Catching "the biggest fish" makes Frostbite OK!

You’re jonesing for a food that offers freshness, tastiness, nutrition, and is free. What do you do?

a) Cry because it doesn’t exist.

b) Have another green bean and stop whining.

c) Take your family fishing on the sea ice.


C it is! Fishing with the family. We facebooked our trip and got one lucky companion to malik (follow) us. She even let us borrow her sled!

It was an absolutely beautiful day and it only took about an hour to get everyone ready. Kaisa managed to cry only once as well! :)




Once we got out to the ice, there were a bunch of people fishing already so we just wandered around looking for an empty hole. The kids ran off to see friends and dogs, and Dean, Chris and I sat down and started fishing.



Of course, we weren't catching anything spectacular, one or two 25 pounders every fifteen minutes. Something that makes you cold and want to go home! Until..... You guessed it...they came. They came with a vengance! They were hitting our hooks, and people were actually snagging the fish, which is quite a sight to see a 35 pound fish hooked by the tail!

The most exciting thing we saw though, was a "ShiiTomIng" A (still moving) herring, inside a (still moving) tom cod, inside a Shiifish we just caught! I think we snagged the tom Cod right as the Shiifish was going to eat him!


Caught just in time...

Pulled it out and...

Saw this...

Our very own version of a TurDuckIn! A ShiiTomIng!


Now I understand why people would want to stuff things inside each other, since it OBVIOUSLY happens in nature!

I did manage to get over the fact that Dean had gone before me, cause I hooked in a MONSTER fish. So large that we had to measure and weigh to make sure mine was the biggest! :)


And it was! :)



Of course, we (Dean) had plenty of beheadding and gutting to do, since its easier to do it on the ice, so the ravens and foxes can eat up the leftovers...

He couldn't keep up with how many fish we were catching. As soon as he was done removing a head and guts (30 seconds tops) another fish would be caught and brought over to him! I have to admit, it was mostly me who caught fish, so I was happy to have him take care of them for us!


And there were plenty of lessons, about momma fish and daddy fish. Kaisa was intensely watching and making sure we killed only "daddy" fish. She was excited to learn that they eat other fish.



We stayed out past our bedtimes and watched a beautiful sunset...


And as we were packing up, getting all the fish into the sled, here comes Kaisa with a HUMONGOUS fish...she drug that thing by the tail and had the largest smile on her face that I can remember! Even bigger than her birthday party smiles!


Dean had to help her hold it up.

She insisted that we did not cut it up though...it was HER fish.

She did end up with a bit of frostbite on her leg, after being asked twenty times if she was cold, and answering "NO, I'm good." each time.

This morning she said to me, "Mom its OK about my leg cause I caught the biggest fish right?!"

Oh, the priorities of a 5 year old!