Winter is late showing up for us this year, should have a foot of ice by now but it's been in the 40's all week and what we had is getting thinner by the day. I went down to a little lake the other day before it warmed up and caught 15 landlocks, none over 12". Getting me a new popup shanty, old one is about worn out. And bought me a long track snomachine this year for getting into the back country. I bought myself a brand new 10" gas auger last winter on my birthday and found that I love fishing through the bigger holes, not sure how I got along for all these years with the 6" I had before. Found out how to successfully target and catch pike last winter and plan to hunt down a laker this winter. I have a secret honey hole that holds numerous rainbows in the 18"-26" range, just need some safe ice on too of them.

I'm in limbo dang it, too much ice for my boat and not enough for me!

Last weekends action

Nother one from last weekend

If the temps hold here, some can be on the water by this weekend. I'll wait a little longer, but I do have a 3 day trip planned the weekend before Xmas. Never fished rainbows through the ice, bet that is fun. Enjoy!

Went out again today, same place as last time. There are some big artic char in there, I've seen them I just haven't been able to get one on the line. So I strolled out this afternoon with the intention of catching a big char or at least some more landlocks. Drilled my first hole, 6" of ice so we are good there. Scoop the chips out of the hole and walk back to get my popup shanty. Get the shanty out there and attempt to set it up. Damn thing self destructed on me, 4 broken and splintered fiberglass poles ugh! Decide that since I'm there I'll fish anyway, kinda spoiled from fishing in a shanty and don't like to fish when I can't see down the hole without it. Seeing the fish from inside the darkhouse is half the fun for me, it's like tv!

Sat upon my bucket out in the wind for 2 hours trying everything in my tackle box to get something to bite. Managed one landlock, one blackfish (think mini catfish or eelpout), and my first char for this lake! A monster he wasn't! Looked like a mini snake, 9" long and big around as an Oscar Meyer. Turned them all back of course as I hate cleaning fish and don't care to eat trout anyway.

Hit the ice today and found the artic char jackpot. Hooked 7 and landed 5 that were 16" or better. Lost one that had to be leaning hard on 30". Caught most of them on tube jigs in black or pearl but did hit a couple toward dark on a pink and chrome TripleTeaser spoon.
Beautiful colors

Good on you mate! Much prettier than our bounty!

Made it back out to the lake earlier today for the pre thanksgiving bite. Two buddies wanted to go see if they could catch a nice char and one brought his 4yo along to catch landlocks. Hadn't been there 5 minutes when I hooked up with our only good sized fish for the day. 5 minute battle and I was able to ice the big fella for a quick pic before returning him to fight another day. Pink and glow tube jig with a Gamakatsu jig head did the deed.

Yes, but it will take at least 2 months for this end of Lake Erie to freeze.

I can not wait.

Kid - tell me about that little baitcast reel, will they 'cast' or just specialty for ice fishing?

That reel is an old Daiwa ProCaster from the 1990's I bought at a garage sale for $5. When I took it apart to clean it up I realized that there is no plastic in the drivetrain whatsoever. I liked it so much when I cleaned it up and started using it that I've bought a couple more on eBay since. I spool them with 10lb mono and ice fish all winter, when the ice goes out in the spring I swap them onto 7' light action casting rods and use them while trolling for rainbows in the same lakes I fish in the winter.

Fantastic little reels and I plan on keeping them if I move back south to use as bass reels. They hold 125yd of 10lb or 110yd of 12lb and are light as well as low profile, should be perfect flipping reels for fishing rubber worms.

Thanks for info, never knew

I'll land any willin' pickerel hand, over hand with a mono line wrapped on a 1/4" scrap, and sorta tied around a twig.
That is a crude tip up, but, it can still work.


I'm impatient as all get-out.

Ice-fishing?
So you guys really do that and live to tell about it...
What is thick enough ice?

I like a least a foot of SOLID ice, but, folks have gone on less.
Three feet is better still.

This is a friend with his pickerel/walleye.

I used to be spooked about walking on the ice, seeing as how I came from down south when I moved up here. But the stuff is surprisingly strong and there's really not much danger involved if you use some sense. The F&G up here say that 4" is safe for walking, 6" will hold an atv or snomachine, 10" for compact cars, and 14"' is safe for SUVs and trucks. I won't drive my truck on less than 2 feet and like to add about 2" to each of their estimates just to be safe but have no qualms walking out when we have 5-6".

Winters are long up here and the wife isn't always in the mood for romance so we have to find something to occupy our time.

