First Ladies Midwest Meetup

Walking out onto 10 inches of ice on a frozen lake is an amazing feeling, but walking onto that frozen lake with 30+ women is empowering. I have never had the opportunity to go ice fishing until New Years weekend. That was a great learning experience. I learned how to read a fish-finder, jig for walleye and learned how to set tip ups. I got really good at setting those tip ups and learned patience. Long story short, the only thing we caught in a 3 day time frame was a small Northern Pike on the first night. That can make for a long weekend when you are new to ice fishing. The feeling of defeat can bring a girl down.

Fast forward to the last weekend in January and let’s get back to the first sentence in this blog. I have never heard of getting a group of ladies together to just have fun and fish before until a friend had introduced me to an event called Ladies Midwest Meetup. You know that I hopped on getting signed up as soon as I could! I impatiently waited a month and a half for this day to come.

I drove to Beaver Dam, packed my things (very strategically I must add) into my friend's truck and me and 3 other ladies made our way up to Hayward, Wisconsin. After 2 Kwik Trip stops, lots of snacks, an obligatory picture in front of the giant Musky at the fish museum, a stop at Scheels and 6 hours later, WE MADE IT! I was not sure what to think because 1) I was starstruck seeing some of the ladies I follow on Instagram and 2) I was new and didn't know what to expect.

The first night was more so a “Get to know you” night. Lots of laughs and conversation were had. We also got to meet a special guest that Alicia, our hostess and event coordinator announced a couple weeks beforehand. We were going to be having the host of ‘A Fishing Story with Ronnie Green’ with us for the weekend. The next morning we woke up and that is when the real fun began! We packed up our sleds and made our way onto the ice. Learning how to pick out the areas where the fish would be, set tip ups and started to jig for whatever would bite. As I jigged and watched my Vexilar show any sign of life under the ice, I felt that familiar tug that I felt during open water season. I set the hook and reeled in my very first hard water fish, a cute little Bluegill. As the day went on, not only did I catch more fish, but I witnessed the best hype crowd a group of women could ask for. I have never seen a group of people so happy to not only run across the ice in full ice suits but to watch and cheer on someone pull up a fish that tripped their tip ups. The amount of support on the ice that day was absolutely amazing.

We packed up the sleds and made our way back to the resort. We ended the night with more laughs, great food and making long lasting friendships!

I want to thank Alicia and Ladies Midwest Meetup for putting on an amazing event. If you are new or a vet in fishing, you are welcome! I have never met a more amazing group of ladies and I am definitely looking forward to the next event!