We had family in town this weekend and I had the opportunity to take them ice fishing for kokanee for their first time.
We left the house right on schedule, at 6am. On the way, I was explaining kokanee behaviors and techniques we use in the truck. We were about half way to the lake when I realized we/I forgot the bait at home. Now, I’ve seen some successful people catch kokanee without bait, but today I had a special batch of shoepeg kokanee corn that I wanted to test out. A half an hour later and we were back on track to the lake. The only positive part about forgetting the bait was gaining an extra half hour of warmth on the toes in the truck.
Today was most definitely the first day I hauled a load of gear out onto the lake that required a snowmobile to pull it and I did not have one. Thankfully, I had a cousin with a husband who was excited to go ice fishing and helped bring some gear onto the lake. We arrived at the lake in two convoys. The boys arrived first. When I let the tail gate down I could not believe how much gear we had to carry out onto the ice. I thought to myself, “there was not this much in there when we left.” We carefully unloaded our gear out of the back of the truck. Thankfully, this wasn’t the first time I had the boys start packing some gear on their own sleds (not the ice fishing kind, but the downhill sledding kid fun kind 
). The boys and I had been practicing with letting them carry their own chairs and shovels out onto the ice. This time, their sleds were a heaping disaster of chairs, shovels, and other fishing equipment that would later fan out and fall off onto the trail as we ventured out onto the lake. As I picked up the lost items and placed them on my sled, I decided then and there that I now know what the boys will be getting for Christmas this year, their own official ice sled to carry more of their own gear. The decision to “allow” them to carry their own gear was easy. Our family sled has been starting to gain some height that makes the sled top heavy.
When we arrived at our “spot,” I heard that four letter phrase that no one wants to hear when ice fishing with kids, “my feet are cold.” I immediately turned to look at Austin’s feet and noticed that he had not found his winter boots as I had asked him to wear today. Instead, he opted to wear his uninsulated rubber boots. The cost of parenting and trying to teach your children responsibility is high at this point in the ice fishing game. I realized that it would have been better for me to find his winter boots for him today. We had a big family fishing trip planned and I did not want to go home early.
We setup our ice fishing tent right away and took refuge in the warmth that was created by it’s insulated walls. We started drilling holes before setting up the buddy heater. Austin was not complaining about his feet as I had him and Ethan go play and run around to warm up his toes. I enjoyed teaching a new angler how to drill their first hole. I was impressed at the angle of the hole and am upset that I forgot to take a picture. After the first hole, I proceeded to drill 5 more holes for my family that would be fishing. Today made me seriously consider looking into an electric auger. Maybe Santa will be good to me this year.
With the holes drilled and everyone else fishing but myself, I continued to setup our area for the day. I got the big buddy heater going and had Austin warm his feet while standing on a piece of 2×10 board that helped insulate them from the cold ice below. I setup our second ice tent as the food tent. Then I setup more chairs outside for people who wanted to enjoy the day when it warmed up.
Then, as if on cue, one of the boys took a short break from their hole inside the warm base tent. I stepped into the tent, grabbed a rod and put my line down the hole. The fish finder was starting to mark fish at 12ft. I dialed in my presentation by switching to a Gibbs dog tail dodger and replaced the corn on my hook with one of my mealworms. I had been fishing for not more than 5 minutes and by 8:55 I had the first fish on the ice. Without delay, Austin had gained interest once again and wanted to ice fish again. He “pushed” me out of my hole and I was forced outside to fish in the outside holes.
It didn’t take long until Austin landed a couple fish in “my hole.” I jumped back inside when he was busy dealing with his fish on the ice outside and caught one more. Then, as soon as he was ready, I would practice this “rotational angling” that I’ve heard so much about. I rotated outside once again and ended up hooking into a nice kokanee at 12ft below the ice.
This morning was one of the most active fish screens I have had on Ten Mile. There were big schools staying with us until 1130am. I noticed the kokanee were starting to “spread out” in the water column around 1030am.
The second convoy of family members arrived after we had successfully put 5 kokanee on the ice during the “morning bite.” We managed to get a few more kokanee and a couple of them were first time fish for our family members.
Our day was completed after we had finished eating our smokies and hotdogs we cooked on our big buddy heater. It was almost as if the children knew that our bellies were full and this was the most opportune time to have us pull our heavy sleds back to the vehicles.
We decided to send the kids home right away while the remainder of us took our time and packed up our gear.
During the break down process it was great to meet 3 of our members. We talked about different ways that were working for us and I’m hoping it helped them catch more kokanee. It was great to meet you guys.
Today reminded me of a group get-together. We need to plan at least one more group get-together that works best for as many members as possible. It was the perfect day of learning. I was able to help a few others learn, including family members and group members. I was also able to help myself learn a little more about kokanee fishing. I really enjoyed fishing with a stiffer rod. I will now be looking forward to my next ice fishing adventure, because I completely forgot to cut up a broom handle and make a fishing rod to try out. Will a stiffer rod help an angler feel more bites? I can only try to work out the answer to an equation that is near impossible to solve, but fun doing so.
“How can a person catch more kokanee?” The answer is simple, or so I’ve always grown up knowing. You can not catch a fish unless your line is in the water.