It was an exciting day for me and my son Zach. He is 4 ½ years old and has wanted to go ice fishing for a while now. This past Saturday 1/16 he got his chance. This was his 1st time ever going ice fishing and he was pumped up to go. I was pretty excited too. With temps up in the low 30’s it was warm enough for us to go. I do not have a portable shack so I have to make sure it is warm enough so he does not get cold. Saturday around noon, we gathered up our gear and loaded up the car to hit this West Metro Lake. The lake is probably a 10-15 minute drive from our house. All the way there he was asking how long until we get there. I kept telling him it was not far and would be there soon.
I have not been to this particular lake in a few years so I was not sure where to start. There were a few other vehicles out on the lake, but they were spread out so it did not look like there was any particular area that people were concentrating on. This lake is pretty small, so I figured out that I would start in the deepest part of the lake (10-12ft) and see if fish were concentrating there. We got out and drilled several holes and got the rods ready. I do not yet have a fish finder, so I rely on what I call the old school method. We started out fishing just under the ice. If we did not get a bite, then lowering the bait a foot or so and trying again. We went from the ice to the bottom and back up again. Following this process for about a ½ hour or so and hole hopping yielded us with 5-6 bluegills. The action was fairly slow. My son caught his 1st few fish though so he was still excited to be out there.
I asked him if he wanted to move and try a different spot to see if we could find some more fish. He did want to move and I asked him where we should go. He loves to be involved and help out. He pointed to the sunny side of the shoreline and said he wanted to go over there and try where it is shallower. Not having a definite area I wanted to go to I figured it would not hurt so I said lets go. We loaded up and drove over there. On the way over I asked him how far we should be from the shoreline. He said to keep going and when we were about 75 yards away he said to stop. Ok I thought. We can give it a try. I know I did not want to be too close because the lake is weedy and you need to be a ways off the shoreline. We drilled several holes starting at where we parked the car and then going closer to shore.
I cleaned out the holes and started Zach out in the 1st hole where we parked the car. The depth was about 6-8 ft. I adjusted his pole so he was about 2-3 ft under the ice. It wasn’t 30 seconds and Zach had one on. It turned out to be a nice 9-10 inch crappie. He was so excited and wanted to keep it so I told him to throw it in the snow and I would re-set his bait and get it back down there. Wouldn’t you know as soon as he got his bait down, bam another crappie. He did this a few more times and had 4 crappie’s on the ice. I did not even have a chance to get my pole set up. That was ok because I was having just as much fun watching him pull up the fish. He was really pumped now. The only bad part for me is that I could not keep my gloves on and my fingers were getting a little cold so it was getting hard to put the bait on. We stayed in this area for about an hour or so and hit the other holes we drilled. All in all, we put 10 crappie on the ice for the hot grease and ended up catching 20-30 fish, a mixture of bluegill and crappie.
The set-up I used for my son was a jigging rod and an ice bobber set up with a #12 orange/chart glitter moon glow jig. For my ice rod I set up with a spring bobber and a #12 firetiger Gill Pill.
It was one of the best times I had fishing with my son. Summer fishing can be a blast too, but I tell you ice fishing with him and seeing his excitement pulling up the fish through the ice was something special.
Sorry for the poor pictures. All I had was my cell phone. I will be getting a inexpensive digital camera I can carry with me for field trips next time so I can get better pics.
See you on the ice.
Ben
I was waiting for it! Congrats on your day with your new lil fishing buddy! 
To tell you the truth, I was a little suprised at 1st. I couldn’t believe that we were putting the hurt down on the fish in “his” new spot. It did not take me long to snap out of it and keep his line wet and bait fresh so he could continue to catch fish. Kids are amazing. They pick up on stuff super quick.
