Michael A. Sawyers
MCHENRY — There are those who would look at the extended weather forecast for Garrett County and then shiver, complain and reach for the thermostat, but Boyd Church and Doug Oxford are not among them.
Church of Boonsboro and Oxford of Oakland are making sure their hooks are sharp, lines are not frayed and warm clothing is at the ready. Church and Oxford are ice fishermen and a blue norther blowing into Maryland’s westernmost county is good news indeed.
“I expect to be standing on the lake this weekend,” said Church. His optimism is not of the pie-in-the-sky variety. A veteran of high-country, hard water, Church understands the calamity that could take place if the ice cover is thinner than 4 inches. He fishes through the ice almost every weekend it is frozen. A second home in Swanton gives him a local base for his trips.
“I am trying to get Hallmark to change Valentine’s Day to sometime in August,” he said. “Then maybe I could fish every weekend in February.”
