1 fish, 2 fish…
The third annual ice fishing trip is in the books! The crew consists of me and three work buddies – Lou was able to join Tom, Micah, and me for the first time this year, so we had four poles in four ice holes. Plus several tip-up style rigs, which is how we caught our only two fish.
Tom’s truck was loaded up and we climbed in to make the 5.5-hour drive north. l to r: Lou, Tom, me, and Micah.
We opted to head to northern Wisconsin in January instead of February hoping that it would be a little warmer for us and for the fish. Our first trip resulted in catching one fish. Our second trip was a bust – zero. This year we caught two! Both nice sized Northern Pikes. Although it wasn’t quite the amount we were hoping to catch, it was enough for a nice lunch of fried fish.
Tom showing off a rod to Lou.
Micah was once again our awesome breakfast chef and whipped up three great meals, in addition to helping Tom with frying up the fish.
Starting the day off right with a ham/cheese/egg bagel sandwich
Micah wondering why we haven’t caught any fish yet.
It wasn’t long before we caught our first Northern Pike!
A picture with me and Tom holding the fish because it’s my blog, dang it.
Our second fish was caught not long after the first one, with Lou doing the honors of reeling in this whopper.
I had made dinner reservations for Friday night in case we didn’t catch any fish, and the two fish we caught we decided to save for tomorrow’s lunch. The special dinner out this year was at Norwood Pines Supper Club and we enjoyed the all-you-can-eat fish fry. Everyone seemed to enjoy their meals.
The after-dinner photo at Norwood Pines Supper Club, Minocqua, Wisconsin.
We had a backup plan this year in case fishing wasn’t going our way. Tom had mentioned maybe renting snowmobiles and I had been thinking of buying one. I ended up buying two new Ski-Doo 2-up trail sleds to have at the house. Renting some additional ones fell through, but we took turns riding the awesome trails that exist in the snowmobile capital of the world, the Northwoods of Wisconsin.
While Tom & Micah fished, Lou and I hit the trails on the new sleds.
Saturday was our last full day and we started off fishing but the lack of action made Lou and I opt for hitting the trails. Lots of exploring before heading back for lunch.
Tom cleaned the two fish and he and Micah fried them up. Delicious! Made for a great lunch.
Tom and Micah hadn’t had a chance to do any snowmobiling yet, so after lunch, we all found a helmet that fit our heads and headed out for some sledding. Lou and I rode shotgun while Tom and Micah explored Dan’s Trail and many others.
The sun had come out and was providing some beautiful scenery to stop and enjoy.
We decided to head to a town called Sayner, where I thought we would just turn around and head back. Of course, we missed a turn and went way out of our way heading back home, now in complete darkness. It was a fun experience to ride by headlights at night. A little nerve-wracking too.
Since we didn’t catch any fish on Saturday, we opted for Bad Bones BBQ in Arbor Vitae, Wisconsin.
Evenings were spent playing poker and Lou won all three nights. Didn’t realize that he was a card shark.
High-stakes gambling going on.
Sunday always comes too soon. We cleaned and packed up and headed back home full of talk about the fishing and snowmobiling. We hope to be back again next year!
an amazing run 