By Bruce Karnick [email protected]

On Saturday, January 9th, the City of Hastings held a free ice fishing progrram on Lake Rebecca thanks to their wonderful partners. Paige Marschall Bigler, Recreation Programming Specialist took a moment to give The Journal a rundown. “This is a partnership event with Carpenter Nature Center, the National Park Service and we are granted a waiver through the DNR in order to fish without permits for this weekend,” she said.

Due to COVID restrictions in place by Governor Walz, families needed to pre-register for a time slot. “[Families] check in with me, sign a waiver, and then we have individual package bait for each family to take. They each have their own fishing pole, and they are welcome to go out on the ice we have instructors by section. Everybody’s given a section that they’re in, to space them out so we are in line with DNR guidelines for outdoor rec,” Bigler explained.

When the families returned from being on the ice, a representative from Carpenter Nature Center was on hand to sanitize the used gear and accept any leftover bait that will be used to feed the animals at the nature center.

The families that participated had a variety of ages in them. Some were grandparents out with their grandkids, others were there without kids. Most of the kids were on the younger side in that 4-10-year-old range. Everyone was having a good time and very few expressed any concern for the cold. For many of the kids, it was their first experience ice fishing, so it was a little sad hearing their disappointment because the fish were just not biting.

John Peters was out with his wife and their granddaughter Lydia. Grandma J shied away from the spotlight, but John and Lydia were happy to chat.

How did you hear about the event? “Read it in the paper!” he said with a smile.

“He just told me,” Lydia added. “It’s really fun. It’s my first time.”

What would you do different next time? “Bring more warm stuff,” Lydia smiled.

Peters is not new to the fishing game, and like most fishermen, he was happy to share a story. “Well, you know, we’ve been to Milacs several times this year and we probably a total of five or six times. Okay, five out of the six times was you know we’d catch three or four fish. My buddy and myself, Greg Ness. And we hit them like crazy one day we caught 55 small mouth bass between five and six pounds. So, it was just fishing out of this world never end. And of course we went back there, you know, a couple of days later, nothing.”

How did he do on the ice? “I caught a cold,” Peters said as the group laughed.

Lydia? “Not very good, very cold,” she said with a shiver.

Yes, they got skunked, but it’s a memory Miss Lydia will keep with her for a long time, fishing with Grandma and Grandpa, and she admitted to having fun!

Grandma J finally chimed in, “We’re signed up to do it in February again!”

I knew she would not stay shy the whole time. Good luck in February you three! Hopefully, we can share an update after that outing since we know you will read this!

If you would like to be part of the next Lake Rebecca Ice Fishing program on February 13th, 9a-noon, Contact Hastings Parks and Rec at 651-480-6182 or [email protected] to register for a timeslot.

**SPACE IS LIMITED based on DNR Guidelines.**

45differentfamiliescycledthroughtheCityofHastingsicefishingprogramonLakeRebeccaonSaturday morning from 9 a.m. to noon. Parents, grandparents and kids of all ages enjoyed family time fishing,and they hada wonderful view. Photo by Bruce Karnick

A little father daughter time on the lake. Photo by Bruce Karnick