Ice Fishing

Last weekend I visited the Way North Frozen Tundra to visit my parents.  My brother and Dad invited me to go ice fishing with them on The Big Lake.  As we drove onto the lake, the only thing I could see was the one truck you can see here.  Otherwise, there was nothing but white.  Somehow Dad knew which direction to drive and after a couple of miles, he drove right up to the fish house he'd left out there days before.

Inside the fish house there is a furnace, with a nice blower to make it toasty warm.  And then six holes to drop our fishing lines into.

The black circle is the top that gets placed over the holes after fishing.  Here my brother is getting ready to fish.

I fished from two holes.  I held the pole for the one hole and here you can see I propped my pole on a 5-gallon pail.

Here I'm scooping the slushy ice from the hole.  Overnight the ice tried to freeze so this slushy stuff has to be cleaned out.

I caught the first fish.  This is a perch and we did keep it.

I caught the second and third fish, too.  These are jumbo perch and were fun to reel in.

Then I got the northern.  We figured it was about a 3-pound northern.

The northern was thrown outside of the fish house and then later we put it in pail so it wouldn't freeze to the ground.

Here is part of our catch.   The tiny minnow gives you perspective to the size of my jumbo perch.  It should be noted that I, the novice fisher woman, caught the most fish during our outing!  The tiny perch at the bottom right is one my dad kept as a joke.

The traffic on the lake picked up in the afternoon.  Ice houses were pulled out.

This man drove a snowmobile out on the lake.  He grabbed his auger to drill the hole in the ice in a random location away from all other fish houses.

Four-wheelers were driven out and the guys sat on the bucket or on the vehicle and would fish for awhile and then pack up and drive to another location, drill another hole and try their luck at that spot.

Because of a forecast of a major snowstorm, Dad decided we would pull the ice house off the lake.  Apparently it is too difficult pulling the trailer with deep, fresh snow.

We packed up and are ready to leave the lake.  Notice how barren it is behind us!  

This is an ice heave.  You avoid driving near these on lakes as the ice is thin near them.

This is the last picture driving on the lake and we are ready to drive up on the shore and start the trip home.

Back at the house, my mom is mashing potatoes and preparing a delicious supper.

All of our fish was cleaned, rinsed and covered with ShoreLunch.  Dad and my brother fried the fish outside in the deep fryer.

Jumbo perch.  An absolutely delicious meal.  Actually, it was an amazing meal.