An Ice Fishing First

February 12, 2025

Experiencing something for the first time is something to be savored. Over time those experiences, what very often just as satisfying can become normalized.

Growing up we are surrounded by “first” opportunities, but as we age these opportunities start to slow down, just as we begin to slow down. The challenge is to not let comfort and habit and routine further slow these opportunities.

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This weekend my daughter and I both had an opportunity to try something new – Ice Fishing!

The week started out fairly innocuously, it was quiet and the normal mix of work and life activities. I try to keep an eye on events occurring up in the Antioch area, and on this occasion I learned of the Northern Illinois Conservation Club 65th Annual Ice Fishing Derbymynicc.org .

Driving around the Chain O’Lakes I of course had seen people out on the ice fishing, some with only a chair, others with more elaborate setups. All appeared equally insane.

But I am always open to trying something new with my children and this seemed like the perfect opportunity. In my head I figured that there surely would be someone there that could drill a hole for us, all I would need to do was get a beginner ice fishing rod and reel.

One post to a Facebook Chain Fishing Group later and I had my confirmation that there 100% would be people that would gladly auger holes for us, and I even had an offer to let us borrow a fishing pole.

Now I am a fairly introverted person, I can be an extrovert when needed, but I prefer quiet and doing things on my own, but I found myself messaging Marty that made the offer to borrow a rod because I thought it would be more fun if we could both fish together.

Super bowl party prep took my son out as a participant so it would just be me and my daughter. We decided to head up to Antioch the night before to cut down on the driving and increase our sleep.

Come Saturday morning we bundled ourselves up in what we considered to be enough layers (it wasn’t) and headed over to the derby.

Walking out on the ice on Channel lake was a surreal experience, and one that we both didn’t realize would be as slippery as it was. We set ourselves up around 100 feet out from the Turtle Bay Marina block and I gave Marty a call.

“Be over in five minutes to pick you up” he replied to my text message. Pick us up? That was unexpected but I decided to see where it went. In no time Marty came driving up on the ice on what seemed like the biggest 4 wheeler I have ever seen, towing a sled with two seats on it.

“Hop on and I’ll pull you over to the camp” Marty said cheerfully. I’ll be honest it was a lot of fun riding that sled on the ice and before we knew it we were at the frozen over bay that is a popular hang out spot in the summer.

There we met Mike and his wife Lori and many others whose names escape me. This was a well established friends group that welcomes us into their ice camp with open arms.

First things first they insisted we put on ice spikes on our shoes. We had no idea such things were used for ice fishing. As they explained it Marty had been in the hospital with a concussion just a week ago and another shanty owner was currently in the hospital.

We immediately felt more safe moving on the ice. They then fed us breakfast burritos being warmed up on the ice. They would continue to feed us lunch (amazing hot chili and brats). I felt so unprepared and they were the polar opposite.

They opened their ice shanty up to us when we got cold (it was a balmy 60 degrees inside and felt like heavenly). Mike shared with me that they 100% would have made fun of me if I wasn’t in their group about my shoes (running shoes) and I readily agreed that they would have been right to do so.

A terrible decision on my part, my hiking boots being out of commission I thought that the extra socks would make up for it (they did not).

All in all my daughter and I had an absolute blast. I am sure we would have had fun if it was just the two of us, but we 100% would not have stayed out as long as we did (8am - 1:15pm). I caught zero fish and my daughter caught one nice bluegill. We considered it a total success.

In the end we said our goodbyes, thanked everyone for their hospitality and Marty fired up the four wheeler to drive us back but not before giving us the rod and reel he had given us to use. What a fantastic memory, I sincerely hope that we have an opportunity to see this group again either this summer or back on the ice.

Next time with more appropriate footwear!