Ice Fishing

This weekend was our big annual ice fishing weekend. Not that it only has to happen once a year, but that has been the trend in the last 2 years since we got married (can't believe Monday is already our 2nd anniversary!). It was a lovely day for ice fishing. When we got out there at 10am it was about -10C and it warmed up from there to about -3C. I was the lucky one to get my fishing rod given to me first, so before Jay or Dale even got their lines down the hole I had 6 or 7 fish that needed taking off my line (I prefer not to touch fish). They continued to bite quite hard for a while, but then really tapered off. I think I probably got about 30 or so fish today. Of course probably about 10 of them were 'keepers', though we probably kept a few more than that because we had planned to have a fish fry out on the ice for lunch. It was quite good, but lunch was late in being served for some reason.

I know in the last couple of years that I have done better fishing with the underwater camera to watch when the fish were going after my hook, but this year I felt much more confident in my abilities to feel the fish nibbling my hook. I maybe only caught 3 fish with the camera. I am becoming quite the fisherwoman. I even rebaited mine and Jason's hooks with cut up fish meat when the fish came and stole ours (when Dale was busy cleaning fish for lunch). I even took a few fish off of my own line by stepping on it and gently wiggling the hook out without touching the actual fish. I am sure it wasn't even too bad for the fish. Kind of like getting a lip ring taken out.....while having a giant step on you, on ice, while struggling to breathe out of water. Okay, maybe it wasn't very nice for the fish, but at least they don't scream or I don't think I could have handled it.