I took advantage of the President's Day holiday to take two co-workers ice fishing who had never gone before.
I was worried because, earlier this morning, the wind was absolutely hellacious.
But, fortunately, by the time we headed out at 10 AM, it proved to be an absolutely beautiful day - - sunny, blue skies not too windy, and with temps in the 25 to 30 degree range all day long.
We arrived at Burnett's Pond in Savoy (a "limited" fishery of just perch and pickerel, but a fairly safe bet for flag), and met up with my friend Bob (who's gone only a few times before), and were joined an hour or so later by his friend Dan and Dan's dog (a poodle/golden retriever mix) Rowley.
There was a couple inches of snow on about 10 inches or so of ice.
We set up some tip ups, one dead stick and (later in the day) did a bit of jigging.
After a while I started cooking and served up a multi-course lunch: home-made sea food chowder, Indian food (Rajma Masala), steak, kim chi, Guiness, home-made wine, cocoa roasted almonds, apples, a pot of hot coffee and Guiness chocolate cake.
During lunch, we spotted a bald eagle in the distance (fairly common at some of the other lakes in the area, but a rarity at Burnett's).
I also got in a loop around the pond on my cross country skiis and a chance to smoke a Don Chu Chu (Dominican) cigar.
In terms of fishing, we did pretty much as I'd expected - - Bob jigged up a couple perch, we all landed pickerel of varying sizes on the tip ups (with my co-worker Buffy bringing in the big fish of the day with a 20" specimen), and I managed to reel in a mid-sized pickerel on a jig.
Dan and Rowley were the first to depart around 2 PM or so, Buffy and Sara headed out about an hour later, and Bob and I brought up the rear, leaving about 45 minutes or so after that.
At the parking lot at the top of the hill, we ran into another fishing buddy of mine (Charlie N), who had arrived to walk his dog, and we chatted for a little while before Bob and I finally drove home about 4 PM.
A good but exhausting outing - - I think I consumed about 60,000 calories but expended about 70,000 during the course of the day.
