Will you be stopping by Stieger Lake this Sunday afternoon to see what's happening?  Me, too.  I find it fascinating to walk on water, albeit frozen water.  It's another world out there - a vast white open space -- and we only get to be part of that world in the winter time, and for a very short time.  I suggest it's better than walking in outer space and safer too.
It's sort of an ethereal experience to walk on a large body of water that is otherwise accessible only by boat, and I imagine falling into twenty thousands leagues under the sea.
I look forward to the hot steamy tent where the Victoria Fire Department fries hamburgers and serves hot chocolate that warms your fingers as well as your insides.  Every year it's the same yet different. 
Maybe I'll see you on Sunday, Feb-ruary 4^th, from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. out on Stieger Lake here in Victoria.  Follow the signs at Hwy 5 and Stieger Lake Lane to get there, and you'll see all kinds of people walking on water.  Oh, yes, and some of them will also be fishing.
Our kids went ice fishing in January.  Nick and his buddies were out on Lake Koronis near Paynesville for a few days and Jenny and her family were up on Red Lake.  Not only did they enjoy the winter outing, they caught walleyes. 
I reckon they used a fishhook very similar to the one I hide in each and every issue of the Victoria Gazette.  Last month I pulled Serena Wachholz of Norwood out of the minnow bucket and she wins the ten bucks.  The hook was hiding in the couch potato in the Linda Matthias ad on page 38.  It was good to see Serena come up for a breath of fresh air.  Congratula-tions, young lady, on being a survivor.
If you find the fishhook hidden in this issue of the Gazette, drop a line to P.O. Box 387, Victoria, MN 55386 and sinker in the mail to be part of the drawing.  Don't drop it through a hole in the ice 'cause that's a whole 'nother world.