Photos: Ice-fishing for sheefish outside Kotzebue

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Sheefish caught in the net slide across the snow on frozen Kobuk Lake.

We head out of Kotzebue by snowmachine. It's not too cold out, but cold enough that the ice is thick beneath our treads.

We're traveling out to check Darin Nelson and his father, Louis Sr.'s, nets on Kobuk Lake and he's picked a good time to go. It's a clear, calm window between two winter storm fronts that bring lots of powder and high winds.

"There's more snow on the ground out here than there was last year at this time," says Nelson as we stop by the shoreline before heading out onto the lake.

His nets, strung through the thick ice, are about 17 miles north of town. His father's camp, where the 72-year-old musher and all-around local legend overwinters, is another eight miles north of that.

We're meeting his father out on the lake today along with freelance writer Diana Saverin, who's looking after a camp cabin for a little while.

Not too long ago, father and son Nelson set their nets as soon as the lake froze this year, treading carefully on the ice when it only measured a few inches.

"That is when we get the most," says the younger. "Right when it freezes up -- up to a hundred a day."

But freeze-up happened later than usual this year. Temperatures stayed warm through late fall with open water on the Kotzebue Sound lasting past Halloween.

This story first appeared in The Arctic Sounder and is republished here with permission.

Read more: After a late freeze-up, Kotzebue fishermen welcome ice season