What a fun way to start the new year, one brother and I set up the big double Eskimo popup shack and a couple portables in the blowing gale and took a bunch of the rookie family members gill fishing on a local pond. Had the daughter, son in law and grandson along as well as the other daughter and her boyfriend, a 12 year old nephew and the brother and I. Eight total so we had plenty of rods to try different jigs, baits and techniques with.
Pre-fishing the day before gave us an idea of general area to start, punched a dozen holes or so and confirmed fish were there so after getting the big shack placed in a good spot we secured it with ice screws and banked the skirt. We then drilled holes inside, setup the buckets and boat cushions for seats, got the holes cleaned out, Vexs setup and here comes the crew. Got their new ice rod and reels they got for Christmas set up with different jigs and started the here is how you fish and more importantly how you catch those fish talk and demo. After a couple minutes of explaining what to do I make the first drop into 22 feet and bang as I am explaining how to softly jig and pause I get smashed and the first gill of the day is on the ice, a nice 9 inch fish. Well that gets everyone fired up and the action is hot and heavy as bait containers are passed around and they are all scrambling to get lines in the water. A quick here is how to hook the waxes, T-Bone and shrimp style was order of the day (double shrimp also ended up working well) and we were off to the catching. Action started fairly slow until everyone got used to how to use the Vexs then it stayed fairly steady most of the day. Did have some slow periods when fish moved off the big shack but those periods did not last more than 20 or 30 minutes so majority of the time the kids were on fish.
Having all those lines in the water let us experiment with jigs sizes, colors and actions so we were able to dial in and pretty much stay dialed in on what was turning on the fish the best. Ended up small glow white tungsten, orange and black demon and glow green rat finkees were the top three producers for the day, day before the slender spoon was hot. We ended up catching and releasing well over a hundred fish with about 15 percent in the 9 inch or better class including several right at the 10 inches or a little better mark. Given the crazy weather with 40mph wind gusts and cold temps I felt we did ok.
Couple notes. The big Eskimo after getting staked and guide ropes set held up great in the wind, was certainly the most violent winds it had ever stood up to and I was impressed because it never even wiggled after it was set correctly. It made for a great shack to fish a family out of, I usually use it as a base camp when a bunch of us fish run and gun out of portables but I see many more family days in its future. Lunch, want an easy, fun for kids, decent hot lunch on the ice? I got some good quality hot dogs, wrapped two each in HD tin foil packs and cooked them on top of the Buddy Heaters, as the dogs got hot dug out the ketchup, mustard, chips, homemade chocolate chip cookies and sodas. Warmed the buns on the heater as the dogs finished and we all enjoyed a hot lunch, supper easy and it beats a cold sandwich plus you need to take zero other gear. Catch and release, you know what was really great about our day was we fished 100% catch and release! If you start newbies(kids) doing it right away as you explain how a healthy fish population has ALL sizes and ALL ages of fish so it is important to let the BIG ones go to pass on their superior genes. Kids never get that have to or expect they need to kill everything to have a great day attitude if started knowing they have to practice selective catch and release if they want fishing to remain good in the future. As we get better equipment and better techniques and share all this great info with each other we also have the responsibility to teach the importance of a balanced healthy fish and game population. That said today grandpa is going out alone and 5 of those 8 inchers are going to join the wife and I for dinner tonight .
What a great way to start the New Year. Tight lines!
