An Early Christmas Gift

Yesterday I made my first ice fishing trip of the season. It's been a long time in coming, as winter came very late to my neck of the woods this year. I chose a relatively small lake that I knew would have good ice, and found about 4 inches of the stuff. Once I was set up, it was by no means an action-packed day. In fact, I only got three bites in almost 6 hours of fishing. However, it turned into one of those days where one bite, and one fish, made the entire fishing trip worth it.This lake has a lot of different types of fish in it. I was set up in 20 feet of water, and rigged with a leadhead jig and Glup! Minnow, a combo that I thought would be a good multispecies rig. At one point, a large fish came up off the bottom and nailed it. I didn't know what I had, but after good fight I slipped a 26 inch pike up onto the ice. That was fun.About a half-hour later, another big fish came up off the bottom and clobbered my jig in exactly the same way. Same type of a bite, similar sized fish, I was sure I had another pike. However, when I looked down the hole at what I had I was shocked to see a massive rainbow trout at the other end. After a little bit of a struggle to get its head turned up the hole, I iced the first rainbow trout of my life. It measured 24 inches exactly, and after a couple of pictures it was sent back down the hole to fight again another day.