Echo echo cho cho

On Thursday 2/23 me and Johnny decided to hit echo. As rockport had been kinda a bust lately and echo was only 15 min further. This was Johnny's decision and I will admit I went with a little bit of schepticism. We arrived around 230 or so in the afternoon and left at dusk. The air temperature was 50 degrees at the lake and a decent south wind offered some annoying random gusts. The edges were a little rotten but the main ice pack was a solid foot. I found a piece of 2x6 left on the bank which offered enough confidence to take the leap of faith. There was about a quarter inch of water on top of the ice. Now to the good part we drilled in about 25 to 30 feet of water dropped 15 feet down and 15 min later it was fish on for me and it felt nice it took my ratfinky with a meal worm. It was running my drag was spinning and Johnny was fired up. And then it got off. I realized my drag was a little loose which interfered with a good hook set. Rookie mistake! Then It was the Johnny show with a fat 16 inch then another then a 17 inch then a fat bowe just shy of 18 inches. This was both Johnny's biggest trout through the nice or ever. I missed a bite during this time. Johnny was seeing his success with power bait on a ratfinky. I was feeling the fear of the skunk when the fish finder beeped and the pole went off and this time I set the hook but again had forgotten to retighten the drag after loosening it to pull line. On the set I heard it spin but this time I wasn't satisfied with the mediocre hook set I kept tension on the fish tightened my drag and set the hook again an ended up pulling out this nice big big fish at 18 inches and a hook jaw and sharp teeth to boot it was my meal worm pole. I ended up missing one huge bite my powerbait pole was bent probably 60 degrees down wham wham wham by the time I ran over the fish felt the tension and let go. :( then the bite died we tried moving to no avail we packed up and went home. I'm totally glad Johnny talked me into echo maybe it is a well kept secret that has gone under the radar from ice fisherman. I was glad to see Johnny's best ice fusing day ever. I will be back there was something awesome that we were literally the only people on the lake! It was true solitude not but 10 min from the crowded banks of rockport.