Daylight comes late up this far north, and it actually felt good to lie in bed a bit longer than usual. I finally got up and pulled on my long underwear and dressed in jeans and a long sleeved pullover. I pulled on my heavy wool socks and then padded out into the great room to add some more logs to the coals that were hidden under the layer of ash. Before long the fire was crackling merrily away and the smell of cooking sausage was wafting in from the kitchen. I headed down the length of the room toward the kitchen, rapping my knuckles on the door frame of the two rooms that housed the guests as I went, and then turning into the last door that led to the kitchen. I found Suzanne busy cooking; wearing the same baggy sweat shirt from the day before, but her pants were tight fitting yoga pants that I was sure accentuated her ass, if it hadn't been covered by the sweat shirt.
"Good morning!" She said brightly when she realized I was there. "Sausage and scrambled eggs will be ready in a couple minutes. Feel free to pour a cup of coffee if you want." She said as she turned back to her cooking as if the previous evening hadn't happened.
"Thanks. Smells good!" I replied as I drew a hot cup of coffee from the urn and scooped some sugar in it.
"All that in your coffee?" She asked teasingly as I poured some milk in it.
"Yeah. I like mine sweet and white." I joked back as I headed out to the dining room.
It was only a few more minutes until she brought out dishes of fried sausage, scrambled eggs with cheese in them, hash brown and slices of toast. The group of sleepy fishermen and women that had clustered around the fire as they came out of their bunk rooms quickly made their way to the table to partake of the feast that Suzanne had laid out.
"Well, time to gear up." I said when it looked like everyone was done eating. "Get your heavy clothes on and meet me in the gear shed, right down the hallway at the end of the great room."
We all got up and headed to our rooms to gather our heavy clothes. I put a pair of toasty-toes foot warmers on my socks before pulling my heavily insulated pack boots on. Then I stepped into my heavy bib overalls and slipped on my jacket, stuffing gloves, balaclava and stocking hat into my pockets before heading out to the shed. I flicked on the lights and started loading gear, the last being the live bait we would use. By the time I was done Dave, Marlene, Mark and Randal were gathered around the three snow mobiles that I had lined up by the garage door.
"So the bad part is that it's about a six mile ride to where we're going to fish, and at only seven degrees it's a chilly ride. The good part is that Jack splurged and got heated helmets. So each of you put on your balaclava if you have one, and pick a helmet. Once you're fitted, you can get a seat on one of the snow mobiles. I'll drive the one with the big sled; the others of you can take the other two." I said as they were fitting helmets.
"You don't mind if I ride with you, do you?" Marlene asked.
"I don't mind, but don't you think your husband would want you to ride with him?" I responded.
"You're kidding right?" She asked with a smile. "I mean he might just drive us straight through the ice into the lake!"
"Now Marlene, that's not nice. You know I haven't done that in years." Dave retorted. "But if you really want to ride with him, just say so. I don't care one way or the other."
"There, see?" She said, standing there expectantly.
"Fine with me." I said with a shrug as I pulled on my helmet. I sat down and plugged my helmet into the panel on the snow machine and then hit the starter button. The engine roared to life and then settled to a comfortable idle.
"So everyone hear me ok?" I asked into the small microphone in the helmet, my voice transmitted to all the other helmets through a short range radio link. I quickly heard four more answers that they were ready. I hit the remote mounted on my snow mobile and the door motored up quietly. I gunned the engine and zipped out into the cold bright snow, stopping to make sure the other two cleared the door before hitting the button again to close it. Marlene grabbed me tightly around my waist as I hit the throttle and accelerated my machine down the path to the lake. Once on the ice I let it run up to forty miles an hour, checking behind me occasionally to make sure that the other two sleds were keeping up.
As advertised the ride was cold, but the front of the snow mobile and its windshield helped keep the chill down some. It was only about fifteen minutes of riding before I slowed my machine and eased into a wide cove, shutting down my sled.
I pulled my helmet off and put my stocking cap on before climbing off the rig. "So here's the deal. I'm going to drill a series of holes and we want to rig each one with a tip-up. Have all of you used one before?" I asked.
All their heads nodded they had, so I continued my instructions. "Back hook the minnows and set them about a foot off the bottom. Once they're all set we can set up the shanties and settle in."
I got affirmative replies before I headed to my equipment sled and pulled the power ice auger out. It started on the second pull and I let it idle for a moment before I gunned it a few times to make sure it was going to work. I walked over to where I thought the first hole should be and ran the auger down, spraying chips of ice around myself as the sharp blade on the end of the screw like device cut into the hard ice. I ran the auger deeper and deeper until it finally broke into the water nearly eighteen inches down, the resulting hole quickly filling with water and turning the ice chips into slush. I pulled the auger out and walked about twenty feet before repeating the process. In no time I had fifteen holes drilled in a variety of depths running across the small point that I knew had to be jutting out into the bay. I went back and stowed the auger and then helped them set the remainder of the tip-ups, small frames that had a spool of line that sat under the water to keep it from freezing, and a shaft sticking up above the water that when turned, would release a red flag to pop up and indicate that the line was being pulled out. As soon as they were all set we erected the two portable shanties, oversized sleds with seats and a tent like top, to shelter us from the cold and wind. Each shanty was outfitted with a heater and would seat three people.
"You don't mind if I sit with you, do you?" Marlene asked as she watched Dave, Mark and Randal climb into the other shelter and zip it closed.
"Not at all." I said as I held the door open. I followed her in and zipped it closed, leaving the large clear windows the only way to see the flags for the tip ups. It didn't take long for the first flag to pop up and everyone bailed out of the warmth to see the first fish pulled in. After that it became a relative routine for a flag to be popped up every few minutes. Each fisherman, including Marlene was assigned three tip-ups and some seemed to do better than others. It didn't take long before we were putting more fish back than keeping, looking for the larger Walleye now that we knew we had a spot that would produce a significant number.
The action kept up straight through lunch, each of us having sandwiches and either coffee or cocoa that Suzanne had packed for us.
"I so have to pee now." Marlene said quietly as we sat in the shanty. "Where can I go?"
"Well... The woods are right over there." I said pointing to the shoreline only a hundred feet or so from us.
"Out there? I'll freeze my ass off!" She said in shock.
"I don't have a lot of options here." I said. "I usually just step behind the shanty and take a leak."
"Yeah, but I have to take a lot more off to do that than you do." She said defensively.
