Went to a local pond that I had never ice fished before. My oldest daughter was home from college for the weekend and I thought we could do a family skating/fishing thing. Had access to a friends camp - no heat though - brought some electric heaters to warm up the porch. I got everything loaded on the truck and got to the pond early. Set up my traps, shanty, then started shoveling.
No flags until about 10:00, I was headed up to the camp, checked my traps before climbing the bank - FLAG! Caught my first Brown Trout of the year.
Not a monster, but it made my day. Had a bigger fish on later in the afternoon, but my leader broke. It must of had a small cut in it or something.
Well, my wife and two daughters didn't show up until after 3:00
. Takes them forever to get ready to go somewhere. But they made up for it by bringing a bunch of good food and good drinks, I was ready for it. The camp porch warmed up well and we had quite a spread.
After all that shoveling, they never did do any skating.
but did help haul my fishing gear back up the hill.
All in all it was a great day.