Lately I have been seeing some strange behavior...and for some reason I thought of ice fishing. Or maybe it was because our electricity was just out for over 4 days. If you have been out ice fishing recently (or even not so recently), please share your experiences.

It has been a while for me. When I lived in NW Montana I used to do a lot more of it. Usually it would be targeting kokanee, lake whitefish or yellow perch. But sometimes we would go after mackinaw (lake trout), brookies, rainbow and occasionally northern pike.

I never had any specialized ice fishing gear, but made do with shorter spinning rods, an ice spud, axe or borrowed ice auger...a couple of discarded 5-gallon plastic pickle or mayonnaise buckets from the local restaurant.

I still have a couple of vintage 5' Garcia ultralight glass spinning rods that have caught a lot of fish...just feeling a little nostalgic I guess.

I've been ice fishing the about the past 10 years during the Christmas season (used to do it all winter before then for about 30 years), going to back country trout-stocked lakes in eastern Ontario. This involves a 5-15 km snowmobile ride to the lakes via trails.





If the ice is thin enough, I'll use a chisel that's older than me to chip out the holes. If the ice is thicker, then I'll use a motorized auger.



Since the brook trout and splake that I'm targeting are caught in 2-15 feet of water, I use a simple, plastic Teho to jig with Acme Kastmasters, as well as a set line with live bait.



It can get cold out on the lakes and I don't bring an ice hut/shelter, so a nice shore fire for warming up is de rigueur.





The splake are the best eating of the trout in these parts.

great photos all, and I agree with Pete - more on the ice spinning rig.

desmobob, that's a nice one! And rudyc, I'm jealous of your panfish catches.

Those photos bring back memories, especially the chisel. As kids, we used those to chop through 2+ feet of ice; the holes were big enough to fall into. We chiseled out five holes apiece, so it was a lot of work, but fun! I took a high-school friend from the south out once. He got so frustrated with the cold and inadequacy of our small fire that he torched the little lean-to we'd built out of fir boughs -- with me in it! We laughed about that for over 50 years.

I have always wanted to live & fish for a week or two with a buddy of mine in an ice shanty like in "Grumpy Old Men.".

Maybe I'm crazy, but the thought of cooking, eating, sleeping, drinking, maybe watching cartoons all while fishing through a hole in my "living room" floor or getting up at 3:00 when nature calls, then fishing for an hour to be my absolute dream fishing trip of a lifetime.

I have some gear like tip-us and a rods but haven't been out in decades. Like Salvelinus said, it just never gets cold enough where I'm at.

One of these days I need to travel and make my dream a reality....

This gives me a chance to reflect on how things have changed in the ice fishing world over the past 60 years. I started ice fishing around 1955 and as no one in my family ice fished, I had to learn by observing old-timers who were fishing through the ice on the lake where my Grandfather lived. Things were very different then. Most folks sat on a five gallon steel bucket rather than in a comfy “ice shanty” and those few who did have a “shanty” had ones that were homemade of lumber scraps and appeared in every shape, size, and color with a small wood-burning stove inside. Ice fishing rods tended to be a bit longer then and were often made from cut down rods. My own was made from the tip of a bamboo fly rod fitted with a piece of a broom handle as a grip and a couple of nails on which extra line was wound. Sounds crude but at the age of 18, I landed a six and one half pound walleye on the rod while fishing for crappies with small minnows and a tiny cork float. The tussle took quite some time and I received much, unsolicited advice from a gathering crowd of older ice fishermen that surrounded me. I took the fish a short distance to my Grandfather's house and buried it in the snow. Soon a Conservation Officer came by and asked me if I was the one who landed the big walleye everyone was talking about. I said yes, then he asked to see it and measure it. I led him to the fish with my heart in my throat. In Ohio at that time one did not need a fishing license until they turned 18 and I had turned 18 five days earlier but did not buy a fishing license as new ones would be required the 1st of March and the cost was $2.25. I practically blacked out waiting for him to ask to see my license. He did not ask and to this day I have never gone fishing without a valid license. I still get nervous remembering my stress during his examination of the fish!
When I started ice fishing many fellows, including me, used an axe to chop a hole in the ice. This actually works fairly well until water runs into the hole after which every swing splashes ice and water all over the fellow wielding the axe.
By the time I was in high school my fishing partners and I decided to move up in the ice fishing world and procure a “spudbar” which is what ice chisels were called in our area. No one produced or sold them commercially so like most others I had a local welder build one. When I picked up the finished product (the cost was $2) he mentioned that I might want to temper the blade as it was fairly soft iron. I got an old book somewhere that talked about tempering metal. It mentioned that blacksmiths often dipped red hot iron into horse urine to temper it. My High School buddies and I did not have access to a horse but we did have access to plenty of urine. After a “group effort” we had a coffee can full and built a wood fire in a friend's backyard burning barrel. It was a wet, foggy winter day with 6 inches of wet snow on the ground and the temperature was around 40 degrees. After heating the business end of the “spudbar” to a bright cherry red, 4 or 5 of us stood around in a tight circle to watch the red hot iron plunge into our “tempering agent”. We were instantly enveloped in an acrid smelling fog that remains sharp in my mind to this day. This was followed shortly thereafter by the mother of the household coming out of the back door and asking in loud and agitated terms. “What the H*** is going on out here?”
Later I moved to Michigan and the hard winters of the 70's brought on as much as 20+ inches of ice. Time to buy one of those new Swedish spoon-shaped augers. It worked great as long as it was kept sharp and not abused. I quit Ice fishing about 20 years ago and by then most folks had moved on to the drill style of hand-operated ice auger as one didn't need to stop and clean out the hole periodically while drilling, as was required with the Swedish Spoon.
Today it seems that most would not think of going ice fishing without a snowmobile or 4-wheeler and a power auger, to say nothing of a collapsible shelter. It worries me that youngsters today get the impression that one cannot go fishing without a large “bassboat” powered by an over-sized engine or that all this mechanized equipment is necessary to go fishing through the ice. For me the charm of ice fishing is being that lone fisherman walking across a snow-covered lake, dragging a small sled behind containing everything I am going to need, and hearing only the soft crunch of snow beneath my feet.

Beautiful. It kind of makes me sad that I have never done this. Someday.

thanks Bill.. great stories..

my one experience with ice fishing, we took the Scouts out to Antero Res. It turned out to be the weekend after a fishing tournament and all the fish were sulking. Temperatures were in the single digits, which didn't help. We saw a few trout swim by our lures. The most excitement was firing up the powered augers and drilling holes.. the boys were good sports luckily.

I've ice-fished only once in Colorado as well. Not my cup of tea. Ice is too thin, and with the wind heaving and buckling it the sound of cracking kept me jumpy all day. This was close by Spinney, on Eleven Mile Reservoir. In my youth I fished on ice over two feet thick -- that's comfortable. As LeoCreek observes, on impoundments there's the issue of water drawdown in winter, creating an air gap and therefore unsupported ice. Scary.

I'm retired from ice fishing. Too cold for me. Now I save up money for an annual bonefish trip in the winter instead.

yes, ice fishing (and nordic skiing) get us through the New England winters. Unfortunately, we have been ice starved in CT. (so far) this season. It has turned cold though and we are hopeful that the lakes and ponds become safe again to walk on. Ice fishing is huge in CT and throughout New England. The latest cold snap has included very windy conditions which has hampered the big lakes from locking up. We remain hopeful to get a couple of weeks on the ice before the big thaw and spring. Flag up!