LAKEVILLE, Ind. -- During the winter months many stick to staying indoors while others thrive in the freezing temperatures. Ice fishing is a big catch this time of year and one Michiana family has been bearing the elements for generations, leaving each time with new memories.
The best time for the big catch is mostly in the mornings and evenings. The shift from dusk to dawn has had the Vermilyer family hooked for three generations.
Doug Vermilyer or "Uncle Doug" says, "When I was really young, my father started fishing, or started taking me fishing when I was about six years old, BUTT We used to just sit out on a bucket and weather now. But I've been, yeah, I've been doing this for over 50 years."
Doug reeling in his nephews and their kids as well. Blaine Vermilyer, his nephew tells ABC57's Sidney Moore, "My son, he's been ice fishing alongside me and my uncle, my brother and some really close friends, he's a teenager now, and his buddies, and they're out doing it without dad, which is, okay, it's bittersweet, but he's going to take it on to the next generation, I think."
Out on Pleasant Lake, the ice runs nearly ten inches deep making the perfect conditions for these fishermen but safety comes before anything.
Doug says, "They're still always unsafe places, if you're in on a lake that has springs underneath, and a lot of times that'll make thin ice. And if you go out on the ice, you still want to poke holes every now and again and make sure you're on safe ice."
This family stays out on the ice for sometimes more than six hours grabbing as many gills as they can, but what is better than the catch?
Blaine Vermilyer says it's the memories that are being made. "It's fun if you're catching fish. It can be a bummer if you're not, but I've never had a bad time."