Ice Fishing: Eagle Nest

Everyone had so much fun fishing last weekend, that no one could wait to get back out on the ice. I had no other obligations this time and was finally able to experience the adventure as well. We made plans to go with Sterling and his girls. We met at the Brown's house at 6:30 am where Mercy and Haley traded places for the three hour drive up to Eagle Nest. We were on the ice by 10:00 and fishing by 10:30. The weather was as perfect as one could hope for. Sunny and comfortable, but not so warm that snow turned to slush and layers needed to be removed.

Jeb, Luci, and Cora were there as well, along with their ward's young men (Jeb is in the bishopric). Cora is a fishing fanatic and focused single mindedly on her hole for the majority of the day. Hyrum liked drilling holes and fished about half of the time, and Haley gave it a go for almost an hour. The rest of the kids (Luci, Abraham, Mercy, and Olivia) spent their day sliding around on the ice playing games like human bowling. They had so much fun.

The fishing was slow and we worked away at it until 4:30 pm. We set eight tip-ups, moving them to three different locations, and jigged for hours. Sterling and Haley each caught one trout, two of Jeb's young men caught a trout, Matthew caught one beautiful big trout, and Abraham pulled up a tiny little trout that we threw back. Cora caught three nice keepers.

We moved further out on the lake around 3:00 pm. It got cloudy and a cold wind picked up, but there Matthew caught two perch so we were glad we stuck it out.

On the way home, we stopped at a Mexican place in Taos for dinner. Sit down restaurants aren't usually our style, but it was getting late and we were all hungry for a hot meal. We paid more than we would have liked for food that wasn't spectacular, but it made a memorable end to a memorable day and I suppose in the grand scheme of things it was worth it.