Ice Fishing on Red Lake

I am not much of a fan of the winter time (I bet some may wonder what I am doing in Northern Minnesota), because I have never found a winter sport or activity that I enjoyed. Well, I finally found it...ice fishing. A couple months ago Katie's dad bought a "Black Ice Portable Fish House-For Extreme Ice Fishermen", and since then we have been slowly increasing our ice fishing gear. The Wednesday after Christmas we had the chance to go test out all of our gear at Red Lake. Red Lake is known for their walleye, so we were hoping to catch a nice meal. We set out for the 1.5 hour drive at dawn, stopping only for bait and some fishing tips. When we arrived at Red Lake, we followed the plowed roads on the ice (the idea of driving on the ice is still something I am getting used to) until we found our spot. We decided it was a good spot when the guy next to us pulled up his 3rd fish of the day just as we were getting unloaded. After cutting 4 holes through the 18 inch thick ice, we were ready to go. We landed 3 fish all together, the one that I have in the picture was in "the slot", meaning that because it was between 17 and 26 inches I had to throw it back. The other 2 fish we brought home and cooked them up. It was a really good time and I look forward to going out ice fishing again before the season is through, and I am sure I will have plenty of opportunities, because winter lasts a long time :)