Fishing on Simcoe

The other weekend Mike and I took off to Lake Simcoe to get in a little bit of ice fishing while the season was still "somewhat" on!   With all the warm weather this winter we were a little worried that we wouldn't be able to get out at all.  Really sketchy ice conditions have left us with limited days where it was safe to walk on ice.  By the time we decided to head out, temperatures had been in the negative digits for only a couple of days, this this was enough to thicken the ice and allow for safe (ish) walking!

We ended up walking out from Sibbald's Point Provincial Park.  The original location we had wanted to try had warmed up enough over night that there was a large hole in the ice, stranding some of the huts.  This didn't make us feel too, too safe, however once we arrived at Sibbald's, the ice was perfectly safe for us to walk out on and the ice, once drilled, we saw was about a foot thick.

It was so much fun getting out and getting some fresh air.  Spending a day with my eyes away from the computer was a nice relaxer to the otherwise usually strained vision. There is definitely something about sitting out on the middle of a lake, in the middle of winter that is just so much fun! 

The water was so clear that we were able to see right through to the bottom of the lake. While the fishing was fun, I had almost as good of a time just sitting on the ice and watching the fish swim underneath me, trying to figure out where they were going, and the guessing game of whose hook they would bite. After a full day of fishing, we ended up with about 13 Perch, including a number of them that were jumbo!  

It was such a great day out and I really wish that winter wasn't already coming to a close.  In fact, I wish that we even had a winter! As people who love to ice fish, we were truly spoiled last winter with the amazing deep freeze that we had.  With that said, I am still so excited that the spring is coming, opening the windows once again, and feeling that amazing sunshine.  Oh, and seeing some birds too!