Jay and I took to the ice in what I called the off season.Jay needed this fishing trip badly. His boss was being a real jerk and his work week sucked !!!!!!!!!!!!

 My day started off the day with a distress call from Jay . He was calling  me from Kmart letting me know he would be 20 minutes late to pick me up. He informed me that his son had went ice fishing the day before with a friend and that all his gear was messed up and missing . Man was he crabby . Said the lines were long and mumbled something about blankety blank Christmas Music .  I said no worries I would make another cup of tea and watch TV . 

 In about 40 not the 20 minutes he said Jay pulled into the driveway I loaded my gear into his truck and we both started down the road for the 40 minute ride to the lake .  Jay went on to fill me in a little more about his son and why he wa late. About another 20 minutes in all of a sudden He lets out an F Bomb. Holy crap Jay had left the mealworms on the kitchen table . Now he was really pissed . I started to chuckle . I said no worries we got plenty of salmon eggs and power bait not to mention a few dozen swedish pimples . Thats all we need right ? Besides we had to stop at the store and pick up some grub. We could pick up some worms there.

 We arrived at the store with looking like carrithers right from the movie grumpy old men.  Jay fit the bill even because he was a grumpy old fart. We went into the store picked up some snacks and beverages for the day . I asked about the mealworms and bad news came from the lady saying that the shipment was late . Oh crap here we go again.   I noticed that there was a deli in the store and asked Jay if he wanted a sub . Sure he said . So this is when things got even better. The lady tells us it is her first time making a sandwich. We both looked at the 70 plus year old lady and said that would be fine. Little did we know that this lady would go on to count every piece of meat  cheese and veggie. Oh crap I could see Jay was getting restless. He really needed to be on the ice to let out the stress before he blew a artery in his heart. This is no bull it took this lady 20 min to make them subs, i had to giggle.

 As we got into the truck Jay was mumbling it was funny.

  Well we finally make it to the lake. Pretty much all to ourselves as you can tell by the picture.

  So we unloaded the gear and headed to the lake . It was really nice out . Around 50 I got the ice 1 st . I started drilling holes with the manual auger soon I would wish for the powered auger . The ice was a good 8 to 10 inches thick a bit early for this time of year I thought . Jay baited up the tip ups I could hear him mumbling we arent going to catch anything with these damn eggs . I yelled over I bet we do. I baited up my rods and sent my line down to the bottom then back to about ten feet below the surface 'About 5 minitues later my first fish .

 Soon Jay was into a rainbow on the tip up . I said told you so . Soon I could see the stress disapear. Got to love fishing .

Notice my beard

All in all a great day for me and yes as well for grumpy Jay .

Nice going Dave, I like the beard.  Glad someone is getting out, like Keith said I am not much for ice fishing anymore.  Used to do it with my dad when he was alive.

See Yah

Lee

Looks like a good day after all.  Good story.  I've been out ice fishing with Jack a few times this season.  Ice was a bit slushy last weekend where the snow was still piled and we have a couple more feet on top of that since.  I picked up a little weber and cooked burgers last time, which was fun and kept us entertained as the fishing was pretty slow.  My brother in law said he sets the power bait  by taking some fly tying lead wire and wrapping it around the hook shank and then squeezing the power bait around it.  I've tried it, but have yet to get a trout.  Not exactly bamboo rod and dry fly fishing but at least you still get to use fly gear.