Collins Kieley, 7, shows off her second catch of the day, a large rainbow trout.

Ice fishing is a great activity to share with families and friends, one that can build memories for young and old alike.

My husband, Adam, and I took an expedition to Diamond Lake Feb. 18 that included our good friend Chauncey, his two kids — Collins, 7, and Brookes, 4 — and a little friend.

Chauncey had been ice fishing only once, and the kids had never been. To say the children were excited would be an understatement: They were literally bouncing off the parking lot snowbanks.

Once we had our sleds packed with our gear — fishing poles, tackle boxes, camp chairs, food and beverages — we began our trek across the frozen water.

My husband is very particular about where he chooses to fish, and today was no different, nevermind the heavy sleds packed with everything except the kitchen sink. I had to remind him that we had three people with us with very little legs and that we wouldn’t be able to traverse all over the lake looking for the “perfect” place.

He has memorized a lot of the topography of the lake bottom from decades of fishing, and so we settled a few hundred yards from the shore of the north end boating site, located just beyond the turnoff for Diamond Lake Resort.

On the way to “our spot,” the youngest of our party, Brookes, told me he was hoping to catch “a really big salmon.” I should mention here that salmon are not stocked in Diamond Lake, and while his desire for a particular species might have been a little misplaced, his positive attitude was not. In fact, all the kids were absolute gems, helping to set up our base and preparing the ice holes for fishing.

Once all the holes were drilled, some of our hooks were baited with PowerBait or worms and left to passively attract fish, while others were rigged with a variety of lures to jig with.

The adults and children in our group had fun moving their poles up and down to create a little wiggling motion in the lures under the ice.

It didn’t take long before one of our group got a bite, and it wasn’t a grown-up holding the rod.

Little Collins felt her line go taught, and then her pole started to bend down toward the hole, which created a great deal of excitement within the party.

With help from her dad, she managed to land a large, beautifully colored rainbow trout.

Collins could hardly believe her luck, since no one else had yet managed even a nibble. After the fish was secured in one of the sleds and packed in snow, we all raced back to our lines to see if we could catch an even bigger fish.

Several of our party managed a nibble here and there, barely noticeable if you weren’t paying close attention, but no trophies surged up from the ice. Several fishermen around us were pulling up fish, but other than Collins’ beauty, we were relegated to looking on in barely contained jealousy … until Collins’ rod once again bowed toward the watery hole in the ice and she managed to reel in another stunning rainbow.

We had all changed up our bait and lures, some of us using orange PowerBait — just like what was rigged on Collins’ hook — to no avail.

It seemed that the fish that day had decided to make one little girl’s afternoon memorable over the rest of us.

Although no one else managed to land a fish, we all had a great time and left the lake late that afternoon eagerly awaiting the next weekend so we could all try our hand at landing gorgeous rainbow trout — just like lucky-girl Collins.