First Day Out On The Ice

This past weekend I finally found the time and enough ice to get out and do some ice fishing with my son in Newaygo County.

I thought over the holiday break I would have a moment to get out on the ice. I did check a cove that freezes over kind of early and some guys had been out there but just wasn't able to squeeze a trip in.

Well this weekend my son and I thought, "hey, let's get out on the ice and see if we can get some fish."

Now since moving back to Michigan and not living in this part of the region before, I've had to start all over with finding new places to fish. There is a lot to choose from in West Michigan, plus it takes time to zero in on some hot spots.

My son and I have had our good days and bad days so far but our quest to find some good fishing continues this year.

So we started off on Brooks Lake that is right off M-82 in Newaygo. This is a lake we have done well with in the summer when it comes to bluegills and bass.

We tried ice fishing Brooks Lake once last year but didn't have any luck but we know there are fish there so we tried again. There were about four to five inches of ice but there are some spring fed areas you should watch out for.

Although we didn't catch any fish there we managed to have a pretty good time.

There were a few hours left in the day so we made a stop at Croton Pond on the way back. I've ice fished there once before with my son's older brother last year. Last year we got a lot of perch but no real size to them.

There was one area I had been wanting to fish since I heard some walleye and pike are caught there. We found a place to park and headed out and right as we were getting on the ice a guy has a very big fish on. We watched as whatever was on his line had his pole hitting the water where his line went through the ice. The fish wound up snapping his line so we knew it was something good.

My son and I set up in the area but had no luck but we watched this other guy who obviously knew what he was doing bounce from hole to hole to ice a few perch, bluegill and crappie.

We moved out in some deeper water where we finally found a few fish. My son has quite a bit of patience for being almost eight years old and lit up when he finally got that first hit for the season. We only caught six little bluegill but it was fun. We had a lot of laughs and it looks like we have a new area to spend some quality fishing time together that is not too far from home.