Scouts ice fishing

Hi all,

Taking my daughters Cub Scout pack ice fishing Feb 8. Expecting about 10-20 kids age 5-10. Looking for a spot in the east metro with a fairly short walk and eager biting panfish. Size and species doesn’t matter. If anyone has any ideas or advice it would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

I like this idea. I should do the same with my pack. My first question is do you have enough rods for everyone?

Rodwork wrote:

My first question is do you have enough rods for everyone?

For years there was a gun shop in town that sold bait and some tackle. He had an old nail keg near the front desk full of ice rods that had been donated so kids could pick one out if the parent couldn’t afford or wasn’t going to buy one for the kid. All summer while we hit garage and rummage sales/flea markets I’d keep an eye open for jiggle sticks or cheap rod/reel combos and pick them up. I’d put new line on all of them and make sure a reel was working if a rod had one and I’d drop these off for the keg each fall about deer season. I think I’ve put a couple hundred in there over 20years. It was a great way to help get kids [and their parents] involved in at least ice fishing. I bought regular rod/reel combos too and re-lined them and made sure things worked relatively smooth and drop those off too for kids wanting to try fishing in Sliver Lake only a couple blocks away from the gun shop. Those rods were always gone in a blink.

The gun shop is closed now but I still grab a rod, bag of jigs and a bag of plastics I’ve made and walk down to the confluence of the river and creek behind the house and cast with people that have kids along. I hand out a couple jigs rigged with plastic to each kid. Its fun watching the enthusiasm of those kids when they’re given something new to try knowing its theirs.

Getting kids out, no matter an organized group or just a couple to dink on the ice, is getting real important nowadays. My hat’s off to you guys taking your kids or scouts or whoever out to get introduced to fishing!

Yup. Should be good with rods and tackle. Myself and another dad each will bring 5-10 rods each. Likely some kids will be playing games too so not everyone will be fishing at the same time.
Thanks

Big Carnelian or Big Marine should have lots of pannies close to the access-Good Luck!

I took my son and 2 of his den friends out fishing over the weekend. They fished for about 1 hour. I put them on a pile of small sunfish. After that they started playing and got all wet. It was about what I expected was going to happen. But everyone had a good time. If more was able to come I would have needed some help. They were pulling up the sunnies as fast as I could take them off.

Thanks for the advice guys. Stuck around a small lake near my house (powers lake). Fishing was slow but s’mores, hot coco, and sled rides kept everyone happy.

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Evan, I wish to thank you for your involvement with your children’s Cub Scout pack! I was a scouter for many years, over 30 that is. Parental help is very hard to acquire at times.
Salute to you!

Nicely done Evan. That’s a great idea to do the smores with the kids. Not sure what their den level is but looks like you might have also taken care of some requirements. Well done.

try powers in woodbury a lot of small crappies and sunfish usually easy to catch we used to take our cub scout there. It is right of CR19.