Crazy Canucks Ice Fishing Video: Swimmers Emerge from the Hole

A group of friends sits around a hole in the ice somewhere in northern Ontario, waiting for a bite. Instead of a fish, a man in swim trunks and a gold chain pops up through the hole, followed a little later by a second, dripping wet and bare-chested in subzero cold. The clip, "Canadian Ice Fishing Crazy Canucks Insane Fisherman", was uploaded to YouTube by Lenard Conlon in 2009.

The Crazy Canucks ice-fishing video

The short video is set to Fergie's "Big Girls Don't Cry". The men on the ice call the swimmers Mike and Neil. Mike, who had wandered off to look for fish, climbs out of the hole and puts on a jacket; Neil follows, and the others ask whether he saw anything. The joke ends with the group deciding they had better move their ice hole to a better spot.

The clip was a slow-burning hit. By April 2016, when BuzzFeed's Tanya Chen wrote it up, it had been watched about 2.6 million times.

Watch the video

Ice fishing in Ontario and Canada

Ice fishing means catching fish with lines, hooks or spears through a hole cut in a frozen lake or river. In Canada it is far older than any YouTube clip: the Ojibwe of northern Ontario were among the first to rely on it for food, and it remains a source of traditional food for First Nations communities. Today Lake Simcoe, north of Toronto, is known as Canada's ice fishing capital and hosts an annual contest, with lake trout, herring and whitefish among the catch.

The kit is simple:

• An auger, ice saw or chisel to cut the hole, usually about 8 inches (20 cm) across, depending on the fish.
• A skimmer, a large perforated spoon, to clear slush and new ice from the hole.
• A short jigging rod or tip-ups, devices with a spool and a flag that pops up when a fish takes the bait.
• A shelter: an ice hut, shanty, shack or bobhouse, from a pop-up tent to a heated cabin on runners.

How thick the ice should be

Check the ice before every trip. Commonly used guidelines are about 4 inches (10 cm) of solid ice for a person on foot, 5–6 inches (13–15 cm) for a snowmobile, 7–12 inches (18–30 cm) for a light car and at least 14 inches (36 cm) for a full-size truck. Rotten or slushy ice is dangerous even when it is thick, and ice over moving water or springs can be thin. Leave the swimming to the Crazy Canucks.

For winter humour based on a much more ordinary scene, see Zack Green’s snow-fridge photograph, and for crystal-clear ice in the mountains, explore the High Tatras ice feature.

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