Winter Sunfish Memories

[TackleBoxMike]

Fisherman Enjoy,

I was at my Mom and Dads working on the ice fishouse getting it ready for the ice fishing season.I went in to my folks house after a while for a break to warm up. Mom had a pot of coffee ready so I sat down and started to have a cup with Mom and Dad to my surpise she pulls my baby book out so I took a look. The baby book was full of many different things interesting to me. Now when I got to age 3 of the baby book I was surprised to learn I had been to a ice fishing contest at age 3 with Mom and Dad. I don't think I can remember fishing at age 3 but I do remember walking through some cattails snowed over pulling my sled following my Dad down to a lake now the sled was the one with the two runners on it. We had a wood box tied to the sled with the ice fishing sticks, bait,and hand ice auger. The fishing was good so we used all are bait. Well at that point you'd think we'd be leaving no way we had some crappies mixed in with the sunnies we tried fishing with crappie eye balls on a swedish pimples on a old stick with a nail on one end that you'd poke in to the ice. Well the action was hot so watching a bobber in a ice fishing hole was great. We pulled in sunfish and crappies hand over hand is fun but I also remember running with the line to pull up the sunnies. OK everyone!!! fishing is in my blood thanks to Mom and Dad for bring me out fishing.

My family wife and kids and me have been working together getting the fishouse ready for this ice fishing season has been great. When I remember all the good times ice fishing with my kids I remember the first fish my kids have caught and the action my kids have had ice fishing with mickey mouse poles pulling in sunnies.

Thanks Mom and Dad

I'm still a kid a heart .

TackleBoxMike

[Matt Johnson]

Awesome story Mike! Thanks for sharing it with the rest of us.

Not long now...ice is coming!!

Good Fishin,

Matt Johnson

[CrappieJohn]

How I got to love fishing is a much longer story, but when my kids were small they went fishing with me quite often. One of the best times I ever had on the ice was a warm, sunny winter day when Ma and I took our oldest daughter to some Mississippi backwaters to fish. After getting dug in we tossed out a blanket on the ice and set up the kitchen, dug out the old maid cards and waited for some action. I had baited half of the lines with small minnows and the others with waxies. After baiting up I just tossed the clear plastic waxie container down on the blanket. As we sat there snacking and playing cards a chickadee came down and sat on that waxie box and pecked for what seemed forever trying to get a bug out. Evidently the sun on the box warmed things up enough that the waxies got pretty active and this bird took notice. Then another chickadee came, and another. We ended up with perhaps ten of the birds hopping around on the blanket with us. They sat on our legs, they worked that bait container to dead, they shared the crumbs we left and finally, when my daughter settled down a bit, they even ate crumbs and a couple of shared waxies right out of her hand.

This thread strikes a cord with me. You have done a fine job of opening a door that does not get opened often enough. Fishing, whether thru the ice or the open water, is the fastest growing family sport there is and it is the memories generated years ago that help play a part in the growth of this great sport today. The thoughts I shared happened over thirty years ago. We were not wealthy, poor in fact, and family was a big part of life. Fishing does not get hindered by money, color, age, sex, but rather from lack of respect for our resources. Family outtings create the bedrock of understanding that will lead to futures filled with memeories for today's youngsters.

Thanks for the walk down memeory lane! It is some place I don't go down often enough.

[The Grebe]

Like most everyone else, I got hooked on fishing when I was quite young. It was 99% river fishing as there was no boat in our family...no automobiles either! If we went fishing, we walked, or one of my dads friends would take us.

I grew up in the city, and the closest waterway was the Mississippi...I lived in north Minneapolis and back then, as a kid, going "Up north" was going up to Coon Rapids dam!

There used to be an old farmer on the west side of the river and he used to charge a quarter to park there. Man, we used to get some fish!

I guess what really hooked me for life was an incident that happened when I was in 5th grade at Grant elem. school, in Mpls.

There used to be a sportscaster on the old oval shaped, black and white T.V. named Rollie Johnson. There was a contest he sponsored and you had to write in and tell him in so many words, why you thought you should win one of the newly introduced, one piece, Zebco rod and reel outfits. They were giving away 5 of them to the lucky winners in the TwinCities area.

I wrote him a letter, included a color crayoned picture of a Pumpkinseed Sunfish I had drawn, sent everything into the station address and waited.

The day came when they announced the winners and low and behold, I made the cut, my entry was chosen as one of the 5 lucky winners and the rod was mine!

I like to think that the Rollie Johnson thing was one of the biggest defining moments in my life long affair with fishing and I look back on it with fond memories. It was definately the hook setter!

[Bobb-o]

I was hooked on fishing from my first fish at age 3. My family was staying at the campground on big sandy lake near McGregor. My parents tell me the story all the time. My dad took me down to the beach and i caught a little sunfish, i was so excited i carried it around the whole day showing everyone. My parents had to pry it out of my hand when i fell asleep and throw it away.