Weekend Happenings: Ice Fishing, Tory's First Snowmobile Ride

Andi was exhausted after working some very long days in January, so he took last Friday off work and we headed to the lake cabin for a long weekend away. It's times like this I'm reminded how lucky I am to have a schedule that allows me to sneak away whenever we see fit. Somehow though, even with an extra day at the cabin, our weekend flew by in an instant.

We spent most of Friday ice fishing on nearby Beaver Dam Lake. It's a fairly large lake filled with panfish, northern, bass, walleye and even trout. We drive by Beaver Dam almost every weekend but have never fished there, so it served as our day's adventure. 

Andi set up the ice house near a few other shacks on the lake, but soon discovered we were stationed in water a foot deep. We couldn't figure out why the other fishermen around us would've set up in 12 inches of water. So, Andi moved the trailer over a foot or two and the lake measured 20 ft. deep there. So strange (and sort of eerie) to think how much is unknown underneath bodies of water. A few weekends ago, we found a bench resting on the bottom on a different lake. Tory said the fish used it to go to school. 

As if it's any surprise, Andi has lots of neat electronic devices we use for ice fishing. One of them is an Aqua-Vu underwater camera to locate the fish under the ice. It literally feels like a video game as we watch various fish swim by, check out the bait on the end of our line and (sometimes) take the hook. That's how we discovered the sunken bench a few weekends before, and we often find underwater plants, rocks and tree limbs. It makes ice fishing addictive when we can literally see the fish swimming below us. Bite our hook, fish!

Even more amazing is how well Tory's taken to ice fishing. I suppose it's no surprise as she spends most weekends fishing with Andi, but it's crazy to me how well she can identify various species of fish and drops phrases like "jig the line" into relevant conversation. Also, how many other three-year-olds go ice fishing barefoot? This girl will not keep her shoes and socks on lately! (In her defense, it was a warm 75 degrees inside the ice house).

We entertained a co-worker of Andi's on Saturday afternoon at the cabin. She and her husband recently moved from California and were excited to experience wintertime sports like ice fishing and snowmobiling for the first time. Saturday evening, Andi and I took them to a fish fry hosted by one of our cabin neighbors. It was the perfect ending to a day in the life on the lake.

There's barely any snow on the ground so we had yet to ride snowmobiles this year. It is safe to drive the sleds on a frozen lake but not trails, so Andi planned to take his work friends for a quick ride Sunday morning on our lake. When Tory heard Andi was going without her, she was heart broken. She's daddy's little shadow on the weekends. So after Andi's outing with friends, he took Tory for her first snowmobiling ride around the lake. Was Tory nervous? Not even a little bit. She pulled on her snow suit and kids helmet, and climbed right up on the sled with Andi. 

There's nothing like spending a long weekend in the country. More great family memories made at the lake cabin this weekend.