I've never quite answered this question, although I'm definitely leaning towards
torture.
There is just something unsettling about standing on a frozen lake cranking an auger like you're drilling to the center of the earth for a
half an hour before the "fishing" can even begin.
Then the problem is that you're sweaty from drilling holes in the ice and the air temperature is below freezing.
These two factors go together like oil and water, and the next thing you know you feel like a human Popsicle, and you're spending the next
hour trying to warm up.
At this point in the ice fishing excursion, it's time to start drinking.
And that's precisely what I used to do, and let me tell you something, it made ice fishing fun!
Sitting on the ice, sipping on alcohol, B.S'ing with your fishing partner, choking down lung darts (or cigarettes-to the uninitiated), and
waiting for a fish to bite.
This scenario isn't so bad, in fact it's really a good time.
Now I don't drink anymore. I gave it up for personal reasons.
Hell I figured that I had lived my life for twenty years while drinking and hadn't
progressed much.
So I figured I'd give this thing called life a shot without drinking and see what happens.
Then I tried ice fishing minus the drinking. And guess what happened?
This is where the question of torture comes in because I surely don't have the same experience while ice fishing these days.
Now ice fishing is just a couple of hours sitting on the ice, freezing my ASS off. Hence the question about torture.
So I guess in my personal situation, the answer to the question comes down to whether or not I'm drinking.
You can obviously answer the question for yourself.
If you somehow enjoy sitting on a frozen lake sipping hot coffee, hoping a fish will bite, more power to you.
You're obviously a bigger man than me.