Seems that January was full of hibernation so February (as they say around here) is time for rejuvenation, get out there, start a snowball fight, make a snow angel, go ice fishing and wear your toque proudly....
Lake Simcoe is about and hour and half (give or take depending on traffic) north and east of us. Tracy and her co-worker Randy decided it was time for us to hook up and do some fishing. So we headed out last weekend to a cozy cottage on Lake Simcoe in search of the elusive Lake Simcoe perch.Randy, his wife Kelly and there daughter Erin have ALL the gear and have been going after the Perch fairly religiously all winter, so armed with GPS co-ordinates, Minnows, ice house , heater, a sled to pull it all and Kay we were in great shape.
We arrived on Friday night and proceeded to plan our attack for the next day, have dinner and watch a few movies. The Olympics held our attention for a while however Princess Bride is a ways a crowd pleaser. Tracy's awesome family favorite, Challupas is as well. So after a great meal and a bunch of old fish stories we called it a night.
Saturday morning Randy and Kellie headed out to get a spot and the kids (of course) slept in. The fish were not being cooperative and the day was more towards enjoying the cabin and lunch! Saturday afternoon we went on the road in search of the fish, and it was slow going. The car got stuck a time or two, we finally made it to a point on the lake where we could walk and set up camp. The fishing was slow but we managed to catch a half a dozen fish, and more importantly we had fun and didn't fall through the ice. well except Remington, their little dog so is exactly the size of an ice hole. He was fun but very shivery. Nikki spent the entire afternoon running after the wind and was exhausted. Saturday night we had another awesome meal of Kellie's homemade chicken chili, more movies (Gremlins), Apples to Apples board game and laughs.Sunday morning Tom and Randy headed out early to the " hot spot" according to Randy " We always catch fish there" and true to the prediction we did. Between about 8:30 and noon we caught over 100 fish and we kept 36 of them for the upcoming Sunday night all you can eat perch fry!!! While the MEN were out fishing, the rest of the crew headed into town to check out the thrift store (yes, you can all start singing Mackelmores Thrift Store now - we did:)) We came away with treasures - Balderdash, a spring form pan and a crayola coloring kit. Another one of Kays passions ignited. That afternoon, the boys, that is Jimmy and Billy, decided they were not going fishing so they stayed back with Tracy to snowboard, sled, take Nikki for a walk on the lake and get some outdoor exercise. The rest of us headed back to the "hot spot" where we continued catching fish, Kay was red hot, Erin was as well and we definitely had a blast!
Sunday night we had a feast, no other way to put it. All you can eat fresh perch in a panko batter, southern style fried okra, hush puppies, fried potatoes' with mushrooms, buttermilk coleslaw, homemade tarter sauce and a few cold beers, wow what a meal!
Monday, being family day here in the Great White North, we all were able to sleep in and have a relaxing morning before heading back to the big city. Nikki has a new friend and play mate, Remington, aka: Remi. The two of them are about as opposite as you can get but as they say, opposites attract. The video below shows you what the two of them did all weekend, super cute.A big THANKS, to Randi, Kellie and Erin for inviting us for a super fun time. We plan to go after these perch again and we will differently be heading to Lake Simcoe this summer as it is full of giant Small Mouth...more to come
