In my defense, many of my "outdoor activities" have been GeoCaching. I put together another blog just for my GeoCaching...
But... I digress
I am not going to wax on poetically with this post, because (to be honest) there is not that much to say. It was for the most part, an uneventful day.
The trip was planned through the Boy Scouts. It was held on Cedar Lake. We checked in, where the kids got a little "care package" of a few lures, a slip bobber, a depth weight, a scout patch, hot chocolate tickets, a hot dog ticket, and a raffle ticket. After checking in, we proceeded to find a spot where three unused holes were in close proximity. (I did bring my auger, but it's a hand auger... (I'm a cheapskate - frugal - a father of five after all) - Since there were already holes drilled, I took advantage of that. I had set up the rods earlier, so it was a matter of skimming the hole of slush and ice, setting up a bucket, and dropping a line.
The host Troop had Hot dogs, and hot chocolate for the participants. We shared hot chocolate (both the scout provided kind, and the premium "brought by dad" amaretto flavored variety. (Put down the phone to Child Protective Services.. It was non-liquor amaretto flavoring...)
We had a nice chat with Ted, the boy's Scoutmaster (he's really a great guy - and a positive roll model for the kids!) and Ted's son Zach. The are both GeoCachers too!
After a morning without a "nibble", I saved a bite of my hot dog "just in case". I added a bit of the hot dog to my lure, but alas, that did not help. We ended the day "empty handed".
For what it's worth though, it was not just us. The prize for the fisherman with the most fish, won the prize with four crappies.
Four.
And, rumor has it that the TOTAL number of fish caught for the whole derby was ten.
Ten. Measly. Fish.
By nature, an Ice Fishing Derby is held in a large open area of a lake... It's open for a reason... Most of the productive fishing areas are already peppered with fish houses.. I'm sure all the commotion on the top of the ice (loudspeaker, cars, kids running around, snowmobiles, ATV's, etc, etc, etc) did not do much to keep the fish around our spot.
Although we did not go home TOTALLY empty handed. #2 of 5's raffle ticket number was called, and he came back from the prize hut with an Eddie Bauer pocket knife, and mini LED flashlight set. Not too bad!
The worst part of the day? Getting off the ice.
The guys driving the trucks and SUV's drove right up and off the ice. Me, on the other hand, in my little Saturn SL1, took a dozen tries to make it up the icy boat launch... I (at one point) had to stop trying to get OFF the ice so a few other guys could get ON the ice!
After an embarrassing 30 minutes of sliding down the boat ramp, when I did finally make it to the top - I flicked on my GPS (knowing there was a GeoCache on the lake), and the boys and I decided to make a find!
We made quick business of locating the GC18J4J - Cedar Lake Public Water Access cache. Later, Ted and his son also found that cache. We decided to hit one more cache that we were going to pass on our way home.
We ended our day outdoors with a final GeoCache find... GC1K29G - Local Heroes.
I had a memorable day, and I enjoyed getting back out-of-doors after a pretty "arctic" January!
1 comment:
That was an interesting post, thank you for sharing your experiences and thank you for reminding me that adventures are worth remembering even if it is simple. Ten fish caught? That's a lot anyway :)
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