Took a couple of newbies out on the ice last weekend with Yannick. My hut is only a 2-person, so it was such a massive change to see what it is like to spend the night in an 8-person hut! My son is now pushing hard for me to build a new one or expand the hut we have (uh... thanks Yannick?).
It was a slow day and night, but certainly we didn't get skunked. The boys goal was to have fish for breakfast and the site delivered, for us the action was almost all after dark with a nice Walleye, a bunch of small ling, a large link and an unexpected surprise of a small Sturgeon around 3am (small meaning 8 pounds, it almost spooled me!). Sorry no pics of the Sturgeon as I was all alone on the ice and too far from the cabin to go get my camera!
By 10pm the adults were tired out and snoring... the kids still had lots of energy and ended up playing cards and watching TV until well after midnight.
It was a very cold night and there was lots of ice being made. At one point we got a pretty large ice-quake. Since the others were new to spending the night on the ice, it woke them up and I heard panicked voices saying "Steve... what the $^%$# was that!!". Found this crack running as far as the eye could see in both directions beside the huts in the morning.
By morning we had two good fish on the ice selected for breakfast. This is a huge cutting board, checkout the knife beside the ling.
Completing the boy's goal.
Looking forward to doing it again!