Ice Fishing For Panfish With Kids: A Rewarding and Fun Treat
I love taking my kids ice fishing. I love buying them snacks and juice, a cool fishing lure or two for their tackle boxes, and then heading off to the lake. When all 4 kids are with, things are pretty intense—I’m spinning in circles trying to keep up! 
The frozen lake is the best spot to take kids fishing, it’s perfect. There’s lots of space, and the little ones get the room they need to run, reel fish in, tackle the fish they just caught, and a bit more room for dad to help unwrap them when their fishing line gets wrapped around their ankles.(As a rule, I have found that the smaller the child, the more space they require.) I always know when I have the whole crew along. Everything, from the snacks and juice to the bait and fish, get spilled on the lake. Our fishing zone looks like a cross between a food fight and a prize fight. Blood and wax worm dust, minnow pieces, and grape pop spills and Skittles and other stuff, stain our fishing zone. If the weather’s too tough to be outside, then we fish in a fish house. (Things are about the same only they’re more close and violent.) It’s all good. It removes me from my professional fishing life for a moment.
My kids love to eat fish and they love fishing for dinner. We don’t freeze fish at our house, so when we feel like having fish for dinner—we strike out to catch it. If we don’t want fish dinner we simply don’t keep our fish, we catch and release. To feed our family of 6, we need about 10-14 panfish (depending on their size)—and the whole family seems to really enjoy fishing panfish. I think that panfish tend to be a misunderstood fish. They get mislabeled as “easy” just because they are small. It’s kind of goofy. As my eldest kids have been learning over the past few years, panfish don’t come easily all the time. In fact, my kids don’t take bites for granted—they enjoy every one of them–because they have learned that those “easy” panfish can stop biting at any moment.
Today, my oldest boy and I struck out to catch some crappie and sunfish for dinner. We set up a house and caught a nice sized crappie and four sunfish right away…but then it slowed. The fish swam away (which is common practice for panfish, seeing as they are a food source for pike and bass). Pike were keeping the panfish on the move, so there we sat. We decided to drill some holes around the area outside the fish house. When panfishing, it’s the best medicine for a slow bite—go find them. It was two degrees and windy (I’m sure it was nearly a negative 15 wind chill). My son never blinks an eye at fishing on the ice when it’s cold outside. He’s learned the advantage of fishing in the open. He knows that going to the fish instead of waiting for the fish to come to you pays off. (And also – walking around and being outside gave us something to do and helped us keep our attention, like a fun game—so it’s a win win.)
We relocated about 20 yards from the house and caught two more nice crappie (my boy caught them). Soon after catching those bonus crappie, the school vanished! We fished and re-fished all of our holes outside and inside. The sun was beginning to touch the tops of the trees and the sunfish and crappie went into hiding. All we marked on our Marcum and Vexlar units were large (pike) signals. We couldn’t get another fish. We ended our outing with three nice sized crappie and four nice sized sunfish—just not quite enough for dinner. But, sometimes, that’s just how fishing goes. We got home at 5:30 pm, cleaned those seven fish (my 10 yr old is a great fish cleaner), put them in the fridge, and decided we’d have them for tomorrow’s dinner. I guess that means we’ll have to strike out tomorrow afternoon to catch five or six more! I love the silver lining of not catching enough the first time, and my kids feel the same way!
Here are some key points of taking kids ice fishing and some beneficial information about today’s panfish fishing outing:
- Always remember that when you take kids fishing, it’s their time, not yours. Help them have a good time. Soon enough, they will catch on and be a part of the entire fishing process all on their own. But when they’re young, it’s ok to spoil them a bit and make their fishing fruitful and fun from beginning to end. Oh – and when they are ready to head home, they will let you know, and it’s probably just easier to head home.
- Try to make it a rule to keep only enough fish to eat, rather than stocking the freezer. Fresh fish are very delicious, it’s when they’re best. (Catching a meal of fish, and eating them for dinner is a great way to celebrate the outing.) After you’ve caught what you plan to keep, simply catch and release the rest.
- Remember that just because panfish don’t grow to be 10 pounds, it doesn’t automatically mean they’re easy to catch. Stay on your toes, because panfish require as much effort and persistence as any other species. The more holes you drill and the more water you cover, the better.
- Don’t forget that water clarity and day-light intensity are at the core of panfish activity periods. If the lake has clear water, panfish tend to feel more comfortable feeding at dawn and dusk (especially on bright days). If the water is stained or dark, panfish will feed best on bright days during the day, but will quit feeding the moment the sun gets too low. They will also feed less intensely and less consistently on dark days. Dark water periods invite predator species to feed, so the panfish lay low and seldom feed.
Get the kids on the ice and have fun ice fishing!
Ross Hagemeister
