Taking kids fishing is a tradition that many families uphold across countless generations. There really is no better way to spend time outdoors together. Most youngsters tend to stick with panfish and other small species their first time out fishing with family. Not Drayden Nelson of Alaska, who went out to do some subsistence ice fishing with his family a few years ago. Drayden was only 6 years old at the time this video was shot, and it's a true goodie.The video starts with him working what appears to be a large spoon in the ice hole by himself, when he gets a massive strike.
The cool thing about this video is that the kid then battles the huge fish all by himself—pulling it up via a handline no less! The whole time, his family are standing there shouting words of encouragement to the youngster to keep pulling. After about a minute, the huge fish's head arrives at the hole and one of the adults pulls it out of the hole and onto the ice. The smile and expressions on this kid's face say it all. We promise you won't be able to watch this video and not smile, too.
This was probably one of the most wholesome fishing videos we've seen in a while. These families were fishing for food, but they managed to make some great memories along the way with this video, which went massively viral after it was first uploaded. It has garnered hundreds of millions of views.
In case you were wondering, the family was ice fishing on Kotzebue Sound, and the fish caught there is what is known as a nelma or siifish. It's a form of freshwater icefish that lives in rivers far in the Arctic Circle. They can grow upward of 50 pounds and are often a major food source for Alaskan Natives. This just happened to be Drayden's first catch of one of these cool fish. We're guessing from his excitement that it won't be his last either!
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