Home Forums Fishing Freshwater Any ice fishermen here?

I fish for pan fish with a couple tipups out for predator fish. I mostly fish NWIowa with a few trips to South Dakota and occasionally a trip to Lacrosse WI. We sight fish clear water for blugills and crappies a lot. Super fun when they get picky and you have to do everything exactly right to get a bite. Just wondering what others are chasing.

Mobile ice fishing;

Hard shack out !

Walleyes, awesome. I chase them in the summer a lot. I used to ice fish for them but I usually head home long before they start biting good. Lakes in Iowa that I fish arent big enough to necessitate transportation. On 2000 acres, I can walk. 5000 acres something would be nice but I mostly avoid big lakes unless I can drive out. Plenty of fish in small lakes. Thanks for replying.

Looks good Paul!!!!! Better than my lutefisk!!!

Care to share the lake?

January 7, and the "Understatement of the Year" award has already been wrapped up.

When one chooses their hard water fishing spots are they same general area one would fish in soft water times?

Fish the same areas year after year?

Have never fished hard water so it is all foreign to me!

Eagle Lake, Richard !

Kind of, but not always !

In the mobile shelter photo above, we were fishing a hole I found in the fall. hole is 30-32 feet, all surrounding real estate is 25-20 feet.

I fish reef edges a lot in summer, winter, I'm generally looking for 25-28 feet flats, not far from those reef structures.

Spring ice, fish the spawning areas.

Our Walleye season closes for a month, during the late april, early May spawning period.

NW Ontario is why we drive 13 hours just to get there to play with your fish. Once you've seen fishing in Canada, you say to yourself why bother even fishing here?

Amen Wind!

Actually yes, fish are often very close to the same areas year round because the prey species are in the same areas. The same places year after year is a great question. To some extent yes, it's the same areas. Habitat and habits change so there can be different patterns. Our lakes got zebras so the water clarity is improved and now the weeds are growing deeper so the fish can find food and shelter deeper. We also got curly pond weed which has pissed off all the landowners but the fishing is through the roof. Its basically a hatchery for baby fish. In our lakes, things have never been better.

I'd never drive to Canada to fish. I might for hunting but we have tons of great fishing in the US. Is it better there? of course it is but it's a long darn drive past a ton of fish to get there.

What are you using for sleds? Just bought a 2016 Expedition, upgrading???? for a 1996 Skandic.

The one you can see there is my 2009 Tundra 550 fan, Deb has a 1994 MXZ 470 & the mean machine you can just see, is our Son, Doug's, 2011 Arctic Cat 1100 turbo.

Skandi/tundra/expedition are all excellent ice fishing sleds !

I used to have a '94 Skandic 503 before the tundra.

Great pictures, Paul!

My kid does ok on walleyes.

Seems like one would be better off throwing the keepers in a cooler to keep them unfrozen and easier toclean later.

If you throw them out to freeze, you can wait to clean them at your convenience with little loss in quality.

Thanks Dave, yours too !! Lovin the snow coach !



YES, He does !!!

Been some great weather, for it, since we've had enough ice !!

Couple of days like spring fishing, even.

I fish perch, gills and crappie commercially for something to do in retirement. We can sell our panfish here on Lake Champlain and I go out most days open water and hard water seasons.

Nice one

I leave the ice fishing to my youngest son. He and several friends just got back from Fort Peck Reservoir from their annual 2 or 3 day trip. They spend the night on the ice and usually have good luck. . These three Walleye are all over 29" & over and the Northern is 30+ inches. They use minnows my son catches and sells.

Long armed or not those are some dandy walleye. I usually don’t keep big ones of any species. I make exceptions for walleye and crappie.

Do you know what the forage base is in Fort Peck Reservoir? Those are some of the fattest walleyes that I've ever seen. Smaller heads on them too which means that they are relatively younger fish. I've got a 30 and 32" on the wall from Canada, but while they have huge heads aged by our DNR at 18 plus years old, they look anemic compared to those Fort Peck fish.

I've only gone twice, was working in Northern Utah last year. There are worse places to be fishing at. Mostly perch we caught, but some rainbows and bluegill. Fun experience. Would love to catch a big walleye or pike. Guy that took us lost a rod and reel to a muskie on a different lake a few weeks later.

I think the main forage base in Fort Peck is Ciscoes planted in the 80's as a forage food for the Walleyes and the Lake Trout. Their main food is fish----probably what ever there is available. This group of guys usually catch a few up 14 lbs when they go. They also catch a lot of other species on each trip.
This winter they just about didn't go due to the unseasonably warm weather. He said they had 9" of ice .
I think that biggest, fattest Walleye was 31 1/2" .

Those are some really thick fish. Those walleyes are all over 10 pounds. Great catch!

Dean

that all looks like a great way to spend a cold winter afternoon. i envy you guys up north that get to do that on a regular basis.

Not for the next 2 weeks !

Just like the 70's. damn

I've done OK this winter, but struggled with the walleye. A group of us went cisco fishing this morning and I finally scored a Walter. It's the 4th walleye to be caught in this 80 foot-plus deep hole. Most guys, including us, don't think to look for them this deep around here, preferring to fish the 30-50 foot areas and structure/drop-offs.

We got into some cisco as planned, landing around 50 between all, which was a bit slower than expected, but still fun. Here's yours truly with a decent walleye and a Master Angler cisco.

What do you do with those Cisco? They look a lot like our shad, which are an oily mushy fish we only use for bait.

They're a relative of whitefish, so aside from being a little boney, they're decent eating even though some consider them not fit for food. I like them, but prefer perch, walleye and pike for the table.

The funnest part is that cisco are aggressive and they school, so the action is often fast and frequent. They also fight hard. The 18"-ish cisco fought noticeably harder than the 21"+ walleye did.

This is what we like to catch here in Idaho

Thanks for all the ice fishing photos, brings back great memories. Grew up in central MN and used to go out with my grand father and catch crappies all winter long in the late 60s. Now when I get back I get out with my 80yr dad and we have mixed luck, but still a great time. Headed back in late March for some pan fish. I'm also still looking for my walleye of a lifetime. When I get it I will post it up lol.

Gorgeous spring weekend, up here !!







Loving this new auger !! Weighs 3lbs + drill !

Nice pics. Ice fishing here only on the smaller lakes

I picked up the same auger a month ago. Nice and light. Ive only used on ice up to 6 inches. How is on the foot plus ice?

It's excellent !!

Cuts 30 inches of ice in under 30 seconds.

Got 25 holes out of 1 20v 5ah battery on Saturday too !

***** Granted, it was +3*C

Farewell to the hard shack, for the season;















Joe with sophie, the lap dog !