Jacobs First Ice Fishing Trip

Another great day spent outside today. Little Mike, Jacob and I hooked up with my brother in law Les and his son Matthew and my friend Chuck and took in a little ice fishing today. We went over to my wife's friends house on Pine Lake in Linden. There was good ice today, about 4 inches or more, and it was drizzling rain when we first went out. We punched about 6 holes and it wasn't long before we found fish. Chuck got to his hole and didn't move all day. Being persistant at one spot paid off for him, he had about 18 blue gill by the time we left and that doesn't count the ones he threw back. Les and I kept moving around to different holes throughout the day. After about an hour and a half I finally found a good spot for Little Jake and I, we wound up with nearly 20 blue gill by the end of the afternoon. Les and Matthew caught about 10-15 blue gill. Michael had a different approach. He fiddled around and caught a couple of blue gill, then he caught a small perch about 4-5 inches long. He then got out the tip up and put the perch on the end of the line. After setting out the tip up, a couple minutes later the flag went up! He soon found out that the perch tripped it. He reset the flag and about 5 minutes later up the flag went again! Once again the perch tripped it. Uncle Les told Michael they needed to put the perch out of commishon in order to chum the water. After that they set the flag again. 5 minutes later the flag went up again! I asked Les, "Didn't you finish off that perch?" He told me yes, then Michael noticed that the line was spinning out fast! Les told him, there is a pike on the end of that hook! We all gathered around to see what he would pull up. After setting the hook and pulling in the line we saw a pike coming up through the hole in the ice! Michael was pretty excited and pumped up. We got the tape measure out, but it was only 19 1/2 inches long, he had to go back. Even though Michael was still excited, it was the biggest fish he has ever caught. Not only that he caught the bait fish, then caught the pike, pretty cool if you ask me. Not a bad way to spend the day with the boys. 3 hours on the ice and a bunch of fish to boot and everyone caught something. I can't wait until the next time.

My nephew Matthew and his prize catch