One of our favorite winter activities is ice-fishing.We can leave our backyard, drive our snowmobiles for about two minutes and we connect with the Newfoundland and Labrador Trailway. We then travel for about 5 miles to get to Gambo Pond. Lots of people enjoy this winter activity--it is so much fun. You must dress warm though. The wind can be pretty unforgiving on a open pond. Gambo Pond is 18 miles long and there are beautiful cottages scattered all along the shoreline from one end to the other. Some people really go all out and build ice-fishing shacks that can be towed behind their snowmobile. This is great when the kids are small. They are usually equipped with benches along the walls and a little wood-burning stove... and of course, holes cut in the floor to fish through!
My favorite part of a day "on the ice", as we call it, is a "boil-up". Roger cuts a few dry standing trees and drags them onto the ice. He saws them up right on the ice and builds a fire. We go prepared with an old rack to use as a cook surface. We fry dough in butter and have beans, smoked fish, toast bread...whatever your little heart desires. Nothing tastes better than food cooked on an open fire when it's about 8 below zero Celsius!!
And of course, to top off the day, there's nothing like catching a few trout -- The Gambo Pond trout are nice and pink and delicious!!
What are the common outdoor activities in your neck of the woods between January and April??
