Made it out to Phillips pond to fish with a good friend Rob Frye that I don’t see very often these days. My son Ryan made the trip. Rob also brought his kids out too and all got to play, fish, and had plenty of fun.
Brought my atv out for this trip. 🙂 The ice was in pretty good condition for it and even though I brought the chains, I did not need them. Might of helped a little but I was going pretty slow all day with my boy.
Rob was out earlier and reported catching a few nice bass. Our 1st spot together was not too productive and getting kind of windy. Not long after his kids showed up we moved to around a point out of the wind and hopefully onto some fish. There were a few people already there but they did not seem to mind us fishing next to them. Rob lives on the lake and knew almost everyone we ran into during the day.
I flopped up a few crappie and the kids almost did as well. Joshua (Rob’s son) iced some really nice bass. I was jigging for crappie and found a mess of them on the fish finder. After one hook up I handed the rod to Faith (Rob’s daughter) and she was excited to reel up something. It dropped at the hole but she had a pretty big smile on her face from it. It was just as much fun watching her catch it. We tried again but the fish moved.
As the day went on it got warmer and there were many puddles on the pond getting deeper buy the hour. We kept some crappie for eats and Josh and Ryan had some fun positioning one of my crappie up into a tire rut from a 4 wheeler that formed about a 5-6 inch groove of water. They kept tugging on his tail and making this crappie swim a lap from one end to another. That was funny to watch them work as a team of little rascals like that.
Rob brought out some hot chocolate for the kids which gave them plenty of a sugar rush and had them running around kicking soccer balls around, flying kites, and splashing in the puddles. Ryan was completely soaked. It was a good thing it was warmer out.
At the end of the day Josh and Ryan rode back on the back of Rob’s sled behind his ATV. this thing is pretty cool. It looks like a dog sled made of steel. Maybe that is what it is?
When we got back Rob helped my load up my ATV while the kids went in the house. After the atv was on, we filleted up those crappie and Rob cooked them up with some seasoning and butter in a pan. Wow, was that good. I’ve had it before but right out of the water all fresh like that made it delectable (I love saying that word – makes me feel like Uncle Tedd ,ha ha).
Ryan did not want to leave. He was having too much fun with Josh and Faith. I too had fun. Not just because I got out fishing but also because I spent the day with an old friend. It was also a trip that beckons me to try to do that more often with them.
-Brian
NHAngler Fishing BLOG 
