and about that "how to tie the fly on thread"

Hmmm, Guess there's worse things than losing a $2.00 fly. Wonder which
know he used?

Allen

ST. PAUL (AP) ‹ Erik Hobbie was amazed at his own stupidity.

The St. Paul native and ice fisherman had known for months how he would
propose to his girlfriend. Over Thanksgiving weekend last year at his
family's cabin near Ely in far northern Minnesota, he had his chance.

Hobbie woke up early that morning to drill holes in the ice on
Burntside Lake and erect a tip-up ‹ a spring-loaded device that
indicates a fish has taken the bait.

On the end of the line he tied his grandmother's heirloom diamond ring.

Poorly, as it turned out.

When he went to the hole with his girlfriend, Pamala Gahr, and they
pulled up the line, the ring was gone.

"When he got to the end, he just looked at it in kind of horror," said
Gahr. She didn't believe him until he produced the empty jewelry box.

"There was nothing we could do but laugh," Gahr said. "Then we just
stood there staring at the hole for quite some time trying to figure
out what to do."

Hobbie, 44, who works as a chemical engineer in Washington, D.C.,
popped the question on the spot anyway. Gahr, 37, a native of Champlin,
said, "Yes."