Family ice fishing from Posio: which trips take children
Illustration photo: a frozen lakeshore at dawn, not in Posio.
The short answer
With young children, the Kemijärvi resort's two hours on the lake beside it is the best fit: it has a child fare, lets the youngest come free and lends outdoor clothing. Salla's longer trip by snowmobile to a wilderness pond suits children of three and up who can manage four hours outside. For toddlers, a short morning on a Posio lake with your own rods asks nothing of anyone.
Children change which ice fishing trip makes sense from Posio. What each one allows is set out below by age, not by price.
The lake beside the Kemijärvi resort
Two hours on a lake right next to the resort, 85 minutes from Posio, with licences and equipment included. It prints a fare for children of four to eleven and lets under-threes come free; a three-year-old falls between the two bands, so ask. The trip runs from January to April and needs at least two adults.1
By snowmobile to a pond in Salla
Salla, about an hour and a half away, takes you three to four hours out to a remote wilderness pond by snowmobile, with a picnic lunch, and calls the trip ideal for families. It prints a fare for children of three to eleven.2 That is a long time on the ice for a small child, and a good morning for a ten-year-old.
The trips without a child fare
The two-hour trip on the booking platform from Kemijärvi prints one price per person and no child fare, so as far as the listing shows a family pays four. The professional fisherman’s day is for adults.
A Posio lake with your own rods
For the youngest, the simplest option is no booking at all. One rod through the ice is free at every age, as the fisheries authority’s own table shows.3 Half an hour on a lake near where you are staying lets a small child try it and go back inside when they have had enough.
Questions people ask
Does a teenager fishing with a lure need to pay the fee?
No. The fisheries authority describes its management fee as mandatory for anglers aged 18 to 69 who fish with lures or traps, so a teenager with a lure is outside it, and so is a grandparent over 70. For the parents it is the method that decides: an adult who swaps a simple ice rod for a lure moves into the fee, and the authority's own page has the current price.
Will the children be warm enough?
The Kemijärvi resort's lake trip includes outdoor clothing and a warm drink, and the two-hour trip on the booking platform lends winter clothing and boots, but neither says whether children's sizes are stocked, so ask when booking. Our record of the Salla trip mentions coffee and a picnic lunch, not clothing. Whatever is lent, pack your own mittens, hats and a spare pair of socks for each child.
Is the evening trip suitable for children?
Its page does not say. The evening trip from Kemijärvi takes at most four people per booking, runs two and a half hours into the dark with a campfire and prints one price per person with no age limit and no child fare. That may suit older children who want a chance of the aurora; for younger ones ask the company first, because nothing published answers it.