ice fishing

[bigben]

When I was younger I used to go ice fishing with dad on a local lake but usually fished for only trout.  Dad would be sitting on a bucket jiggin a castmaster or a swedish pimple and I was supposed to be watchin the tip ups.  I would do that for about a hour and then I would go messin around on the ice like any kid does after their attention span dwindled.  I haven't been ice fishing in atleast 10 years might have been longer.  what sparked my interest was earlier this summer I was telling a co worker about some crappie and bluegill I had been catchin in the local creek.  He started tellin me about his adventures with his brother ice fishin a local lake for pretty much anything that would bite. 

so now that fur season is kinda wrappin up and nothing is really in to hunt I have turned my attention to ice fishing.  I dug the old wooden box with runners on out of the shed and took inventory yesterday.  I have three jigging rods and a ton of tip ups in the box along with two strainers and a hand auger.  Now I have a few lakes in driving distance of me.  I have a ton more farm ponds in the area I can fish as well.

on the way home from hunting yesterday I stopped at a sportsmans liquidation store and picked up one of these for 5 bux.



and a ultra light eagle claw ice fishing rod for 15bux. 

as you can imagine the line on all the ice fishing equipment is pretty much shot.  memory out the rear and it needs replaced anyhow.  I picked up a 8,000 yd spool of 6lb line for 10bux for to fill my other rods and was wondering if this would work on the tipups and the jiggin rods.  also what is the tackle and techniques for fishing through the ice for panfish?  the fish I will mostly be targeting is going to be bluegills and trout.  but I have lakes that have it all in driving distance.  one that is extremely big is lake marburg. 

Now my biggest problem is where do I start?  when I fished with dad we always fished were we did well out of the boat.  we never moved just fished that spot.  sometimes we would move to one other spot but it always got hit hard because it was the easiest spot to get to from the parking lot.  the lake that we ice fished is now drained for em to do work on the dam breast.  I do not really know depths and cannot spend much money on a bunch of gear.  I do have a fish finder that I tie on the end of a line and pitch out during summer.  I use it to find structure on the river for catfish while catfishing from the bank.  it wouldnt be hard to just use that for depth and to see if fish are down there.  but I still need to drill a hole.  I could as well just walk till I find a bunch of old holes that were drilled in the ice before?  But would rather know kinda what I am doing. 

Also what kind of bait?  when we fished before we used power bait in various flavors and colors on the tipups and then like I said earlier dad would be jiggin a spoon of some sort.  I cant recall what worked better though.  I have been reading a bit on the subject and have seen where some are using minnies, grubs, wax worm tipped jigs, along with all sorts of other darting jig heads.  also what is you jigging technique?  is there a pattern to putting out tipups? 

Thanks for any help you guys can provide.  I got prob a good month and a half till ice gets unsafe.  prob more along the lines of a month but I do not really have anything to do now or scheduled even. 

[Dave]

I've been wanting to do this, too, BB, and will be watching this post.
I don't have an auger, though.  If anyone could give advice on getting through the ice w/something other than an axe?  Digging bar? round pin/heavy hammer?  Something I don't need to spend $ on (I'm cheap).  The ice where I'd like to fish is maybe 4 to 6 inches.
Thanks

[FinsnFur]

You'll probably get different answers from each person that posts to this cause there is no wrong way really.

I use small tear drop jigs for panfish. Which is all I fish for around here in the winter time. A few years ago a bunch of us took a trip to Canada, and Walleye fished in 34 feet of water, which was awesome and we used horizontal jigs, where a tear drop would be considered a vertical jig.
My favorite tear drop...shhhhhhhhh  ....the glow in the dark pictured below. I'm convinced panfish think it's a lightning bug This one has put 34 fillets in my freezer since last week.


Around here the river gets over fished. And because of that pressure it takes a lot of finesse. I see a lot newbies walk out onto the ice with bobbers that you'd use on Lake Michigan fishing for Salmon, and weed eater line on their poles.
I dont use bobbers. I use these spring bobbers cause you can detect the slightest of bites, plus it dont get froze in the hole like a bobber does.
The one below simply goes into the end eyelet and the line runs through it.


The next one down, mounts further back with the line going through and a nibble obviously pulls it down towards the tip of the pole.




What your fishing for kind of dictates the bait you want too, Along with how far along your season you are. Up here we start with wax worms.


Later into the season, late February into March we'll switch to tiny redworms, or fishfly larvae.



Poles...When I went to Canada, I bought some little poles that were much heavier, had reels on them and I installed line counters. I'll grab a pic if you think you need one later as they are out in the garage. But here I just use light short jiggin poles with little stands under them so they are up off the ice and I can watch the spring bobbers.


Some people stand by the hole the whole time and jig real slow with a much longer rod and a similar spring bobber type deal on the end. Actually there's looks more like a twisty tie off a loaf of bread. Much longer then what I use. And they lightly jig the lure down to the bottom and then back up again, over and over and over and over. They move so slow that unless you actually stand there and watch, it doesnt looking like they are even moving.
I cant ice fish like that

I'll jiggle mine and set it back. Once in a while I'll lift it out, and very slowly drop it back in, and I do just fine.
If there's any Crappie where your fishing 90% of your strikes will be while your lowering it. I'm not a Crappie fan and now you know why the others do what they do.

