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Post 18 Jan 2021, 12:11 • #1 
Master Guide
Joined: 02/22/07
Posts: 871
Location: Out West
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.


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Post 18 Jan 2021, 14:22 • #2 
Guide
Joined: 02/06/16
Posts: 328
Location: US
Ice fishing can be a cruel mistress. I don't have any kind of shelter, so when I go, I pick my days carefully. No wind and sunny is key. Just won't go if its colder then 20 degrees.

Only been out once this year, to a local park that has two ponds, each of which get 250 brookies every November. I caught 6 pickerel. At I least I know they were native.

That was before we had spring in January.


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Post 19 Jan 2021, 12:51 • #3 
Sport
Joined: 05/26/17
Posts: 74
Location: Ottawa, Canada
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.





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Post 20 Jan 2021, 00:20 • #4 
Master Guide
Joined: 02/22/07
Posts: 871
Location: Out West
Thanks for the replies.

Ruff Hunter: After quite a bit of snow earlier on, it has been warmer than normal for the last 3 weeks here as well.

AlgonquinFan: Enjoyed your pictures. I've never had the opportunity to fish for splake, but from the looks of that fillet, I can imagine they are incredible on the table!


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Post 20 Jan 2021, 08:10 • #5 
Master Guide
Joined: 04/12/18
Posts: 457




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Post 20 Jan 2021, 08:40 • #6 
Guide
Joined: 08/19/16
Posts: 314
Location: Brazil
Now that's a big laker for such a tiny rod and reel. Could you tell us about your rig?


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Post 20 Jan 2021, 10:10 • #7 
Piscator
Joined: 08/10/05
Posts: 19077
Location: downtown Bulverde, Texas
great photos all, and I agree with Pete - more on the ice spinning rig.


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Post 20 Jan 2021, 10:12 • #8 
Sport
Joined: 12/27/18
Posts: 55
Location: US-WI


Yep, lots of ice fishing going on around here. Actually some of the funnest fishing to be had.


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Post 20 Jan 2021, 11:20 • #9 
Sport
Joined: 05/26/17
Posts: 74
Location: Ottawa, Canada
desmobob, that's a nice one! And rudyc, I'm jealous of your panfish catches.


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Post 20 Jan 2021, 15:43 • #10 
Master Guide
Joined: 04/12/18
Posts: 457
PampasPete wrote:
Now that's a big laker for such a tiny rod and reel. Could you tell us about your rig?


I tend to use a light rod/reel combo and 4lb. or 6lb. test even for lakers. And at least half the time, I'm catching them on ultra-light rigs and 2lb. or 4lb. test!

The reason is, I tend to jig for lakers and big yellow perch at the same time. I target 30-35' depths over Nitella beds where the yellow perch are feeding. I jig a tiny rattle spoon or 2-3" glow-in-the-dark drop shot worm about five or six feet above the perch.

This tends to attract only the biggest and most aggressive perch, as well as the lake trout cruising above them. I think the little perch are afraid to come up out of the Nitella to avoid being eaten by the lakers. Guys targeting big lakers usually fish very deep with big lures. I'm after the smaller ones (23" is the minimum legal size on my favorite lake and my favorite eating size). Lake trout that size are still a challenge and a lot of fun on light or ultra-light gear. A ten-pounder can make for some real excitement.

About the only fish I take home to eat all year are the big yellow perch and smaller, just-legal, lake trout I catch through the ice.

Edit to add: I forgot the details of the actual rod/reel. It's not fiberglass. I use mostly 13 Fishing's White Noise or St.Croix Avid ice rods and Pflueger President and HT Accucast (incredible value!) spinning reels


Last edited by desmobob on 21 Jan 2021, 00:07, edited 1 time in total.

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Post 20 Jan 2021, 18:27 • #11 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 02/12/16
Posts: 4093
Location: USA-CO
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.


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Post 20 Jan 2021, 19:06 • #12 
Master Guide
Joined: 08/15/10
Posts: 589
Location: Elizabethtown & Germania, PA
We used to go back in the '70s. Great times. It never gets cold enough anymore in south central PA to get safe ice. Maybe in the "polar vortex" winters but I'm way too old now for that craziness.


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Post 21 Jan 2021, 12:46 • #13 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 12/05/06
Posts: 2086
Location: US-PA
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....


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Post 22 Jan 2021, 21:26 • #14 
Guide
Joined: 03/21/08
Posts: 203
Location: Brampton, Ontario, Canada
Bamboozle, In Ontario we call those ice bungalows and they’re pretty popular around here. I have one booked for March, it’s surprisingly inexpensive, about $150cad/person for a weekend.


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Post 22 Jan 2021, 21:36 • #15 
Sport
Joined: 12/04/11
Posts: 72
Location: US-MI
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.


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Post 23 Jan 2021, 07:34 • #16 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 02/12/16
Posts: 4093
Location: USA-CO
:like


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Post 23 Jan 2021, 09:17 • #17 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 05/22/16
Posts: 1760
Location: SJC
Beautiful. It kind of makes me sad that I have never done this. Someday.


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Post 23 Jan 2021, 09:24 • #18 
Piscator
Joined: 08/10/05
Posts: 19077
Location: downtown Bulverde, Texas
I used to look at ice augers in the Cabelas catalog (way before the Cabelas franchise) - even then I got it about the axe part.
Great post, as always, Bill - thanks for contributing.


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Post 23 Jan 2021, 23:14 • #19 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 07/11/14
Posts: 1784
Location: urban Colorado
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.



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Post 24 Jan 2021, 11:53 • #20 
Master Guide
Joined: 02/22/07
Posts: 871
Location: Out West
Thanks for sharing everyone. I love it.

Speaking of reservoirs and ice fishing, we used to hear the story or "non-urban" legend of 3 guys that drove way out on the ice on Fort Peck Reservoir in a Volkswagen back in the '60's. The story said that these guys setup their chairs, buckets, etc. and then chopped or drilled their holes. Then they discovered that there was no water coming up through the holes, and found that the reservoir had been drawn way down and that the water surface was 100 or 150 feet below the ice. Anyway, apparently the 2 guys that didn't own the car took off on foot towards the shore as fast as they could go, leaving the owner of the Volkswagen to drive it back off the ice by himself...reportedly with the door open and one leg out ready to leap if the ice started cracking.

This was way before the Darwin Awards were ever thought of.

I'm not sure how accurate the details of this story are, and there are probably other ice fishing horror stories out there from around the world.


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Post 24 Jan 2021, 11:55 • #21 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 02/12/16
Posts: 4093
Location: USA-CO
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.


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Post 24 Jan 2021, 15:47 • #22 
Master Guide
Joined: 04/12/18
Posts: 457
I put a 3/4-ton Chevy pickup through the ice on a lake in the Adirondacks many years ago. There were three of us in the cab and it made for some exciting moments for the guy sitting in the middle! :eek I've made it point not to drive on the ice with anything more than a 4-wheeler or snowmobile since then.


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Post 24 Jan 2021, 21:35 • #23 
Emeritus
Joined: 06/10/05
Posts: 612
Location: US-MI
I'm retired from ice fishing. Too cold for me. Now I save up money for an annual bonefish trip in the winter instead.


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Post 26 Jan 2021, 13:46 • #24 
Sport
Joined: 11/30/07
Posts: 99
Location: Twin Cities, Minnesota
If I'm not trout fishing, I'm ice fishing in the winter. I'd get squirrely if I didn't.



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Post 28 Jan 2021, 17:38 • #25 
Guide
Joined: 03/12/15
Posts: 269
Location: US-CT
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!


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