When people hear the stories from our ice fishing escapades there are one of two reactions, "I wanna go!" or "you guys are crazy", and often the same person can be heard saying both. I remember the first time I experienced ice fishing, my cousin Maria and I were getting ready for her mother's surprise 60th birthday party and a couple of my Uncles, along with their wives, were up for the party and decided to throw some lines in the water. I took the snowmobile over and sat in my jeans (highly inappropriate ice fishing attire) and jigged for a bit, thinking that this would be the extent of my ice fishing experience. Little did I know that this was a totally false assumption. The following year my dad and brother decided to give it a go and came up for a long weekend, and thus begun our now annual tradition which is referred to as "dorf weekend" by the natives. We haven't caught a fish we could keep since the first year, but we sure have a great time. It's a weekend full of good food, good laughs and always something totally ridiculous. There was Uncle Mike falling in the lake, the "sandgin" which is one of the greatest things to ever come up on a fishing line, and the evolution of ice golf. This year it got really fancy with a fairway, green, and flag in the hole. We have also found a special drink for the weekend, apple pie moonshine, or as it is called on the ice, a little slice of heaven. The biggest deal for me is my personal evolution as a fisherwoman. Year 1, I paid for fishing license, put one trap in the last day and Aunt Natalie had to bait it for me. Year 2, I had multiple traps and set them myself, but still had to have them baited by someone else. So when I caught a fish (not a keeper) I had an asterisk next to my name because I didn't bait my own trap. So this year was the year, I was determined to do it all myself. Problem 1, staying up drinking until all hours of arrival night did not give me nerves of steal on the first day, so when the fish squirmed out of my hand I quickly handed the reins over to my brother. I did manage to take the live (did I mention that) bait off the line, but it seemed insufficient. So on Sunday I was determined, it was weird and I almost didn't make it, but in the end I put that hook right through that fish and was ready to go. I did not catch a fish, but no one did so I don't feel that bad, and it saved me from having to de-hook the big fish. The final frontier, maybe next year is the year that I do the whole shabang. There are no guarantees in fishing but I can tell you definitively that if this group takes the ice there will be no regrets, fish or not, because we always have a great time.
