The Ice Castle (part 3)

There are many ways to enjoy ice fishing.

The miserable way.

The slightly less miserable way.

(this guy must enjoy ice skating when no one is looking)

OR

the way we went ice fishing --

in Uncle Doug's brand spankin' new

Ice Castle!

(Doesn't she look warm & comfy?)

First we stopped to pick up a little fresh bait

Then we pulled out onto "Fish Lake" (catchy name, huh?)

I'm not gonna lie -- it was kind of unsettling to Abbie & I 

that we were standing (much less driving cars!) on a lake 

and could fall right through into the icy water, like this:

(and get trapped under the solid layer of ice) 

(I'm freaking myself out just writing this)

But, we trusted Uncle Doug and tried not to think about it so we could have fun :-)

First, Doug & Mike drilled a hole to check the depth of the water
and use his sonar to see if there were plenty of fish in the area.
 (I was hoping it wouldn't take too long, cuz I was freezing to death).

It made me a bit nervous to see Porter getting so close to the hole.
And I had good reason to be, as you'll learn later in this post :-/

Then we cranked her down onto the ice & drilled 5 holes from inside the Castle to fish through. 

And last, but not least, we CRANKED up the heater inside,

...and settled in to wait for our first bite.

Porter fished barefoot, because - -

Well, this video explains that:

Mike did most of the dirty work (i.e. baiting the hooks)

He also did most of the catching of the fish :-)

While we fished, we enjoyed Porter & Abbie's singing, Uncle Doug made us hot chocolate & a yummy hot dog lunch, we switched back and forth between watching TV, and watching what the underwater camera was showing of the fish activity below. 

If you're up for seeing us in action - here's your reward for reading this far!

Life in the Ice Castle --

The crew -- after catching our haul of about 6 baby fish -- ready for a (tiny) fish fry!

(I must note, that this lake wasn't where Doug had planned to take us; 

but his favorite lake didn't have thick enough ice on it yet.  

I appreciate his caution & we were perfectly happy with our catch :-) 

This is how Dave says he enjoyed ice fishing as a child - -

(yikes)
I wouldn't have lasted 10 minutes.