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Phil was sooo excited to take me ice fishing on Saturday. I, big surprise, was not that excited. It wasn’t that I thought I’d be cold, bored and did I say cold? But that I’d be cold and we’d both fall through the ice and leave Lily an orphan. Hey, it happens. Phil laughed at me and said “Aubri they drive pickups out on the ice. Unless you weigh a ton, you won’t fall through.” Unconvinced I decided I’d give it a go. We left Lily with a sitter. I told her goodbye hoping I’d see her again and we drove out to the lake we fish in during the summer. It was quite different looking this time of year. There were about 40-50 people all over it, huddled together or going it alone around little holes in the ice. I was relieved and more concerned at the same time. With this many people, surly the strength of the ice would be weakened! But no, it looked thick enough so out we went.
Phil hauled the equipment. Who knew it would take this much!
Drilled a hole in the ice with the auger.
Measured the depth of the water. We were over 15 feet of water. The ice was about 18 inches thick….good thing!
And then we sat with our line in the water. It was a warm 45 degrees so we didn’t set up the hut. See how warm I am. Everything was going well, slow, but well until I went to take a picture of Phil.
Here’s the picture I took, from my bottom with my foot dangling through a foot of ice in 30 degree water. No, the ice didn’t suddenly give way under my 1 ton body, I’d stepped backwards into a very obviously open fishing hole. Proudly there was no panicking on my part even though I could say my life flashed before my eyes, until I realized I couldn’t get my foot out of the hole and thought Phil would have to drill me out or cut my foot off or worse, I’d have to remove the boot I was wearing that I’d borrowed from someone! Don’t worry though, tragedy and more embarrassment was avoided by simply crawling to my hands and knees and pulling my foot out, boot in tact. We quickly packed and got back to the truck so hypothermia wouldn’t set in on my soaked foot. And I’ll say, I was glad to be leaving, not because I was bored or cold, but because I know I heard the old man behind us chuckling.
