My new ice fishing buddy

Our whole family went ice fishing today with Grandpa Berger. This was Sydney's first time ice fishing ever. Deni and I were a little concerned about how she would handle 6+ hrs out in the cold sitting around a hole in the ice, but we decided it was time to find out. My dad went with us, as well as my Uncle Kim and cousin Chad. We left from our house about 6:15am and headed towards Scofield. When we got to Scofield, there was so much fog that you couldn't see the Lake we were parked right next to. We got the snowmobiles off the trailer and all the gear attached and took a few trips out next to the island we were going to fish next to. After getting all the gear out shuttled out, Dad and I went back for Ryan, Sydney and Deni that were staying warm in the truck.

Not even 5 minutes after getting to our fishing place with the kids, Sydney was walking through untouched snow (there was about 8 inches of it) and all of the sudden she fell down. I was really close to her, so I picked her up. Somehow she had found a previous hole that hadn't frozen over (I'm not sure how that happened, as it was well below zero and should have frozen over) and she sunk into the water up to her knee. As I pulled her up, I could see the water was dripping from her boot. Since it was so cold, we scrambled to get her back to the truck. (about a mile away) I took Sydney on one of the snowmobiles and headed back with the keys to the truck and Deni came a few minutes after me with some supplies to warm her up. Once I got the truck started, I stripped the wet clothes off of Sydney and tried to get her little leg warmed up. Deni finished getting her warmed up and somehow got her boot dry. About 45 minutes later, they rejoined us fishing out on the lake.

I found myself a new ice fishing buddy today. Despite falling in the hidden ice hole, Sydney was a great little fisherman. She loved to pick up the little ice fishing poles and reel them in. I got a fish on the line and handed it to Sydney to reel in and we got it up to the ice hole, but it got off right before it came out of the whole, so she didn't get to land her first. She sure was cute out there on the ice, though.

Ryan on the other hand complained most of the day. Ryan is a great little fisher too, IF, and that is a BIG IF, you constantly have a fish on your line. We expected Sydney to complain and Ryan to have fun, but the opposite happened.

I had a good ice fishing day. I caught 4 fish total. The 3 that I kept were about 15-16 inches and much fatter than the little ones we catch at the ponds during the spring and summer. They were good size for eating.
Deni got skunked today, but that is ok as the last time she and I came to Scofield, she caught the only fish all day. We stayed out on the ice till about 3:30pm. We then headed home (which is about 1hr away.)