If you’re cold, they’re cold; bring those poor cold fish out of the freezing lake and warm them up in a skillet. It’s of mutual benefit since the feast would warm you up as well. 

Since we seem to have descended into a perpetual ice age following the ominous yet unsurprising news of the clairvoyant critter a few weeks ago, I deemed the arctic atmosphere conducive to a family outing. What can one do in the ice and snow, you ask? A fair bit, it turns out—if you have the resources. In this instance I had the perfect opportunity to use a birthday present I received two years ago. 

For the last two years we haven’t had very good winter ice on the lakes to go ice fishing. Even if we did have the ice, it didn’t last long enough to take advantage in between a busy work schedule. This year, however, has provided all the opportunity one could want. With that in mind, we got a little fuel together and loaded my brand new ice auger in the car along with a few tip-ups, rods, and—oh yes—the children.

Thoroughly bundled and with only an hour or so until the snow was scheduled to fly again, we made our way to Upper Woods Pond where I often enjoy smooth ice when temperatures allow. (By often, of course, I mean those times over two years ago when I last had a chance to ice-fish.)

We got to the ice after sliding down the road in the car and following suit on foot with children hanging on for all they were worth as they struggled against the lack of friction. Fortunately, the walk was short as we decided to set up not far from the launch itself. My college buddy had made it out to fish with us, for which we were all grateful since he had a pop-up tent that shielded the boys and my wife from the wind a good portion of the time out. 

Since we had only a short window to actually fish, it was a good thing that I had my new auger. Ordinarily, I would have begun cranking the manual auger and praying the ice wasn’t incredibly thick. In this instance, I didn’t much care how thick it was once I successfully pulled the starter cable on the motor and felt the newfangled luxury come to life with an angry growl. With a flash of memories I recalled all the holes I’d ever had to drill by hand in the past to fish just a little bit. Then, with a bit of a chaotic chuckle, I planted the tip in the ice and gripped the throttle with the nonsensical thrill of an adrenaline junkie. Moments later I punched through the ice bringing up a gush of icy water  amidst the last spray of tiny crystal shards. Moving to the next hole and the next I quickly found my groove and in less than the time it would have taken me to drill one hole by hand, I had laid out a full dozen in a circle around the tent. I never got out to ice-fish enough to justify buying one of these for myself, but then again, if I had had one, perhaps I would have gone out more often to make use of it. In any case, I had a new thrill and I hadn’t even caught anything yet.

But getting back to the point: I was indeed there to fish, and so were my two boys, who claimed to know far more than I about the endeavor at hand, despite their only having ever been out once before. We made our way through the circle of holes, setting out tip-ups with my buddy. The boys had their share of fun, catching baitfish from the bucket to be hooked and lowered into the lake. After nearly an hour or so, we had settled in to jig from in the tent while we waited on tip-ups. It was during this time that my eldest son accidentally found his foot submerged in the lake water whilst trying to peek out the window at the traps. As cold as it was, this was a definitive stopping point for their trip. We packed them up and hustled them back to the car. No sooner had they left, than my buddy pulled the first fish of the day out of the ice. 

Despite the boys missing the action, it was at least good to know that our efforts were not in vain.

The way out here, good times can be found in the most uncomfortable places. Sometimes they are enjoyed not by their intended results, but the happenstance of what it took to get there. We later learned that my friend caught a few more before surrendering to the incoming blizzard. As for us, we enjoyed the fruits of our trials when, upon returning home, the boys succumbed to the sandman and we the parents attempted to do the same.