We had dinner with some friends who live near Fan Lake on New Years day, so we decided to stop off at our favorite lake for a couple hours on the way. Sammi had never seen a frozen lake before, having moved here from England only 2 years ago, and had never experienced "walking on water". I think she was a little nervous about it until she saw all the other people scattered about on the ice out from the public launch. I counted 11 vehicles in the parking area and 20+ people out on the lake. The road and parking lot was well plowed.
We loaded our gear on to the sled and headed to the north from the launch area and stopped about 150 yards off shore in front of the small brown house. We did very good in this area in the fall. I chopped one hole through 6-7 inches of ice for Sammi and set to chopping a second hole for me. Before i could finish she had her first bite and by the time I had gotten my hook in the water she pulled up the first nice fat perch of the year. I had lots of bites but it took me a half hour before i managed to get one hooked and up through the hole. And it fell off before I could grab it and back down it went. lol it figures...
It was a good start to the new year. We will be back again this weekend when we have more time to fish.

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