ice fishing

weedwalker · January 27, 2011, 09:31:44 PM

No, I just use it to find the fish mostly. Sometimes I would stick it down the hole while I'm fishing just to see if my jig was at the right level. I've been out of the ice fishing zone for a few years now. So all I can tell ya is what worked for me back then. They probably got all kinds of new fangled gadgets out there now.

FinsnFur · January 27, 2011, 09:34:51 PM

Yeah but I'm a tight SOB too....and I got a fish finder laying around.

5 SHOTS · January 27, 2011, 09:41:53 PM

With the broom handle you can angle the transducer and turn it to help locate fish a little ways away from your hole. Kinda like side scanning sonar.

bigben · January 28, 2011, 04:05:01 AM

I am not sure how we are going to rig this one up. prob a float to watch the jig all the time. I was thinking about buying one of those cameras from cabelas for 100bux. but not sure if they are worth it?

bigben · January 29, 2011, 05:42:50 AM

pics from yesterdays expedition.

Dave · January 29, 2011, 07:45:56 AM

Wow, guess you found the spot!
Love seeing these type of pics, so keep us updated. Thanks

FinsnFur · January 29, 2011, 07:58:19 AM

My back hurts just thinking about cleaning all those alone

HaMeR · January 29, 2011, 09:11:17 AM

FISH FRY @ BEN'S HOUSE!!!!!!!!!

bigben · January 29, 2011, 04:36:02 PM

actually about 2/3's of them are bait for the channels this summer. I cleaned the big ones and froze the small ones. I did revive the one perch and got him in an aquarium. hes pretty cool. waitin for him to eat the small sunny that is in there though.

bigben · January 31, 2011, 12:37:23 PM

well yesterday I woke up a bit late but had a late night on sat night throwin a few back with friends. I got the flasher I found put together and soldered the terminals. went to a local pond and seen if it registered in the water. it did but I couldn't find my jig. so I went for lunch and after lunch helped my father with some things. Then hit the ponds at our local sportsman's association. the small pond is only 4ft deep with a foot of ice on it. I drilled a bunch of holes and dropped the jig. normally they picked it right up or nothing. caught a few small dink bass and a small sunnys. went across the road to a larger pond and drilled a few holes. attached a depth finder to my jig and found the deepest hole. fished it for about a half hour and only a few light taps. I decided to get the flasher back out and try it again. got it setup and reading bottom. I started out by dropping the jig half way down the hole and upded the sensitivity of it till I seen it. this flasher isn't as nice as a vex and only shows red lines but hey better then nothing. plus it was virtually free. I let the jig go to the bottom and then brought it up about a foot. and started jiggin heavy. I had a kastmaster on with a 3" tag line and a small moon jig on tipped with meal worms. I was watching the flasher and was pretty happy that a foot of the bottom I could see my lure. there was a small gap between my lure and the bottom. well the gap went to solid and I felt a heck of a jerk. I set the hook on the lil ultralight and pulled up a nice bass. threw him back and was tempted to leave but stayed a bit more. I ended up catching 2 more nice bass and three monster gillz. I never knew they were that big in there. atleast 7-8"

now your prob wondering where the pics are. well my camera was at home and my cell phone was too dead to start up the camera on it. so I was screwed. It was nice being able to know what the fish liked. I would jig hard for a few minutes till a line would show then stop and lightly jig. about a 2" rise of the tip and from watching it up close it only jigs it a wee bit. and would end up with them hitting it multiple times. Prob gonna head back there again this week sometime. prob thursday. and this time I will be bringin the camera.

FinsnFur · January 31, 2011, 06:51:12 PM

Interesting

But the camera, not buying it

I havent had a chance to dog out my fish finder yet, and look it over.

bigben · February 01, 2011, 07:11:47 AM

It's worth a try jim. and I don't really care if ya buy it or not.

but if ya ever want to give jiggin a try again setup a rig like I mentioned once if ya haven't already tried it. we catch more on that rig then just a regular jig. unless they are feeding hot and heavy like they did the other day then a regular jig is fine.

FinsnFur · February 01, 2011, 07:00:47 PM

Oh I'll be jigging again

nastygunz · February 02, 2011, 04:35:19 AM

They gots some killa jigs here:

http://www.yourbobbersdown.com/index.html

and here:

http://www.jrstackle.com/icefishingtackle.html

Jimbo will love this:

http://mapper.angling-technologies.com/atom/pmap.php

Bait Tip, hit your local pet shops they have tons of good bait cheap! Crickets meal worms, mousies, etc. Sometimes they are deadly on panfish and a switch from minnows all the time. I go to petsmart and petco here.

Not sure aboot where you live but the NH fish and game web site also has a list of 400+ water bodies with species and depth: http://www.wildlife.state.nh.us/Fishing/bathy_maps.htm, your department might also.

Out on the ice its hard to pinpoint and go back to hotspots season after season so if you have a gps they are very handy to save coordinates of where you hammered em and you can build up your own database of hotspots....just dont let your buddies get it !!

Cool site:

http://www.iceshanty.com/

bigben · February 14, 2011, 09:37:17 AM

my father a friend and I headed north to fish for some stocked trout at a george b stevenson. ended up catching a few. threw em all back. they stocked some nice sized fish. my father and friend caught more then me. late on saturday I got to thinking about how you said that if you drop some bait down the hole and watch it sink it will prob be sucked up before it hit bottom. I was fishing in 4ft of water and it was clear as a bell. I dropped my old bait off the hook in the hole and watched as it slowly dropped to the bottom. about 6" from the bottom it was promptly sucked up. I muttered to myself why you little. I had just got a grab bag of jigs from jammin jigs and was trying a few. prob why I didnt catch as many as dad and my buddy. they caught most of theirs jiggin kastmasters and rapalas. I remembered seein these plastic jigs in the grab bag and they were supposed to be a neutral buoyancy. so I quickly tied one on tipped it with a waxie and dropped it in the hole. as it made its slow decent to the bottom I watched as a rainbow nabbed it. I only caught one using this technique but it was late in the day on saturday but missed a bunch more because I was watching them take it instead of waiting till I felt a tug on the line.

link to the jigs I mentioned. http://www.jamminjigs.com/sections/product_group.php?category_id=15&group_id=76

and some pics.

FinsnFur · February 14, 2011, 07:54:03 PM

Yeah 9 times out of 10 you arent going to feel a tug. Thats why I like those spring bobbers. You gotta watch em.

In fact the ultimate is when you start getting small droplets of water freezing on your line, just above the water line. Now you got a fail safe instant gauge as to when your line moves and how much. Works like a charm.

Dropping the bait in the hole.

Oh yeah....if you could jig like that you'd get a lot of fish. The only ones I've seen be able to do it consistently here is the old men. And like I said, unless you stare at them you'd never know they were even moving at all.
I just cant keep staring at old men though.

bigben · February 15, 2011, 08:14:34 AM

Thats the thing though. with those jigs ya just need to worry about the upswing being slow enough. they fall about the same rate as free falling bait does. I have a spring bobber on the one rod I was using. but its not a good one. I need to buy some better ones next year. with the warm up this week I am lookin to the river unfreezing.