Saturday, March 7, 2015

Ice Fishing!

 We live in Northern Minnesota in the Land of 10,000 Lakes but our family had never been ice fishing. None of us. I have wanted to change that for some time as it just doesn't seem right to live where we do and not have done that when it is such a big thing in our area. But with no equipment, and no knowledge of the sport - we had just let the idea go.


   But a couple of weeks ago I saw an announcement about a Take-a-kid-ice-fishing event. Take-a-kid fishing (in the summer) is a big thing up here but this taking them ice fishing was a new event. It was to be a whole day event for kids ages 11-15. It did cost $20 a child but they would get to go to a 3 hour class, get a snack, get a rod and tackle box, a $10 gift card, lunch and an afternoon of fishing. I thought that sounded like a pretty good deal.

   As it ended up we registered the 3 older kids for the event but then yesterday that guide/organizer called and said they didn't have enough interest so they were going to have to cancel the class section but would still like to take the kids fishing and they would give us our money back. That sounded okay to us - in fact pretty nice. I think the class could have been good but the kids weren't to sad about missing it - what they wanted to do was fish. They still got a pole and tackle box and lunch and an afternoon of fishing. Today we found out that they were the only kids. They didn't mind the extra attention and plenty of help.
 They started catching fish right away. I guess each of them ended up catching around 5. They weren't real big but that wasn't a big deal. They were pretty excited to be catching. Only Jonathan had ever caught a fish on a line before.

 I think it was perch what they were catching.
 It sounds like the ice houses (there were a couple that they could use that had room for around 6 fishermen in each) where pretty warm and it was a comfortable sport. We also had some gorgeous warm weather today.

  The guide and Jonathan cleaned the fish and the guide filleted them all and sent them home with us. They made a delicious supper.

  It had been my idea for the kids to go to this event and they were okay with it but not always super excited but they sure came home pretty excited. I am so glad they had a fun day. They said the got a lot of visiting time in with the fishing guides. They seemed like really nice people and it was cool when I figured out that I had done the wedding flowers for the main guy quite a few years back. I love living in a community small enough to allow us to have lots of different connections!

  Have you ever gone ice fishing? Is it something that you would like to try? My turn is still coming someday. The kids are urging me to get  a license and then we need to get some equipment (like an ice auger anyway) and then we can all go fishing together.

4 comments:

Jennifer said...

What a great opportunity for you children. I think ice fishing would be quite fun. We have a lot of that around here too and just never go. Maybe we'll give it a try!

Amy and Mark said...

I don't know a lot about ice fishing. Can it only be done on a lake or will you all be able to do it on the river by your new house?

What a fun way to spend an afternoon! We laughed that you all spent the weekend ice fishing and we've enjoyed 50 degree days and teaching our three year old how to ride her trike outside!

Nola said...

I have also never gone, but it is popular where I live. I find it funny to see the ice houses out on lakes. They look like little villages. I think that is really neat that your kids got to go. How strange that no one else signed up though! I wish that they had something like that here.

Abbi said...

Jennifer, That would be neat if you all could try it. I know our kids thought it was a lot of fun.

Amy and Mark, We think we can do it on the river but you do always have to be extra careful on river ice as there can be weak spots.
We enjoyed some warm weather this weekend too but did our winter sports at the same time. On Sunday afternoon we decided to go ice skating since it was so beautiful (it was close to 50). The ice got a little slushy but it was fun.

Nola,
I have always enjoyed seeing the little villages on lakes around here too. I am not sure why nobody else signed up. I guess they didn't do enough advertising.

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