That's my local lake (Pineview Reservoir) one morning last year, showing some gorgeous ice fog at -10�F. After the fog burned off, there was so much microscopic ice that the air sparkled in the sunshine all day. One of the most magical sights I have ever seen.

There are a few fools who venture out on 3" but the saner ones wait for 4" even when alone. Once it passes that, it's pretty safe unless there's an invisible warm spring bubbling up.

Warm boots, good clothes, and some of those little hand warmer packets make ice fishing as enjoyable as summer fishing. The two miserable times of the year here are November - before ice - and March - before open water.

We had a week of below-normal temps in November (down to 11� one morning) but now it's above normal. It's 60� as I type this. We'll be lucky to have safe ice by New Years.

I'm just in from test running my old Eskimo auger, I'm hoping for another year out of it.
Sharp cutters help a lot.

Got out for a short trip last week, only a couple hours before the girls collectively froze out. Had a good solid 10" of ice with 5" of sugar snow on top. Deadsticked shrimp for the most part and didn't have a lot of luck. 4 rainbows, 3@15" and one little fella measuring 9". Pretty fish though and fight like the devils after them.

Gonna hit it again after the first of the year, headed to warmer climes for two weeks starting Friday. Don't catch them all without me boys!

Way to start those girls right! Not sure how old they are, but we fixed a friend of mine's kids 5 and 7 by letting them stay in an ice fishing tent (with a heater) and setting up an underwater camera. I still remember the little guy running out in a t-shirt to tell us that he just saw a REALLY big one!

Well 2 of them are pretty well started, one was my wife and the other my bud's, but we did have their 4 year old Mariah with us. The little gal is practically freeze proof, been fishing with us at -10 and still wanted to play in the snow instead of sit in the shanty next to the heater. She's gotten to where she wants to eat every fish that comes out of the hole though, and she's really hard to tell no she's so darn cute, but her dad has put the kibosh on that lately. A man can only eat so many trout you know!

I don't have a camera but did pick up a Marcum flasher the other week. Wow, what a game changer. No more going in blind. It will read through 3 feet of clear ice they claim so I have gotten to where I won't even drill a hole if I ain't showing fish, just move along and try another spot. Pretty cool.

I have a Marcum Showdown Troller, and it REALLY cuts down on drilling. Carry a bottle of water with you, scrape down to bare ice and then pour a small puddle (an ounce or so) to set the transducer on. (You can't have any air between the 'ducer and the ice.) If the ice is mostly clear, you'll get a fully usable look at the water column. If no fish are showing, move.

I have a vexilar, and it does change how one fishes. If you don't see something in the hole, you can move. The other advantage is that it tells you if something is in the hole and doesn't bite - then you need to change presentation - be it the type of jigging, the type/color of bait, or something. Just wish there was a device to tell you what to change to!

Little help for the ignorant here.
Do the fish taste any different taken from under the ice?

I don't know Louis, I throw about everything I catch back. The only fish I've eaten that I've caught through the ice are pike and burbot. Pike tasted just like they do in the summer and burbot I've never caught except through the ice. I'm not a big fan of trout or char so they all go back down the hole after I take their picture.

I'd say, the fish mostly taste the same.

IIf they freeze on the ice, the hands sure get cold cleaning them.
With the short daylight hours, and cold outside, cleaning them in the kitchen is a bit messy.

Fresh fish caught on the ice are better than those caught during the summer and frozen - especially if they were eaten weeks ago! ;-)

I like thick ice too. Early one season on a local lake we had not quite two feet of really clear ice, you could drive a tank on it. The ice was growing fast and creaking and groaning and cracking like a sumbitch. Every time I was looking away from the truck and the noise peaked I had visions of the old Exploder slowly sinking. Chickened out and picked up an old ATV to putt-putt across the ice. Actually more fun, I like starting by drilling lots of holes and now I can hole-hop without getting off the ATV and if I find a hot hole the fish trap is right behind me. Ultimate in lazy ice fishing.

Kid, you gotta know your lake too. There's one here that's notorious for swallowing vehicles. In a number of places it's springy and that's where the trucks fall through while the rest of the lake has three or so feet of good ice.

Went out on the ice today since I wasn't working. Had a good day by my lonesome, managed to ice 5 nice rainbows and missed 4 more. They wouldn't bite anything but raw shrimp and if you jigged the rod they wouldn't even look at it, picky today.

Caught and released this monster, even hooked him through the mouth!


Here is a nicer fish, had some shoulders on him and stripped line out of my little baitcaster while we did battle. I guessed him around 2 pounds give or take a few ounces.

All of them went back down to fight another day.

The small fish catch happens to the best of us.
The last looks like a good one.