ice fishing

FinsnFur · January 21, 2011, 10:57:37 PM

I caught one, it sucked

bigben · January 22, 2011, 06:59:09 AM

sorry no pics. yep all panfish.

bigben · January 24, 2011, 07:47:45 AM

well sat and sun didnt go no where near as good as friday. sat morn me and dad got up and headed to the lake. but got there late. actually got too the lake at 8:30. we tried drillin a hole with dads auger and after 10 minutes I got frustrated and went over the the friendly neighbors and borrowed theirs. Punched 4 holes through 12" of ice and dropped lines. we fished for 3 hours and then headed home after no hits. I called around looking for an auger and found some at a gander mountain. It isn't a lazer but it drills holes pretty darn quick. I actually used a lazer on friday when I went fishin with a friend. very nice. but couldn't find one within 50miles.

sun morn I went to a local pond and punched some holes till I found out in the center the ice was only 3 inchs thick. got skeert because I was alone and didn't want to be a story line in the local newspaper and left. ate lunch and headed back to the lake we were on sat but tried a bunch of different spots I remembered from summer that had underwater structure on. fished em for 3 hours and not a nibble. punched prob close to 40 holes through 12" of ice and the auger didn't falter. I then headed over as daylight was fading to an old ore hole that was left over from mining. I had seen where someone was ice skating on it sometime thurs or friday. but didn't want to drill it without someone else there. but it just so happened that someone else was thinkin the same thing. we punched some holes and found good ice. I had heard there were crappies and big gills in there but never fished it during the summer. I was about 10 ft from the bank because I knew it was deep. 10ft from the bank it was 20ft deep already. we fished till dark and didn't catch anything. got a couple bites but we were too busy bs'n with each other to notice em. it was a fun weekend but hopin to find some action around home like it was on friday.

jim do ya got any tips for where to look for gillz under the ice? or do you just punch holes till ya find em? also when do you believe to be the best time to fish for these lil slabs of pan fried goodness? oh and here is the sun setting on the lake sat night. I know your a sucker for sunsets.

FinsnFur · January 24, 2011, 04:22:47 PM

The trick to finding them is using a Vexlar, or a camera.

They shut off here too but a lot of it has to do with the water dropping. Mississippi is going down a little each day here now, and the barometric pressure is fairly high, it just shut right off.

I can tell you that this year is the first time I have ever witnessed in my life the gills staying so tightly grouped. There's a couple spots up here I watched guys catch fish in a 5 foot radius. No one else catching a thing, they move closer and closer and still cant get nothing until they get either right smack next to this honey hole or fish right out of it.
I seen this happen on three different spots so far, all 5 or more miles apart
I talked to a guy at work today that said he witnessed the same thing a couple different times so far this year, on different bodies of water.
I dont get it

weedwalker · January 24, 2011, 04:40:01 PM

For the couple years I lived in northern Indiana, I used a depth finder to find the fish. I wire 2 6V batteries together for 12V and mounted my transducer to the end of a broomstick. On clean ice you could just walk along with the transducer skimming the top of the ice and find the fish. On snow covered ice, drill a hole and stick it in the water to look down or even sideways to find them. Then just drill over them. Worked great.
The bluegills would always be bunched up deep. And it seemed like the crappie were always at 10' no mater how deep the lake was.

bigben · January 24, 2011, 09:25:12 PM

we just got back from a seminar on ice fishing and I believe dad is gonna buy a vexilar. I learned a good bit and definitely worth the drive. jim do you use a vex? I really don't have a bunch of money to be spending on much more gear.

FinsnFur · January 24, 2011, 10:19:26 PM

I got an old fish finder out in the shop, Weed. You got me to wondering

No I dont own a Vexilar, Ben. I have a buddy that lets me borrow his when I think I need one, but I personally dont think they are worth the money. Especially around here where we ice fish in fairly shallow water. I'd rather not even mess with it.
I used one up in Canada once and loved it up there, but we was in 30 plus feet of water.

weedwalker · January 24, 2011, 11:01:16 PM

The fish finder worked great for me Jim. If you turn the sensitivity up you can see your jig all the way to the fish. I put the main unit in a bucket with the batteries with the transducer wire taped to the broomstick and mounted on the end. If you didn't see a fish straight down in your hole, just look to the sides with it to see them. Then you have to use a lil kentucky windage to figure where you need to drill over top of them from the angle you're looking at them. I used an old Hummingbird flasher style to start with, then upgraded to the LCD screen Hummingbird. They both worked.

FinsnFur · January 25, 2011, 05:21:08 AM

Kentucky windage

5 SHOTS · January 25, 2011, 07:39:16 AM

Quote from: weedwalker on January 24, 2011, 04:40:01 PM
For the couple years I lived in northern Indiana, I used a depth finder to find the fish. I wire 2 6V batteries together for 12V and mounted my transducer to the end of a broomstick. On clean ice you could just walk along with the transducer skimming the top of the ice and find the fish. On snow covered ice, drill a hole and stick it in the water to look down or even sideways to find them. Then just drill over them. Worked great.
The bluegills would always be bunched up deep. And it seemed like the crappie were always at 10' no mater how deep the lake was.

I put a new fish finder on my boat and the old one (still works fine) is now an ice fishing finder. I put the transducer on an old broom handle and power it with a cheap little jump start box from Kmart.

FinsnFur · January 25, 2011, 07:21:44 PM

Let me guess 5shots

......Montana Windage?

bigben · January 26, 2011, 09:39:34 AM

I did end up catching a 12" largemouth yesterday jiggin a kastmaster.

FinsnFur · January 26, 2011, 08:20:28 PM

Did ya keep it?
We cant keep em that small.

bigben · January 27, 2011, 07:45:41 AM

I threw him back. I actually thought it was a left over trout when I first hooked him. it was pretty neat though. I am headed to the same pond we were at last friday. might stay a bit after dark though and see how it is.

bigben · January 27, 2011, 05:25:17 PM

I think I have a flasher now.

we inherited an old boat that had an old flasher unit on it. I got the idea of ripping it off and seeing if it worked. I mean it is free basically. it is a lowrance 2330 a flasher. I understand from researching that they were the cats meow back in the day. I found the transducer which was inside the boat hull and then brought it up home and hooked it up. sure nuff it worked. now I got to clean out the dang hornet nests that is in there and then get it rigged up to fish on the ice with it. I am happier then a dang kid at christmas now.

weedwalker · January 27, 2011, 05:55:50 PM

Them old flashers work great Ben. They are actually better than the new LCDs at finding fish on the bottom.

bigben · January 27, 2011, 06:45:46 PM

I just hope I can get it all cleaned up without damaging a bunch of stuff. there is a lot going on in there.

bigben · January 27, 2011, 06:48:51 PM

thinkin bout making one of these.

weedwalker · January 27, 2011, 08:48:22 PM

I still liked my transducer mounted to a broomstick rather than just dropping it in the hole. I did a LOT of looking sideways on an angle with it. I had my bucket and seat on a home made small sled that I pulled around while looking for the fish.

FinsnFur · January 27, 2011, 08:59:03 PM

I'm assuming with the broom stick you dont leave the transducer in the water at all like you would a Vexilar?
Thats the only way I can get the broom stick to even sound handy, what am I missing?