Friday night I strapped the canoe on the roof rack and loaded up the fishing rods.

"Y'all need to go ahead and go to bed," I told my sons Jake and Nick. "We're leaving at O Dark Thirty."

By Doug Leier, from Outdoor News Guy

Much has been written on the means and methods to get kids hooked on fishing, and I've tested and tried the best of them. Honestly, it's not that high of a mountain to climb to generate some lasting interest during warm summer days.

On the other hand, convincing a youngster like my 6-year-old son to go ice fishing, and then creating a positive experience so the next offer is greeted with more than a sigh or shrug of the shoulders, is often the opposite.

Should we really be shocked? The summer alternative involves splashing in the water, and catching fish, frogs or some other creature on a sunny afternoon when the biggest worry is sunburn or rain. Compare that to a few hours in sub-freezing temperatures, battling frozen fingers and toes, and you get a sense of the challenges inherent in getting kids interested in ice fishing.