Lake of the Woods

Well we survived our first weekend out on the ice!  Clint and I bought an Ice House (RV Edition) and it was completed last week and ready for pick up.  We didn't plan to waste any time getting it out on the ice as Winter only lasts so long so we immediately made plans for our first weekend trip.  We looked online at reviews for a couple different lakes and talked to some people at the Sportsman Show and ultimately decided to head to Lake of the Woods for the weekend.   Clint has always wanted to fish on Lake of the Woods and we heard the walleye were biting good so it sounded like a great place to break in our new Ice House.  We packed up the trailer with blankets, pillows, clothes, fishing gear and of course plenty of food and snacks and we hit the road early Saturday Morning.  It is a 6 hour drive and of course we needed to make a couple stops for bathroom breaks, snacks, gas and to just stretch our legs.  By 2:30 we had arrived at Zippel Bay Resort and paid for our 3 day pass to use their ice roads (best investment ever, I couldn't imagine trying to pull that big trailer out onto a lake we didn't know at all without having plowed roads).  We found a place to set up "camp" and by 4pm we had our lines in the water and within 15 minutes had our first walleye, yup it was going to be a good weekend.  The next 48 hours were spent fishing, playing video games (the boys all had their Nintendo DS's with them), laughing, resting, napping, playing outside in the snow (going exploring as the boys called it) and just having fun.  We did leave the comfort of our ice house to go to the World Famous Igloo Bar which is out on the ice (mind you were are about 1.5 miles from the entrance onto the lake).  We enjoyed a beer and pizza and then headed back to our house to continue fishing.  Overall we caught 21 walleye which isnt too bad at all.  We did clean the fish and enjoy fresh fish for dinner Sunday night (and again one night this week as we brought some home too)!  The boys did great sleeping out on the ice.  The only time they even showed any concern was Sunday night as we were just getting settled down for bed and all of a sudden the entire trailer shook.  There must have been a heave or crack in the ice somewhere on the lake which caused all the water underneath to ripple and by the time it got to us it was strong enough to shift the ice and cause the house to shake.  It was a creepy feeling and the boys weren't too sure that they wanted to experience that again (and I agree, that was my least favorite part of the trip).  Other than that we had a great time and we look forward to more fishing trips this year!