So this was a big deal. Not just that Stefan caught his first fish from under the ice, or that he was able to recognize when a fish was biting and set the hook and reel it in all by himself.
A few days prior I got up early and left the cabin before he and Nadya were awake. I had a lead from a friend on where to go and I needed an ice auger to test the location. It was 2 degrees when I started the 30 minute drive to the tackle shop in Granby to rent the auger. By 8:30 I had broken through a few holes that were drilled the previous day and began my first ice fishing attempt. After a few hours of sitting in the quiet, I landed three just after 10:00 and returned to the cabin knowing I had a least found a location that harbored some fish.
The next day we hired I guide to take Stefan and I out on Grand Lake. We were set up with a tent, gear and even a depth finder to see when a fish came near our bait. Even with all of this we only landed one fish in 5 hours of trying, and Stefan was a patient trooper through it all. The guide gave Stefan a new ice fishing rod and small box of lures.
Stefan was excited and wanted to try again, so we went out the next morning before heading home. I took him back to the first reservoir where I had caught the three fish. AFter re-tapping the same holes, immediately after dropping a line I had one one and let Stefan reel it in. Then, with him sitting on a bucket fishing his own hole he told me he thought there was a fish at his bait. I told him to set the hook and he did and shortly after he reeled in his very own caught fish. After getting it in we did some high fives and I, still on my knees, pulled him close and hugged and swirled him around.
We then set a goal to catch four before leaving, and when we did we set a goal to get ten. Every fish catch was marked in the snow with the handle of the ice scooper. Then we were at 9, and the action had slowed over the nearly two hours. Stefan wanted to see me drill a brand new hole with the manual ice auger. After about 15 minutes and several breaks we were through the 2 feet of ice. As a last attempt before we left, I dropped the line in and immediately had a hit. I pulled the rod hard over my head and heard the twang of the line snapping and then saw it coiled up on the slush in the hole. I yelled to Stefan that the line had broken and I would need to pull it in by hand. Playing it up a bit, I danced around the hole while pulling line in and exclaiming that "its still on!". Then we had out 10th, Stefan marked it, and we stepped back to look at the tally before walking back to the truck.
It was nice, not only that we caught a bunch in short time and Stefan had caught five of them himself. It was also nice in that I had put the work into getting a reco, scouting the place early one day before anyone got up, and that we did it on our own without the guide.
