I had to just check the ice

Sitting at church and talking to my dad and older brother and all of a sudden we had each other convinced we still probably had some safe ice after all this warm weather and rain. Before I knew it, the three of us were headed out the door early going to 'check' the ice. On our way out I happened to bump into Dave, one of our ministers who was to give the second service, is a good friend and also an avid fisherman. The conversation that took place with Dave I definitely learned my lesson from.

As he was talking to someone else, I sort of distracted him with a few ice fishing hole drilling hand motions. Then a few more come on over lets get going and various other reeling in a fish hand motions. Then I tried convincing him into sneaking out the back door and such. Basically just taunting and teasing and messing up his train of thought for the next few minutes, then it was out the door and head for home to grab some gear quick.

So after I took a turn messing with a man of God for a few minutes, God decided to have a little fun of his own with me for a few minutes! As soon as I got in the door, I felt a little rumble in my stomach and quickly realized that I was going to need a little detour. You know, it has to be hilarious watching someone run frantically to the jon! Not only once, but 3 times. I knew Chad and Dad were already waiting at rendezvous point, and here I am 15 minutes later and still cant confidently get more than a few steps away from home base!!! Once I figured out what in the world was going on, realizied what I had done, chuckled for a minute or so, looked toward the sky and said good one, I was finally able to get rolling.

We got to the lake about 1:30 and were pumped up to still have 4-6 inches of ice! The lake came up about a foot, so the edges were open and very soft, but we managed to get out on the good stuff. I wouldnt recommend ice fishing after 2 days of solid rain, but this particular lake has very little runoff whatsoever so the water remained very clean and clear. We could find the fish, but they sure were not biting well at all.

We still had a blast and managed to catch a few trout, crappie, and a handful of boone and crocket bluegill! We really had to work for the few fish we caught. We found schools of fish, but could only get about one out of twenty fish to actually nibble.

I also tried taking some photographs of myself holding a few fish. Since it was only us three out there today, I actually fished real hard. Also my fishing partners will barely hold still for 2 seconds to grab a photo, let alone actually snap a photo: