Every January, our Boy Scout troop heads up to NH (we're based in MA) to cabin camp. The cabin is on the waterfront of a large pond. Last year I taught a few boys how to ice fish - we cut the holes with a hatchet! This year I was armed with a hand auger, 3 traps, a bucket of shiners and some other things.
It was an extremely cold weekend, it was down to below 0 on Friday night. On Saturday morning a group of boys wanted to get going so we headed on to the ice. I drilled the first hole to show the boys how. The ice was a good 15" thick. As I rigged up the tip-up, they moved to the next location and drilled the hole. It was ready when I arrived with the rest of the gear. We put in 3 tip-ups. The boys also wanted to do some jigging so we made jigging rods out of some sticks, ice line, a tipped, hook and shiner. We ended up with 7 holes, 3 with tip-ups and 4 for hand jigging.
First catch was a 12" cat fish caught on the stick. Then FLAG and we had a fish on one of the tip-ups. Unfortunately, it got away as the Scout hand-over-handed him in. That's part of the learning! Then a few minutes later, another FLAG on the same tip-up. This time, they landed him - an 18" Chain Pickerel.
We left the tip-ups and "rods" set while we went in for lunch and when we came out, another 18" Chain Pickerel was on one of the rods. That was the end of the action for a few hours as Scouts drifted in and out of ice fishing and other activities.
After dinner, my son and his friend went to check the traps and as he was pulling up one of the "rods" he felt a tug, so he set the hook and carefully brought in a 24" Chain Pickerel. Not a bad day all in all and a new group of boys experienced some fun ice fishing!
Waiting for a flag
Secret Ice Fishing Dance
First Chain Pickerel
A couple of happy Scouts
Not a bad catch
