First Canadian Fish Out of the Water!!!!

We went out yesterday to Corry Lake to scout out the ice fishing situation. Turns out the road IS plowed, but the boat ramp is NOT
and there was no way we were going to get the truck down to the water's edge, so we parked on the side of the road and waded thru the snow. Hayde got quite the workout. In most places, the snow was up past my knees! Luckily, some of the layers underneath were old, icy and hard enough to walk on. We drilled a few holes and found the ice a good foot thick. We let Hayde run around a while and played frisbee before we headed back.

Today, I got my fishing license and we packed up the truck with all the ice fishing gear and headed back to Corry Lake. It was quite windy and cold even though the temps were in the 20s. Jeremy drilled three holes and set up three tip-ups. By law, each person can only have two, hence the need for me to get a license. We then played with Hayde and walked around trying to stay warm. Finally we decided to head back towards shore where we were better hidden from the wind. After about an hour, Jeremy noticed a flag was up and figured we better go check it out. We were trying to be optimistic, but figured we'd probably leave without any luck. He had also gotten some minnows yesterday and I hadn't realized how BIG they were! They're the size of pan fish! Anyway, back to the flag. He felt a little tug and pulled the line to set the hook - just in case there really was a fish. He started pulling in the line and he did feel something (but remember these minnows are big too). Before we knew it, he had pulled out and landed a muskie!!!! We were shocked, but thrilled! I had to keep Hayde out of the way and grab some pictures as he pulled it out and got the hook out. Of course, Hayde was super excited and wanted to lick and lick and lick the fish. We finally got it back in the water and got the tip-up re-set. Poor Jeremy had some cold hands by this time. We stayed out another 45 minutes or so and then decided to call it quits, pulled in the lines and got back in the truck to warm up a bit.

Well, we're headed out for a quick trip to scout out Black Bay to see if anyone's out there fishing. I'll be back later tonight when Jeremy's off playing hockey...

Muskie landing movie below: