The challenge was daunting, but Charles McGee took it on with enthusiasm.
McGee, owner of Bucks, Bass and Beyond Guide Service based in the Sebago Lake region, was challenged to take on 22 third- and fourth-graders from Maine Coast Waldorf School in Freeport who had never ice-fished before.
He and two parents of children in the school, Paul Talley and Dennis Croy, helped the kids by baiting hooks, teaching them to set traps, coaching them as they pulled in their fish and instructing them on jig fishing.
Croy ran the jigging area. The jig rods were rigged with underwater cameras so the kids could watch the fishes’ movements and see them come up to the bait and either take it or reject it.
Talley brought his hot chocolate station for some warm refreshments on a cold 23-degree day. And McGee, who worked as a registered nurse before guiding full time, helped the kids including baiting their hooks, while also making sure everyone stayed warm and safe.
In the end, all 22 kids caught at least one fish in the three hours of their adventure, including yellow perch, black crappie, chain pickerel, large mouth bass and northern pike on a lake in the Sebago region.
McGee said the first flag went up 10 seconds after he put the line in the water and set the trap and never stopped after that.
McGee and his brother Jason McGee of Casco grew up fishing on the lakes and ponds in this region, Charles McGee said. When they began to drive, the pair rode in their 1987 Escort wagon all over the area, always trying to fish in someplace new.
“The only time we were not in trouble in winter was when we were fishing,” McGee said.
He took the Waldorf schoolchildren, and has taken other kids and families, to fish in some of the brothers’ favorite places, sharing their lucrative fishing spots to spark a love of fishing in Maine youths.
Jason always caught the biggest fish, McGee said.
“It’s because he had a special energy for fishing,” he said. He wanted the kids to experience that and saw it in a handful of the Waldorf School students who fished with him, too.
The men had set up 4-5 ice fishing shacks on the ice with heaters, but they also had another option. McGee’s girlfriend Emily Ryder, who is self-employed with Sebago Pro Cleaning, cleans an AirBNB in the Sebago Lake area owned by Leisa Osborn Dupuy. McGee met Dupuy through Ryder and the two struck up a partnership of sorts that allows him access to the lake across private land and his clients stay at the AirBNB. It also was an option for kids to use for warming up on their fishing day.
McGee charged the school half price, just to cover some of his expenses such as the bait and the propane for the heaters. His dog Oakley, a boxer mix, and a neighborhood dog, a black lab named Daisy, played on the lake while the kids were fishing.
At the end of the 3-hour fishing session, each child possessed a photo taken with a caught fish, a certificate for Sebago Bait and Tackle from McGee and a free ice fishing trap from Jeffrey Witham of Traps for Kids, a nonprofit that distributes free traps to kids at fishing derbies and other events.
None of the kids wanted to leave, McGee said.
“No one was hurt. No one stepped in [fishing] holes. I cannot believe how fun it was. It was one of the best days ever,” he said. “I definitely would do it again.”