If you toss a wax worm in your hole and watch it sink, there's a good chance it'll get sucked up before it hits the bottom. If you pay close attention to the speed of that free falling waxworm, thats how fast you need to jig up and down if your going to do that. I honestly think the fish can tell if something is free falling or not cause the dumped in waxies ALWAYS get swallowed up, it's a riot to lean over, look down in the hole and watch.

[FinsnFur]

Almost forgot. If you buy an auger and you by anything blue, your buying junk.
It'll cut holes but it';ll kick your arse doing it.

The best auger on the market, came out a few years ago, made by Strikemaster and is called the Lazer®.
Mines out in the truck and I aint going out there to take a pic of that either...right now anyway  but here's a link. http://strikemaster.com/lazer_hand.html

They aint cheap! they run around $80 bucks.
Take care of your blades and dont let just anyone run your auger. I'm very anal with mine and it's because I got tired of buying new blades for it cause some fricken morons like to bang on the last 1/2 inch of ice instead of drilling 
Blades are $30 to $40 bucks a pop!
Stikemaster has an exchange service, if you send in your old blades they will send you a new pair, for $25 but then there's $5 shipping.

And lastly DO NOT ATTEMPT to sharpen your lazer blades yourself. I dont care who you are, or who you talked to, it cannot be done. You even mention the word sharpener near your Lazer auger and you'll ruin the blades.
I spoke with Strikemaster directly on this and they told me themselves that these blades have a three stage edge accomplished during manufacturing.  They cant be sharpened. Exchanged blades get melted down. Which are stainless by the way.

There's is a Lazer blade hand held sharpener for sale in a lot of sporting goods stores for like $8
It's a farse, and when I mentioned it to the guy at Strikmaster he laughed.

[bigben]

where bouts you buyin them thar glow in the dark jigs?  we got a bass pro close by but no decent fishin shops close by.

[bigben]

the auger I have is my fathers.  he made it himself.  not sure if it is the fastest or not but that's what I got.  maybe if I really get into it this year I will buy a better auger for next year.  the season is too short to be buying a bunch of stuff on a impulse buy at this point. 

[FinsnFur]

These are Demons, from JigsandSpins Inc. Which is right across the river from here in Coralville Iowa.
http://www.customjigsandspins.com/icefishing/hardspoons/demon.html
They sell em real cheap on their site, but to avoid waiting and shipping or driving I buy them at Cabelas which is only a half an hour away. Naturally at twice the price.

I use the #12's




I was gonna mention too...depending on what your after, you might find that your 6lb test is a bit heavy. Meaning, it's really hard to hide from these lethargic fish. I use 2lb or 3 lb test at the most.


Edited to add link

[bigben]

I'll have to head to bass pro then on thursday and check out if they have any of them thar demon jigs.  I had been reading and heard of the demons but there are so many different types of jigs and rigs out there.  thanks for narrowing the selection down for me. 

[bigben]

is it really needed to buy ice fishing specific line?  or can I go buy 2lb florocarbon line and be done with it?

[Hawks Feather]

I should have had Jim come and talk at the last Fish and Game meeting.  He would have done great.

Jerry

[FinsnFur]

is it really needed to buy ice fishing specific line?  or can I go buy 2lb florocarbon line and be done with it?

I honestly dont know Ben.
I've never even seen (never looked either) fishing line that was 3lb or less, NOT called ice fishing line. I think if it's that thin it's just called ice fishing line because not many people in their right mind would put it on a spinning reel or a baitcaster.

[bigben]

ok thanks

[pitw]

  not many people in their right mind would put it on a spinning reel.

  You really do enjoy picking on the dumber members, eh .

[Dave]

Jim,
Thanks for taking the time to write it up.  I think I will have to give it a try now that I have specifics on lures and line (I'd probably use minnows, though). 
BTW, what kind of fish did those filets belong to?

[FinsnFur]

A lot of folks up here use Minnows too Dave. But they are fishing for Crappie.

Those fillets belong to mostly Bluegills, which is what I target in the winter. Well......everyone up here calls them Bluegills. CCP called and told me they were Groupers or Rims, or something  But everyone up here calls them bluegills including Fish and Game

[bigben]

well I went to bass pro.  picked a spool of 2lb vanish up because they had no ice fishin line.  then found the ice fishin stuff.  hardly anything there.  I picked up a few moon jigs that glow in the dark.  black and white and chart green and white.  and then picked up some ratfinkees.  no demons there.  but there is another shop I want to stop at on the way home from fishin this weekend.  they might have some. 

[FinsnFur]

Keep us posted.
I'm headed to deeper waters in the morning. Ice on the Mississippi is getting so thick we gotta start walking closer to the channel to find any water.
Couple more weeks and I'll be putting everything away and trying to shoot horny coyotes till March again.

[bigben]

will do jim.  I did pick up some of these in aluma glow. http://www.berkley-fishing.com/products/soft-bait/gulp-alive/fish-fry-gulp-alive and some of these in char color.  http://www.berkley-fishing.com/products/soft-bait/gulp-alive/minnow-gulp-alive and some of these as well. http://www.berkley-fishing.com/products/soft-bait/gulp-alive/maggot-gulp-alive from reading on other boards they are claimin they are better then live.  hard to believe but I figure if it works as good as power bait then so be it.  if they don't work I will report back.

[bigben]

Went fishin this afternoon for a bit with some friends on a farm pond.  Caught 50 between each of us.  I had fun.

[Dave]

Any pics?  Now that Dave/Golfrtrout is done in FLA, I need to keep seein some fishin pics.  I'm guessing all panfish?