My father-in-law and I took my 9 year old son (Jacob) on his first ice fishing trip. We went to some lakes in the Sandhills of Nebraska. We started off Saturday on one of the lakes in the Crescent Refuge. We caught several Bluegill between 8-9 1/2 inches. We also caught more Largemouth Bass then I’ve ever caught before. They all were a very fat 2-3 pounds. It was a blast and kept Jacob interested. Sunday we moved a little farther north and set out for some big gills. My 9 year set out on his own looking for his first master angler.
He finally caught his first Master Angler Bluegill. It was only 9 3/4 inches but it weighed a very healthy 1.2 pounds.
Later in the afternoon my father-in-law Tom hooked into a Master Angler Largemouth Bass. It was a great looking fish. Very fat and dark colors.
Not long after that, one of our new friends Eric hooked into another huge Bass. All the fish we caught at this lake were some the fattest fish I’ve ever seen.
Overall Sunday was a huge success. we didn’t catch a ton of fish but the action was good enough to keep us entertained all day. jacob never got bored and didn’t complain once. we also caught some nice Crappies and another member of our group caught a near 11 inch Bluegill. Very good day!
We got up early Monday morning and went to the same lake for a while. The morning bite was very good. I caught my first MA Bluegill. It was 10 inches and over a pound. This is just an incredible fishery.
The morning bite slowed down so we decided to go to another lake that was on our way home. We arrived and there was nobody on the lake. We never had fished it before, so we decided to try some areas that were obviously fished before. Drilled some holes and it was only in 3 FOW. I guess it’s a very shallow lake! Caught a few very small bass and the action was really slow. I decided to search for some new areas. I found a deep hole several yards away from where we were (4 ft LOL). As soon as I started fishing it, I caught tons of small bass. I drilled some more holes around me and Jacob and Tom came over and started fishing with me. Around 5pm we started to catch what we were looking for. Caught several yellow perch that ranged from 11-13 inches. Also caught a few nice Crappies. I am looking forward to going back out there in a few weeks. Great Time!
Hope we can get together to fish sometime soon. 
