WELCOME

By Matt Johnson, Ice Team Manager

It is no secret that we just came off an “interesting” year. Many of us experienced things that were out-of-the-ordinary, different, uncomfortable, and oftentimes just downright weird. We have had to find a new “normal” for some things, and in other ways we have finally went back to whatever “normal” was. We have had to adapt, learn, grow and teach ourselves new ways to manage day-to-day activities… and one of those activities that saw change was fishing. Change can be good, and in this case, we saw our sport make leaps and bounds in ways we did not plan for.

Fishing became one of the concrete activities we continued to enjoy, and with that, we saw an exponential increase of new anglers. Most states throughout the Ice Belt saw an increase in fishing license sales, an increase in sporting goods sales, and a huge increase of new fishing stories to be shared! The lakes were busier than ever, and we are still seeing that trend and anticipate it continuing into this winter as well. With that being said, we have an opportunity to share our excitement of the sport with new people!

This winter I encourage you to take someone new out ice fishing. Maybe someone who has never done it before, or maybe just someone you’ve never ice fished with in the past. Bring some of these new anglers with you on an adventure. Expose them (properly) to this awesome sport we call ice fishing and show them just how much fun it can be! We have increased our ice fishing family, so let us keep them excited for years to come! n

Good luck this winter and let us go catch some fish!