Well with all the Christmas goodies that my friend and I got we decided to go to his uncle's ponds and give everything a test drive. Weather wasn't terrible either so both of his boys and one of their friends tagged along also. A couple of the ponds were iced over and almost all had some ice around the edges, water was probably in the mid 30's at best. One of my first casts with a small Xrap I hooked up but forgot to set the drag on my new spinning reel so I didn't get a good hookset and lost it. I was fishing a jerkbait painfully slow in the cold water and spent a lot of time helping the boys get untangled and unsnagged also. My friend and I were fishing the big pond where most of the bigger fish are at and the boys decided to go fish the smaller pond where I got bit at. We had just fished all the way around the big pond without even a bite when my friends 5 year old comes running down the path screaming "Christopher caught a shark!" So we jogged up to the small pond and while it wasn't a shark, his 3lb 10oz bass was a very healthy looking fish. I was shocked to learn it ate a crawdad colored crankbait right next to the bank.

I had one more dink come off at the bank and those were my only 2 bites of the day. Can't say I was mad about getting skunked though, introducing young kids to the sport is just as exciting as catching a big ol' bass.

I think the smile on that young man's face is all the reward I would need! It's just great that so many of us still have some soft water and have a chance to fish - catching or not...