frozen eggs are similar to hardboiled eggs...they are both inedible...
the cold carried over from yesterday, only this morning the mercury was an unreadable below zero as the thermometer had frosted over. the fire in the stove had gone out sometime during the night and the uninsulated cabin was in a deep freeze. everything that could freeze was frozen...
instead of trying to get a fire going and thaw things out, including ourselves, we decided to head out and fish for the day. physical activity was going to be our answer to the cold. we left right after sunrise, our boots crunching on the hard packed snow and ice while the gunshot sounds of trees exploding as the sun hit them echoed around the lake. the ice was shifting and cracking as it expanded in the cold temperatures. you could feel it shake and shift as we walked over cracks that looked as if they would open up beneath us, but held fast all the same. it amazes me as to how much noise nature makes, simply because of sudden changes in temperature.
we drilled several holes around the grassy islands on the south side of McMILLAN ISLAND and pulled in a nice TROUT and NORTHERN PIKE as we warmed our faces in the warm march sun as it rose higher in the sky.
wanting to try fishing several locations that day, we moved along from the grassy islands to FINGER ROCK. the ice was thick near the rock formation that looks like its namesake. it took nearly the entire length or our ice auger to punch through the ice. we only drilled a few holes because of the ice conditions and were rewarded a single PIKE for our efforts. the wind was blowing hard into our exposed position and helped hasten our decision to pack up and move on.
as we talked about heading out, ELI gets a wild look on his face and quickly spun me around to look at our sleds. a MINK was locked in a game of tug of war over the TROUT that was tethered to one of the sleds! the MINK pulled and pulled but the half frozen TROUT was held fast by our stringer. great fortune for us that we tethered the TROUT in the first place to pull behind the sled! otherwise the MINK would have had his dinner, rather our dinner, and we would have been none the wiser.
we tried to scare the MINK off but he was absolutely fearless. he wanted our dinner just as bad as we did...we would chase him away and he would dive into one of the open ice holes, only to resurface in another one and run for his prize, only to be thwarted by us yelling and running at him. he did this over and over until we finally had everything packed up. we took off towards McMILLAN ISALND and our furry adversary followed! he ran from island to island, presumably dodging any predators that might be watching his movements on the exposed ice. we finally lost him when we had to make the big exposed crossing over to the big island. i guess it was too exposed for him to try and risk it...
unlike our new friend the MINK, we ate a mighty tasty TROUT for dinner that night...