Ice Fishing

Okay, so I know some of you probably think that fishing is an evil sport, but Jon really enjoys fishing a couple times a year.  Rather than being left at home to be lonely all day, twice a year I hit the water with him to catch some fish.  We go once in the summer and once in the winter.  Our summer trips have usually been really productive.  We catch a lot of rainbow and cut throat trout and bring them home to eat.  Our winter trips on the other hand, have, in the past, been horrendous.

Two years ago when Jon and I were still dating, I drove up the canyon to meet him at Strawberry Reservoir.  On the way though, I hit some black ice and my car spun twice, hitting the guardrail both times.  It was a pretty scary experience, but I escaped with only a few bruises from my seat belt.  I made it up to Strawberry and we were skunked.  No fish caught that day.

Then, last year, Jon bought himself an auger so that we could drill our own holes for ice fishing.  We loaded up the car and drove to Pine View Reservoir.  We slid down the embankment with all of our gear and I started setting up the chairs.  Jon, using his brand new auger, started drilling the holes.  After drilling two holes, the wife of the family we were with asked Jon how thick the ice was.  He leaned down and put his hand into the hole to show her that it was about 10 inches thick.  As he was getting up though, he lost his balance and steadied himself by setting his hand in the snow... right on the blade of the auger.  He stood up and Joann (the wife) noticed that he was bleeding.  It was gushing pretty bad so I ran up the hill and found what I could to bandage him up before heading to Insta-care.  Duct tape and a maxi-pad was the solution and the doctor at Insta-care thought it was pretty ingenious.  Jon got 4 stitches and we did not catch anything, yet again.

Well, after such awful experiences in years past, I decided that this year would be the final decider.  If something bad happened this year, I'd never go out on the ice again.  Lucky for me, ice fishing this year was wonderful.  We went out with Curt and some of his buddies from High School and they kept us entertained.  Mostly by teasing me, but hey, I can handle it.  I got a line in the water and 5 minutes later pulled up a cute little rainbow trout.  We kept the fish to give to some people we were fishing with, but it ended up being eagle food within a half hour of our fishing escapade.  Jon caught two fish that day also.  Here's some pictures of our ice fishing adventures.  If you haven't tried it, it's worth a shot.  Even if you don't bait your line.  The experience of sitting out of the ice and hearing whoops and hollers of excitement from the people fishing around you every 20 minutes makes it worth it.

Me holding my little Rainbow.  Notice that my finger is sticking out of the mouth.

Jon with his first catch of the day.

Jon and Curty being goofballs with their fish.

An eagle stealing one of our fish.  The kids we were with threw the fish over there when the noticed the eagles circling.

Jon looking in his fishing hole.  It was so warm and clear that day that he could see the fish swimming around.

And... since we all love youtube, here's a hilarious rendition of "Ice Ice Baby" about ice fishing.  I love that their accents are soooo Canadian and that they specifically mention putting on their Sorelles.

So, give it a try.  But... maybe not this week.  The temperatures aren't supposed to break 30 for a couple of days, so maybe wait til it's a little bit warmer.