Ice fishing gifts for kids?

[M.T. Bucket]

All of the Bucket family Christmas gifts have been wrapped, but I thought I'd throw this out there for those late shoppers...

What's the best ice fishing gift for a kid? How about for a 3 year old? 7 year old? 12 year old (beyond that age it's probably whatever you would get an adult)? Someone out there must have some creative ideas of fishing gifts they've gotten the little ones...

Other outdoor (non-icefishing) gifts for kids? I don't usually like to get the son and nephews toys (they get enough of that stuff from other relatives), I like to go for fun, useful outdoor stuff like backpacks, fishing rods, flashlights, tackle boxes, and the like. When I was small I thought camoflage, pocketknives, and ice jigs were sweet gifts.

Anybody?

[arbuck]

Great idea. My 3 year old has enough toys to take care of a small village of children, and keeps getting more from grandparents.

Rod combos, jigs, their own tackle box things that they will enjoy and grow into and use for years to come. It also will help them to enjoy the sport if they own there own things.

There is also a valuable leasson to be learned. They have to share with the old man when they can't go with.

Great idea

arbuck

[Duffer]

i have had lots of faviorite xmas presents i used in out door activitys. camping a flash light a fun flash light not a big one more on the toy side but good enough to be useful i loved to use mine when we went camping and at home i loved to run around at night with the lights out and use my flashlight. for fishing i loved my snoopy rod i cought my first walleye not to mention probalby one of the bigest eyes ive cought on my snoopy pole. when i wasnt fishing i loved to tie on one of those practece wieghts and cast it me and my friends use to have compitions to see who could cast the farthest. and there are always the tackle boxes and fishin lures that are good gifts.

[Eric Wettschreck]

I bought my boys a chess and checker set to use in the fish house when the fish arn't biting. They like it and it gets rid of their boredom until the fish come back.

[beer batter]

Can't go wrong with a nice flashlight. Kids love them. You'll go through a lot of batteries but what the h3ll. A few other things to try:

hiking compass - you'll see them walk around staring at that thing for hours.

binoculars - Not real spendy ones but functional.

minnow scoop - don't all kids like to play with minnows? Always nice to have an extra on hand too.

life jacket - A new one every year the way young kids grow.

baseball glove, bat, ball.

Football and kickoff T.

Starter bow and arrow kit (if they're old enough)

I'm with you on the outdoor gifts MT Bucket. They get enough dump from others, I'd rather get them outdoors doing something.

[Finlander]

Kids love to get little tackle boxes filled with unwrapped lures to put in the trays!

I buy the little tikes cheap jiggle sticks also that they think are the coolest thing ever! Just wait until they pull up a sunfish on that pole! My wife would complain to me that, that is all you buy, fishing stuff. Well just like everybody said in the above posts, let the other people buy them the toys that get used only for a short time after x-mas and goes in the toy box never to be used again.

Plus when you bring them fishing they have there own rods to use and won't use your high buck graphite rods!

Believe me they'll love it!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Finlander!

[Jeremy airjer W]

My boys just turned two. I bought them Ice fishing poles for christmas this year. I let them play with my broken ones this summer. They had a good time! they even learned how to jig and reel 'em in (not real well but they can). I always remember getting fishing stuff from my grandparents and was the highlight of my christmas!

[anyfishwilldo]

I got my 2 oldest girls new rods, and a W/E up at URL over New Years.

[Corey Bechtold]

This may sound generic but flashlights are a great gift. I also have 3 kids and got each of them a flashlight for Christmas.

Merry Christmas,

Corey Bechtold

[anyfishwilldo]

Nothing generic about flashlights. I usually get my kids those for their b-days though.

[Corey Bechtold]

A fun thing to do for the kids is to shut off all the lights, turn up the music, and let them go nuts with the flashlights while they dance! I get a kick out of watching them! It's also good excercise for them and wears them out before bed.

Corey Bechtold

[f1sh1nfool]

They are a little spendy, like 15 or 16 bucks but I saw a couple of flashlights that you shake from side to side to create a charge to run them. I think they have a led bulb. This way they get to burn up some energy charging up their flashlight and you don't have to replace the batteries.

[psegriz]

Fish1nfool where are they never heard of them b4?