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Post 04 Feb 2021, 17:32 • #26 
Master Guide
Joined: 04/12/18
Posts: 457
Like Bill, I started when ice fishing gear was simpler... I used a wooden jigging "rod" which was really just a line-winder with a small extension at one end, cut out of plywood. You were in for a struggle and likely, disappointment, if you hooked a big lake trout while jigging for perch!

If you knew someone who was a metal worker, you could get a nice spud (ice chisel) made up from premium materials. Lots of guys used a spud made with a big old file or rasp, annealed, sharpened and crudely welded to the end of a piece of steel pipe.

Tip-ups were all home-made contraptions of all sorts. Serious ice fishermen built a portable shanty out of scrap building materials. It usually included a small kerosene stove for heat.

The sky is the limit for modern gear, from underwater cameras to GPS-equipped SONAR. But it can still be done the old fashioned way!

I was out today with some current gear... a small flip-over shelter and an older "flasher" type SONAR.



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Post 04 Feb 2021, 19:34 • #27 
Sport
Joined: 05/26/17
Posts: 74
Location: Ottawa, Canada
That's a lovely lake trout, desmobob. Is it stocked or wild?


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Post 05 Feb 2021, 21:28 • #28 
Master Guide
Joined: 04/12/18
Posts: 457
Thanks! It's an all-natural, born in the wild, so fat and full of smelt it looks like it's going to burst, native. :) I released a larger one... I prefer the just-legal size for the table.

My buddies and I were talking about how none of us had ever caught a small (say, under 16") lake trout in that lake. Most of the ones we catch in the lake are above the legal limit of 23" and the ones that aren't are usually within a few inches.

I wrote to the state environmental conservation fisheries guys and the response was that they will readily eat their smaller brothers and sisters, so the little ones try not to frequent the same areas -- especially the mid-water-column areas where the big ones chase the smelt and cisco. Interesting. I still wonder why I haven't caught a little one as bycatch when fishing in other seasons for other species, etc.


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Post 08 Apr 2021, 19:53 • #29 
Sport
Joined: 02/29/20
Posts: 62
Location: SWVA
Love this thread. Thank you all for sharing. Down here in VA it rarely gets cold enough for lakes to freeze. I have a 2 acre bass/bluegill pond out back... It freezes over most winters but only solid enough to walk on once every 4-5 years or so. Maybe I will try "ice fishing" from shore next year by sending a big rock through the ice and then trying to get a jig down through it... Should make for good casting practice anyways. Although that weekend deal in Canada sounds pretty good...


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