Jim Richards, Custodian at the McCarthy School, Ice fishing on Learned Pond, Framingham, MA, (January 19, 1997)

FRAMINGHAM, MA - With the temperature below freezing for the past week, many people look for warm, comfortable, indoor activities to pass the time on a New England Sunday afternoon, but Jim Richards would rather do something he's done for the past 40 or so winters... go fishing!

Richards, a custodian at the McCarthy School, packs his rig-- a handmade wooden box with ski like runners, and heads out on the frozen surface of Learned Pond for a day of ice-fishing.

To pass the time Jim listens to a battery operated police/fire scanner, and talks with friends who stop by to see if the fish are biting.

Using a hand auger, Richards set five traps in the 5-6" thick ice, (he noted that five was the the legal limit, and that you must also have a valid fishing license to ice-fish).

Many fisherman use these wooden pop-up traps so they may fish several spots at once. A baited line is attached to a trap which has a spring loaded flag. The flag pops up to show a fish has made a strike at the bait and may be hooked.

When the ice gets much thicker he uses a gas powered auger.

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