This thread's for whiners

[icehousebob]

I was going to go fishing on Tonka today with two of my sons. I helped haul out one of the permanents yesterday so they said they would show me where the walleyes are. I woke up from a nap and found out They had come and gone. They took one of my augers, my FL18, one of my portables and a fishing sled. Right now, my equipment is having more fun than I am.

[tisch008]

went fishing up in central minnesota this week on a trip that I've been planning for over a month.

Got out to the fish house about 5 AM the first morning and before I even had a line in i heard the dredded "thump...ploop" as I was taking my jacket off. My work cell phone came off of my belt clip (this has never happened before) and went straight for the hole.

...I haven't told my boss yet.

[Lost]

Went out for my first trip one week ago, locally. Thought I would travel light since my portable wasn't licenced yet. No problem. Borrow the girlfriend's kids sled. Don't think so! He wouldn't let me (darn 6 yr old). Well, since I have a hand auger with one of the cordless drill attachments, I leave the hand cranking part of the auger home. Less bulk, less weight. Great idea! I grab the spare battery for my cordless drill, head out to the ice. I load everything up in two buckets, walk clear across the park, down the hill, onto the ice. Okay, now to catch some fish. But where to start? As I look around.... zooooooooooooooooom!!!! Snowmobile carrying 2 people and towing two kids on a sled go by faster than I can blink. Startle me so much I jump and drop the bucket with the cordless in it! Battery that was on it does what I was hoping it would never do. It breaks.

Never fear! I've got the spare! Get to what I think is a good location (don't have a flasher so no clue if there was anything actually down there or not). Takes me all day to get the broken battery removed from the drill. Okay, so it was actually 20 minutes... but it seemed like all day! I only had 3 hrs to be out. Get the spare battery on the drill, first hole, no problem. Second hole, struggled some and got just to the water when it stopped. Didn't have what it took to go any farther. Tried again and again. Give it some rest, try again. No luck.

So I have one hole to fish through. Grumble, grumble.

Okay, lets remove slush! But how? Forgot the scoop at home! Glove off. Use hand. Bad idea. Nearly got frost bite! I swear my fingers froze together once they got back out of the 32° water and into the 20° air with the 5mph breeze.

Get my hand to operate again after a while. Two hours left to fish. As I'm tying on a jig, some hefty guy from Hawaii walks out to me and yells at me like I'm deaf. "This is scary, huh! I have never been on the ice before! Do you think it's safe? There's a deep crack right here! I'm from Hawaii! We don't do ice fishing out there! I like to take people from here in Minnesota to Hawaii to go fishing! We catch Mahi Mahi and Tuna that are 6 feet long and 3 feet wide! They never forget about their experience in Hawaii! Think you'll catch anything? Sure is scary being out here in the ice! Think it will break?" He didn't stop for at least half an hour! I'm too kind. I should have told him to get lost and leave me alone or do something useful like go borrow someone's gas auger for me.

He finally left. As I try to get the euro-larvae package open, I flies open and out of my hands and right into the hole. So much for using bait. No soft plastics with me. Oh well. Pack up, head home. Find out that my girlfriend had used my drill and that the broken battery was fully charged but the spare was low after she got done with it.