Ice Fishing at Eagle Nest, NM

It's that time of year again where Glenn can't wait to check the ice fishing locations every morning to see if the ice is thick enough for fishing!  When he said the ice was thick enough in Eagle Nest, NM, I knew we would be heading there soon!

Last year the ice never got thick enough and they didn't open the lake down there - but this year there's been plenty of cold weather and it was open!

We left early on a Sunday morning and had a nice drive down - well except for breakfast at Arby's in Raton - we have stopped there a couple of times as they DO serve breakfast (unlike here in Colorado)and the place is clean, the breakfast was good and let's face it - it's better than McDonalds!!!

This year was the exception though - Glenn ordered a sausage breakfast on their toast and I ordered just a ham and egg biscuit plus orange juice ( I LOVE the fact they serve "Simply Orange" for their juice - even though it's expensive, it's SO MUCH BETTER than the Tropicana!!)  When the gal brought the sandwiches she forgot my juice so she ran back to get that while we opened our sandwiches - Glenn had gotten ham (not sausage) and I had gotten bacon (not ham) - really?  Glenn said he would eat his ham but I said I wanted my ham - so she went back to cook another one.  Brings it out about 5 min later and sets it down and returns to the kitchen.  I open it and it's sausage - you're kidding me - at this point I just decided to cut my losses and eat the first one which was bacon.  No points for you this time Arby's!!!

We arrived at Eagle Nest and got checked into our cabin - we had stayed here the time before so I knew what to expect!  Glenn headed out to fish - I grabbed my book!

About 4 hours later Glenn was back with his LIMIT - 30 fish!!  WOW!

Unfortunately perch are not very big AND a royal pain to fillet out!  But he got them cleaned and had brought along the electric knife to fillet them and soon had them done !  We also bring the electric sealer and I helped him do that!

From our stay the year before, we were aware that the lodge restaurant where we were staying ( and I might add, the only place in town to eat dinner!!) is not always open for meals!  So I had brought along a couple of frozen meals to heat up just in case and it was a good thing!!

Sunday night the place closed at 6 and Glenn was just finishing up cleaning the fish then and on Tuesday it was closed!!  So the 2 meals I brought were perfect and we ate out on Monday night!

Here's the view from the cabin!  The lake is in the distance.

 While Glenn fished all day, I read and watched movies while working on my Swedish weaving blanket!  I did take walks both days up to the edge of town and realized only 1 shop was open this time of year - the town kind of shuts down in winter!  It was cold out but the brisk air felt good!  This is the view from the other end of town.

Glenn caught his limit all 3 days - a LOT of fish to clean!  We both enjoyed our time there, both doing what we love so it works out perfect!

One more shot of the lake before we head home!