The fish were biting at Holter!

What a great day to be on the ice! The weather was pretty mild, and when we got out there, we quickly found that the fish were biting. There were a few challenges… when Clint got out the auger, he realized the it was sitting wrong in the truck and most of the gas had leaked out. Once I got Dane dressed, he went out and joined Clint, and I made a quick trip to a little store nearby and got 30 cents worth of gas… Yes, that’s right, 30 cents… The augers have little tiny tanks!

When I got back Clint said, “well I have some good news and some bad news” I could see Dane was okay so I curiously asked what the good news was. Clint responded that he had caught one fish while I was gone… that’s awesome, so what’s the bad news? Well, Dane wanted to be helpful and took the ice scooper out of the bucket. Clint caught a fish and was momentarily distracted. All the sudden he hears “uh oh, uh oh” and realizes Dane had dropped the ice scooper through a hole in the ice!
Anyway, we got the tip-ups set and Clint was getting ready to fish with a pole when we had another small mishap. Clint had been scooping the ice out with his hands (because we didn’t have a scoop... have I mentioned my hubby is a stud). Dane had been watching closely. I was a few steps away getting the chairs out of the sled and Clint was baiting a hook when Dane decides to be helpful again, and scoop the ice out of the hole with his hand… Needless to say he didn’t do so well and ended up shoulder deep in the icy water.

After a few minutes of assuring him he was okay… (it kind of scared the little guy) I took him back to the truck to assess how wet he had really gotten. (the water dripping off his hand and arm wasn’t a good sign)

Well, a couple weeks ago there was a great sale and I was able to pick up some wonderful toddler mittens that are waterproof. They worked great and his hands were still dry and toasty. His arm was a little wet but we put his coat on the defroster, warmed up and before I knew it he was ready to head out again!
So, out we went and ended up catching 6 nice trout by the end of the day! (okay, 5 nice trout and one little guy that swallowed the hook so we couldn’t release him)  It was so much fun and Dane really enjoyed himself. There was a little peninsula near where we were fishing so we would walk over and he climbed around, played in the snow and just had a great time.

Here are a few pictures from the day!

This was a very nice trout! 

Bones always thinks his job is to fetch, regardless of what it is.  The only downfall is that Dane gets really mad when Bones takes "his fish".

Dane is learning...