Ice Fishing with Charlie

Today, I took Charlie to DeWeese Reservoir for his first ice fishing outing for the year.  I had told him the night before we were going to go so he was excited then and again when he woke up in the morning.  Of course he had to rub it into Alanna that he was going and she wasn't as all big brothers must do I suppose.  It was a warm (for winter) and sunny day which ended up being a good thing (explained later).  Since I don't have any of my own ice fishing gear right now, I borrowed some from a friend at work (this will come up later in the story as well) and we met another guy I know from work at the reservoir.  Charlie and I arrived at 9:30 AM, popped a couple of holes, and as I was setting up one of the lines . . . SPLOOSH!  Charlie had been watching me, took one step back and stepped knee deep into the other hole.  We had been on the ice for less than five minutes and his foot was already soaked.  After I pulled him out I took his boot off and squeezed out as much water as I could, then squeezed out as much water from his pants and snowpants.  I pulled off his wet sock and one of my dry socks, put my sock on him, wrapped it in a walmart bag to keep it relatively dry (he did just step into a fishing hole after all), then put his boot back on.  I guess it worked because he never complained of having a cold foot and we were on the ice for almost three hours.

You'll notice the blue ice scoop that had been borrowed from a friend in close reach to Charlie.  He had fun playing with it, scooping out ice from the holes and scrapping the snow.  I said to someone we were with, "I have a feeling I might be buying Dave a new ice scoop before the day is over."  An hour later . . . SPLOOSH! . . . down the hole goes the ice scoop.  It reminds me so much of ice fishing when I was a kid, I remember doing the same things.  I've stepped in an ice hole, and I dropped flash lights, fishing rods, lures, etc. down ice holes.  I didn't get mad at him because I blamed myself for for predicting the outcome, but doing nothing to prevent it.  A learning experience for the the both of us.  Next time, bring a ball for him to play with, bring a change of clothes, warn the kids about dropping things in the hole, and tell the kids to watch out for holes so you don't fall in.

 

We did catch some fish, bringing home six trout.  Charlie was able reel this one in all by himself.  He was very proud and very excited to tell me all about it on the ice, on the drive home, and after we got home, and then he was excited to tell Julie.  He already asked if we could go fishing again tomorrow so I know he had a good time and this will be the beginning of many days like this to come.