What's up with Ice Fishing?

Okay, so I haven't been ice fishing since I was probably 12 and hanging out with Micah and Paul Mullin on Fort Meadow Reservoir.  I remember it being cold, of course, and pretty boring.  I think all I remember us catching was one or two shrimpy perch and pumpkinseeds.  So my expectations were pretty low when we decided to participate in a local ice fishing tournament in Bradford.  Aiden's expectations- well, they weren't so low.  More like celestial, unfortunately.  Aiden is obsessed with fishing of any kind  at the moment.  He reads fish stories (true and not) and watches "Top Hooker" on Amazon and pretty much any YouTube video he can find of someone reeling something in.  Though he did get in some good fishing in earlier this winter in the Keys, ice fishing is pretty much his only physical outlet for this obsession at this time of year in New Hampshire. 

So we borrowed all the gear... the ice auger, the tip ups, even the cool pack basket to make us look like regulars... from Uncle Micah and then set out to Lake Todd on the Sunday of the tournament.  An hour later and only 2 holes dug, Andy was sweating and muttering under his breath about how "fun" this sport was.  Uncle Micah's auger had a broken blade and cutting through the 2' thick ice was so slow that some guy with a power auger took pity on us and buzzed five or so holes in a row for us to use.  Then setting up the tip ups, with minnows for bait, and waiting.  And waiting.  And waiting.  If you couldn't already guess, we caught exactly nothing, not even a credible bite.

Aiden was disappointed, of course, but not deterred.  That's because it was relatively exciting watching other people around us haul in fish, some of them sizeable.  One kid next to us caught a giant smallmouth bass- probably the biggest Andy or I had ever seen anyone catch - only to realize that no trophies were given out for bass in this particular tournament (bummer).  I thought he should have received some sort of prize for that one.  Kids were also reeling up large pickerel out of their ice holes, not 20 feet from our ice holes.  Even after conferring with Uncle Micah, we have no idea what we were doing wrong.  Other than the other guys were there first, and the fish had LOTS of choice that day with nearly 100 kids spread all over the pond dangling minnows at them.

Still, we have bitten the bullet and have now purchased our own ice fishing equipment.  A brand new (sharp!) ice auger and a handful of tip ups.  If the ice holds, we'll get out there again this winter to see if we can actually catch a fish through a hole in the ice.  Wish us luck!