I took my son Zach (6 yrs old) out fishing on Saturday afternoon on a south Metro Lake that is pretty close to my house. He was very excited to get out for the 1st time this year.
We hit the lake around 1pm and planned to fish until dark. We put out some tip-ups rigged with Northland predator rigs and medium suckers. On our jig poles we had 1 set up with a wiggler (#12 Firetiger gill Pill) and 1 with a bobber and crappie minnow. Small jigs were the key. Using anything bigger did not get bites.
It took a bit to find the fish, but once we found them the action started to heat up. For the day we ended up catching 2 pike on tip-ups that were smaller and are going to try pickling them. The predator rigs worked great and went 2 for 2. I will definitely be using these from now on. Also kept 3 crappie in the 9-11 inch range, 2 gills that were 8 inches, and 1 perch for a nice meal.
The best part of the day was about 30 minutes before we were going to leave Zach was fishing with the crappie pole. I was fishing a little bit away from him and he set he had a fish on. I looked over at him and his pole was half bent over and the reel was screaming. I jumped off my bucket and ran over to him. He was super pumped up and excited. To tell you the truth I was a little scared as I knew it was a pike or bass and the slightest bit of hard pressure would snap the line for sure. The fish made 4-5 runs and each time I had to coach Zach on fighting the fish to make sure he would let the fish take line and when it stopped to then start reeling again. Once it came up to the hole I saw that it was a big pike and I could not see the jig. Suddenly it took off again and now I knew it was only a matter of time before the toothy critter would slice the line and be gone in a flash. After the run Zach managed to reel it up to the hole again. I was not about to let this fish go so once the head came to the hole I reached down the hole with both hands and pulled the pike out of the water and flipped it out on the ice.
I cannot tell you how proud I am of Zach listening to every world I said and fought the fish like a pro. 
He was so excited and said that that is my biggest fish I ever caught. The look on his face was priceless. At 1st he wanted to mount the fish, but after taking a few pictures and talking to him about it (as it was about 5-7 lbs) he was ok with letting it go. That made the whole trip and cannot wait to get out on the ice again soon. 
Wishing you bigger fish in the near future. 
