Desperate times call for desperate measures

It had been over three months since I last wet a line.  After lusting over trout all week and not being able to satisfy my urges through tying, The Wife and I decided to head out this past weekend with a couple of our friends, Sam and Liz.  As you would expect, fishing in January in Alaska can be a cold experience.

The morning was pretty frigid before the fog burned off.  While my guides have frozen on more than one occasion, this was the first time I had my reel freeze.  All day I kept thinking about how it would be a total bummer to break off a hard-sought-after fish because the drag was froze solid.  While I cast everything in the box and diligently checked my reel for ice every couple casts, the fish weren't cooperative enough to test things out.

The Wife managed to carry the camera for most of the day so she's not in many of the pictures, but she did catch this self portrait:

Sam givin'er while Liz takes a break to warm up:

Me too stubborn to realize it wasn't going to happen today:

And Sam standing on top of the snow trying to look tall: