Massabesic Lake – January 27th, 2007

Went to Massabesic Lake on this day with my wife Jacinta and son Ryan. It was their 1st time ice fishing so they were nervous and excited. I was just excited. 😉 We went out for a VERY short trip. But we did bring all of the gear including the portable ice shanty. The bait shop ran out of bait though. 😦 so we used worms.

 

Set out a few traps, showed Ryan how we drill the holes, clean them out with a sifter, and then rig the tip up with bait and set it in the hole. He did a great job at cleaning the holes and was right behind me with the worms. We went into the shanty to warm up with the heater and hang out.

We were only out for a couple of hours but it was fun to be with them. They both were also thrilled about the concept and want to do it again.

Brian

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Highland Lake (Andover) – January 18th

Finally made it out on the ice after the worst year for ice fishing so far. Untile about this day most of the lakes were still completely wide open. Even the ones that kind of locked up thawed back out with the warm weather and heavy wind and rains we have had. What a crazy year so far.

Met up with a fellow IceShanty.com member, Stephan. We met at around 7 AM and headed for a spot he knew of. After a little treck through the woods we ended up with the whole area to ourselves. 4-5 inches of good ice we started drilling holes everywhere. Allowed 6 traps each here so we each had out about 5 and a jigging rod ready.

Almost instantly I had one on. A little rainbow on a salmon egg in 1.5 feet of water. Then a little while later Stephan got one too. I think his was a brookie. We each got a few for the day and only made one long move out to another spot down the shoreline. I think I picked up a small rainbow down that way.

Although Stephan had bigger expectations based on prior experience with his spot, I had a blast. Waited too long for the 1st trip of this season, add some fish catching to it and it was an awesome day. Also made a new fishing friend. He was as hard core about ice fishing as me and we stayed pretty late (ah, it was almost dark out when we left).

Again, an awesome day out. This was my bday gift to myself. Oh ya, I just had a birthday the day before. I turned 29 again. It has happened for 4 years now like that. 🙂

-Brian