Minnesota Union Volunteers Introduce Local Families to Ice Fishing

A happy young angler shows off her catch at the USA’s Minneapolis Area Take Kids Ice Fishing Day on Mille Lacs Lake on Saturday.

Minnesota Union Volunteers Introduce Local Families to Ice Fishing

Minneapolis trade unions hosted Union Sportsmen’s Alliance ice fishing event on Mille Lacs Lake on Saturday

ISLE, Minn. —Dozens of Minnesota youths and their families traveled a couple miles onto the frozen Mille Lacs Lake near Isle, Minnesota, for the annual Union Sportsmen’s Alliance (USA) Minneapolis Area Take Kids Ice Fishing Day on Saturday, March 1.

Hosted by International Union of Elevator Constructors (IUEC) Local 9 and the Minneapolis Building and Construction Trades Council (BCTC), the free event aimed to introduce the next generation of anglers and conservationists to ice fishing.

Most people fish when it’s 80 degrees and sunny, and these folks fish when it’s below zero and the water is frozen,” said USA Conservation Coordinator Cody Campbell. “It’s a very different take on fishing. All the families I spoke to were ice fishing for the first time, and the kids had a blast sliding on the ice.”

Weather and ice conditions vary greatly from year to year. Last year’s event shifted to the shore because there was not enough ice. This year, there was more than 30 inches of ice, and volunteers needed extensions on their augers to cut through it.

Union volunteers drilling ice fishing holes

Union volunteers set up pop-up ice fishing shelters and drilled holes in preparation for the young anglers and their families.

“It was a great time—seeing the smiles on the kids’ faces and the scowls on the parents’ faces when I gave the kids doe calls,” said Dave Morin, event leader and executive board member of IUEC Local 9, alluding to all the noise the calls make. “All the kids were super stoked about winning prizes.”

IUEC Local 9 provided all the prizes for youths with support from Joe’s Sporting Goods based in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Some kids escaped the below-freezing temperatures by fishing from the ice houses available rather than the pop-up shelters.

According to Ashley Neukom, who took her family to the event for the first time, her son was ecstatic about winning an insulated Eskimo pop-up ice fishing shelter. He and his buddy, who also won an ice fishing shelter, can’t wait to use them when they go fishing together.

“It was a very fun set up, very welcoming, and people checked in on us,” Neukom added. “One boy walked around with the fish he caught, and all the kids were trying to touch it and check it out. They were more interested in touching that fish than catching their own.”

The USA provided free fishing rods and reels to youths to help them continue to pursue fishing in the future, and nearly 20 union volunteers helped the kids get comfortable with their new gear and assisted with setting lines, replacing hooks, drilling new holes, and having a blast.

“I’m always amazed by the amount of help I get putting the event on,” Morin said. “Volunteers come from everywhere–some from hours away—no questions asked. They are the heroes that make the event feel like it isn’t that much work.”

After a few hours of fishing, participants enjoyed lunch and warmed up at Nitti’s Hunters Point Resort before cooling down again with ice cream donated by the resort.

The ice fishing event was part of a series of community-based Take Kids Fishing Day events organized through the Union Sportsmen’s Alliance’s Work Boots on the Ground conservation program.