Ice fishing on Lake Mille Lacs

Well, John and I spent a great weekend with our kids in an ice shack up north, although the 'catch' was less than impressive. We were in an ice house at "Randy's on Mille Lacs", measuring about 8' x 20', in about 20 feet of crystal clear water. I know that since I could clearly see the ice scoop I dropped down the ice hole earlier on Friday, quietly resting on the bottom, seemingly mocking me for the rest of the weekend.
We could see fish hanging out near our bait and just staring at our minnows... but couldn't figure out why they wouldn't bite. A little later on, John decided to try a wax worm and feverishly tried to get them to eat it. Well, it worked and he brought his 'trophy fish' up to the surface. The fish measured maybe 3 - 4 inches long... nearly twice as long as our minnows. :-)
Putting things into perspective: That is the equivalent of someone dangling a 3-foot Subway BMT sandwich in front of your face expecting to lure you away from the cubicle you spend your entire day mindlessly pecking away at a computer. OK, that scenario may actually work for me, but it is unlikely that I would be able to fit the entire sandwich in my mouth. :-)
What else did we do during our 48-hour ordeal? We went to the Grand Casino buffet for dinner on Friday night and enjoyed the endless crab legs that were available, then spent some of our hard-earned money at the arcade in an attempt to garner some cheap, valueless trinkets at the redemption counter while contributing our funds to the Indian Reservation income. On Saturday, we ate breakfast at Eddy's restaurant and then after a tiring day of fishing :-), we rented a shared snowmobile for 4-hours and all had a great time zipping around Mille Lacs. After snowmobiling, we took in a movie: "Paul Blart: Mall Cop" which we all enjoyed (a lot) and spent the rest of the weekend recalling funny scenes from the movie.
Other than the inability of our 'ice-shack slumlord' to provide a working TV/DVD player, it was a pretty good trip.
We returned late Sunday morning... after a our second large breakfast at Eddy's.