Monday, May 18, 2009

Second Annual Houghton Lake Ice Fishing Trip

Well, it's been a while since I have last written, so I have alot of catching up to do! And the first story that I would like to tell is about our trip up to Houghton Lake for another stay out on the ice and the adventures that come with it. This year, my good friend Mike, along with his sons (and equally good friends) Mike and Jake accompanied me on this winter camp out. We started out our trip early Friday morning with a break from the norm and went to Tim Hortons instead of our normal Micky D's breakfast befor our two and a half hour drive. We arrived at Lyman's on the Lake where we checked in and bought all of our last minute supplies and bait. They helped us load all of our things onto the shuttle they provided and we made our way out to our home for the weekend. There was a pleasant surprise this year, as Lymans added a second set of bunks on the other side of the shanty. We got set up and started to rig up our poles and tip-ups with eager anticipation to the fishing frenzy we were about to take part in. After about an hour, we started popping holes in the ice with our new StrikeMaster power auger (we HAD to get a new toy for the trip) and set our tip-ups around the shanty.
But lets backtrack for a second. Before we had left, we decided we were going to play a game called "group tip-up". The rules of this game are pretty simple. Every hour or so, a new tip-up is chosen out of the group and deemed the "group tip-up". During that time, anyone who sees the flag spring on that tip-up can get it. If more than one person notices, they can do anything in their power (within reason - we don't want any one getting sevely hurt) to prevent the others from getting it first. The first person to get their hands on the tip-up gets to reel it in.
Now, back to the fishing. It's about here is where I would like to tell you that we brought them in left and right. That it was all we could do to keep bait on our lines. But that's not how it happened. Along with us came a low pressure system that killed all the fishing on the lake. There we a few flags here and there, but none in our camp.
Combine that with the near foot of snow that came down in blizzard conditions, it just wasn't a good weekend for ice fighting. But we still had a good time. We made the best of all of the time we spent inside our shanty. We ate like kings, told and retold stories, and made some fond memories. After all, isn't that what it's all about?