With winter’s somewhat early arrival, it seems like I’ve been waiting a long time for safe ice in these parts of the state.  Thankfully, last week’s deep freeze has provided plenty!  My good friend, Chad,  has been wanting to take his son Skylar out for his first ice fishing trip, and despite the strong winds and driving snow last weekend, we were all too eager to stay home.

Skylar and Chad were all smiles on their first ice fishing trip.

Not wanting to miss a second of the Steelers playoff game that night (and we were glad we didn’t… what a game!), we opted for a short trip to a small private lake near my house.  We came close to getting the truck stuck on the way there, but my stellar driving skills kept us from being stranded.  Once we arrived, the ice was 7-8” thick, with about 18” of snow on top.  Skylar had a hard time maneuvering in the deep snow, but wasn’t about to let that stop him as he excitedly stumbled onto the ice.  After a bit of shoveling, we had the holes drilled and the shanty in place.

Skylar did the catching, Chad did the unhooking.

With the cold temperatures and deep snow, we decided to leave the tip-ups in the bucket and stick to jigging.  After baiting the hooks and explaining the basic workings of a spring bobber pole, we were fishing.  The bite was slow at first, but as the afternoon wore on, the fish began to cooperate.  Skylar was the first to score and hauled a fat bluegill through the ice.  His patented “4 turns off the bottom” technique seemed to do the trick and he had a second gill on the floor before either Chad or I had a nibble.

Skylar and Chad proudly show off their first gills through the ice.

In between fish, Skylar kept us entertained with a variety of questions and comments, including, “Let’s put the waxworms in the fire” and “How come you guys aren’t catching any fish?”
Skylar’s constant taunting prompted us to concentrate a little harder, and we finally redeemed ourselves with a couple of bluegill of our own.  After all, we couldn’t go home until everyone had caught a fish.

Although it wasn’t one of my best days from a numbers standpoint, it was great to introduce some new ice fishermen to the sport.  Nothing beats the enthusiasm that youngsters have during their first experiences afield.  It even reminded me of my first ice fishing trip when I was seven years old.  Of course, that was back when I was still wide-eyed and every trip outside held the promise of a new adventure.   I guess some things never change.  Good luck to all of the hardwater anglers!