Ice Fishing

I went ice fishing with Jason yesterday. Really. I did. There are no pictures to prove this because I found out the battery in our camera was dead when we were about....oh....smack dab in the middle of Schoodic. It was either the battery or it was so frickin' cold that even the camera wouldn't come out and play.

So here's the thing. I went ice fishing a lot more when Jason and I were dating/engaged. And I'm afraid that I may have lead him to believe that I like ice fishing much more than I do. But in MY defense, I thought I DID like ice fishing much more than I actually do.

Here's the rub. All of the ice fishing I did when we were dating/engaged went like this: We visited his parents (who live directly on the lake). Jason would wake up at the butt crack of dawn and go out to the ice shack (which was permanently placed on the ice for the winter, and had a wood stove in it!). He would set the traps and have the stove crankin' and ready to cook a yummy breakfast on. I would wake up out of my cozy bed whenever the heck I wanted, take my time and then radio out to Jason when I was ready to come out. He would then drive his parents snowmobile home to get me and we would ride out to the shack with my arms wrapped around him. We would eat and play games in the spacious shanty and run out with excitement any time we saw a flag. And we always saw flags and caught fish! Now THAT is some sweet ice fishing. And that is what I thought ice fishing was. I DO like that! Sign me up for that kind ANY day!

However, my friends, that is a stark contrast to the kind of ice fishing we do now. We don't have all of the luxuries that we had at his parents house and so this is what it looks like now: (First of all I want you to know that I went on this fishing trip because I was told I would catch lots of big togue just by jigging from the shack.) Just the other day I woke up super early and layered up. We drove a little over an hour and then hunted up and down camp roads until we found a road with camps that looked very unoccupied. We parked off the side of the road and loaded all of our gear up on our backs and onto the pop-up shack. We trudged through the snow on some strangers property (sketchy if you ask me) and accessed the lake. We then hauled our bums and gear all the stinkin' way out into the middle of the lake. My hot breath and running snot froze quickly on my neck-up and then adhered itself to my face. Awesome! My eyes watered in the face of the howling wind and then the water froze on my eyelashes and stuck my eyes shut. Super awesome! (Ripping eyelashes out of your skin everytime you blink rocks!)

We reached our destination and set up the shack. Don't get me wrong. I'm grateful for it. But it's pretty darn cramped in there. As we unpacked I discovered the camera battery was dead and Jason didn't pack the cribbage board and cards (a necessary staple for any ice fishing excursion). Just as Jason went to set up the tiny heater, the leg that props it up snapped right off. I literally thought I was going to cry when I thought my saving grace (the mini propane heater) was going to be rendered useless. Luckily Jason rigged it up to still work and I huddled around that bugger trying to get warm inside while Jason set traps. (which I thought we weren't doing because I thought we were just jigging.) Then he decided we weren't in the right spot. So we broke it all down and moved further out...just as I was getting warm. An hour and a half later Jason finally drilled a hole and set me up to jig. Guess how many fish I caught. Mmmm Hmmmm. You guessed it. NONE!!!! Guess how many times I'm going ice fishing again. Mmmm Hmmmm. You guessed it. NONE!!! I don't do THAT kind of ice fishing no more!