"O C" works me over

It was a beautiful day as we stepped onto the ice. 15 degrees with the sun just minutes away from peeking over the hill. All is well with life at this point. All that is needed now is a few fish for my daughter and her friend to make this a perfect outing. I drilled a few holes and checked the finder. There were a few fish around so I told the ladies to set up the ice tent if they were so inclined and I set about rigging up some poles. They finished erecting the tent and set up their chairs while I dropped a jig with a piece of nightcrawler into his frigid bath. As the jig reached the bottom the line commenced going angular to the hole. I set the hook and was rewarded with a beautiful rainbow in the two pound range. Thinking this was a precursor to a great day I released him to fight another day. ( I've always felt keeping the first fish was a recipe for bad karma). Immediately my daughter hooked a fish that came unbuttoned pulling it through the ice. Then her friend struck with another about the same size as the first. That unfortunate fish will join me for lunch today. It seemed a harbinger for a great day of catching. NOT SO! From that point we were able to land one more little fellow that was allowed to return to the depths to grow. Perhaps 5 more very light bites commenced in the next 4 hours before we left to return home. Fishing was great, catching was terrible after the first flurry. With my jaw jacker set as light as possible it still wouldn't trigger with the bites we were getting. Still beat the alternative of setting home. Sorry, no pics.

There were several other groups fishing around us and in casually watching I seen only one other fish being caught. I think it was just a slow day. Perhaps the fish were hung over from their new years celebration.