandt cuts holes several feet wide beneath his
houses.
In stark contrast
to the black and white world of underwater cameras, as one’s eyes
adjust to the darkhouse that is placed over the hole, the picture is
more like the equivalent of a wide screen plasma T.V.
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