Hey folks.
Now that my wife and kids are on a three week vacation (dropped them at the airport this morning) I am going to take advantage of the new "flexible" schedule! Don't get me wrong, I miss them already...but you know how it goes.

I got out tonight on a local lake and got skunked....but it was nice to be out on the ice fishing.

Which brings me to this question(s). I have really not spent too much time out on the ice, especially the last bunch of years. I grew up doing it, but kinda strayed a bit. What I learned about tactics was fairly limited, but we caught plenty of fish and had fun.

I have a couple of passable rods. An ultra light... 24" solid graphite and rated to 4lb line, and a medium action "walleye" rod , 32", solid 4-8lb line rating and a bit-o-backbone. I haven't quite decided on a sonar/flasher yet....but won't be untill spring/summer anyway.
I have my 7" hand auger, a five gallon bucket and a dipper. I have usually fished smallish jigs and jigging spoons with waxies, and the occasional fathead minnow. Like I said, it's been a while.... I still tie a bank sinker to the line and drop it down the hole to judge my depth and then look down to see if there are weeds and if they are still green.

For those of you who regularly hit the hard water....what do you consider your basic kit in terms of terminal tackle, jig assortments....junk like that. Any tips for presentation for your favorite species?

Thanks

I keep a light spinning combo rigged with what I call a "waxie-dropper rig" all winter. It is a small jigging spoon (usually a forage minnow) with no hook, and a 6-8" piece of line tied to the split-ring with a very small teardrop ice fly below that. Tip the ice fly with a waxie or alf a waxie. This rig sinks readily and keeps your line tight, so you can effectively present a very tiny offering. Great for bluegills, crapies, trout, ciscos, etc. Just jig it a little, then hold steady and watch your rod tip for a very light bite. Jiggle, jiggle, jiggle, hold....it's much easier to know when to jig and when to hold if you are using a flasher, but should work without one too. I'd say that once you find the level the fish are at, mark your line with a bobber stop or sharpie so you can get right back on them. ~andy

They make clip on weights that clip on your lure for easier bobber set-up and bottom location. For walleye and gamefish, you cant go wrong with jigging rapalas and buckshot jigging spoons. I tip them with a fathead head or whole minnow. Keep good contact with the bottom most of the time. Always beat the bottom with the spoon, from time to time. It tends to draw curious fish in for a closer look. Try to fish near some type of structure or point.

Your panfish stuff is simple. Keep it small... 2 or 4lb test is all you need. Small jigs/ice flies, spring bobbers or smaller floats. Less is better, especially this time of year. And if your not catching, move around a lot. I usually try to punch at least 6 holes when I try an area. Look for live, green weeds for the most active panfish under the ice.

And if all else fails, hit the St. Croix river near Bayport and catch all sorts of stuff pretty much anywhere. Use your walleye gear out there for best results.

Eric, a color flasher is a must!!!!

All species --Jig heads in various sizes all the way down to micros.As well a plane hooks.
Walleyes,perch, bass and panfish --A varity of jigging spoons in natural and glow colors.
Panfish-- Heavy for weight panfish type jigs. Both vertical and Horizantal.

Set Lines -- ice buster bobbers various sizes.


Keep you eyes out for a used power auger. An auger will make it easy to move. It's hard to move whith a hand auger when the ice gets much over a foot thick.

Shelter is nice when its windy and cold. Also for privacy when your on fish. A lantern will heat a small shelter and provide light.

Also I hope you family has a safe trip.

Having a flasher will help you tremendously, especially for locating fish, determining if weeds are present, and what kind of substrate the bottom consists of. My basic setup is consists of two rods. One is the medium light searching rod, where I have tied on a heavy for it's size jig or a jigging spoon. I use this setup to get down to the desired depth quick, to see if any fish are active. The last couple years, an angel eye jr or a rattling varmit has served this purpose exceptionally well. The purpose of this setup is to be able to cover a lot of water quick, to locate schools, especially for species like tullibee and crappies, that tend to migrate. With this setup, if fish are present they will show up on my flasher. From there, you will be able to determine what kind of biting modd the fish are in. They may be aggresive and hit your jigging spoon all day long. If not, then I go to my my other setup, usally a light jig like a genz bug. This is basically a glorified glow jig head, with an offset hook of 45 degrees. I can tip it with finesse plastics, waxies, minnows, etc. It is very versatile. This is usually tied on a medium light rod. If the bite is really tough, I will tie it on my spring bobber rod, for detecting ultra light bites.

You can buy all the jigs you want until you turn blue. Look for equipment that can be versatile and used for multi species action. I know guys like using chubby darters and other jigging rapalas, but $8 lures about the size of a peanut is criminal. I caught fish side by side my buddy using a chubby darter with a $2 jigging spoon. It's all about presentation...

I actually use beadhead nymphs a lot for ice fishing, instead of buying ice flies. They work great. I know Andy ties some kind of ice fly too.

I would use my nymphs too, but they would just get too beat up. There's enough abuse on the metal spoons as it is. Great tip though, one I overlooked of course.

I can tolerate the cold quite well, so when it comes down to choosing between the "luxury items", I would personally put it in the order of - power auger > flasher/electronics > portable shelter. It's a tough decision between power auger and electronics. In the end I think that I would rather fish blindly but have the option of moving a lot, than having the electronics and knowing that there are no fish below but being too tired to drill more holes to find them. But you didn't really ask about that, so...

As far as lures go, a few jigging spoons, jigging rapalas, and basic jig heads/tear drops in various sizes make up the most of my ice boxes. I also carry some swivels, snaps, split shots, single hooks, and ice buster bobbers... the usual stuff. Those clip-on depth finder weights work well for setting tip-ups. I also take a good selection of scented plastics - I've found them to out fish bait a lot of times. Tube jigs in particular seem to catch about everything that swims under the ice.

The spoon/dropper rig that Andy mentioned has been deadly on a lot of species for myself as well. And I've had good success using bead head nymphs for trout.

Hard to add to what's already been said I guess. In my opinion ice fishing has come such a long way from the early jiggle stick days. And hey, people were catching fish long before the electronics came along. But, if I were to fish a new lake I would feel naked without my flasher. Really! Drill all the holes you want, if there aint any lines on the flasher I don't drop my bait. Plain and simple.

It would be ideal if you could hook up with a buddy or two that already have the good stuff. I like to have someone follow right behind me with a flasher when I cut holes. When we mark fish we get busy trying to catch them.

But to answer your question about gear....the dropper rig is awesome. Especially in deep water. It takes forever to get a waxie on a tiny little ice jig down 27 fow. The spoon really makes it easy to get it down there fast. I also believe that the spring bobber has been very sucsessful for icing many a panfish for me. Even the upwards bump of a crappie is easily detected.

But for live bait like a fathead, the Ice Buster bobber is the way to go. You can trim them to be almost nuetral boyancy. Sometimes if ya trim them small enough the minnow can actually struggle hard enough to pull it under. Plus you can night fish with a mini glow stick stuffed in the tip. Just poke a hole in the end of it with a tooth pick. Also if you trim to much off, more can be added back on the same way with a toothpick.

Ice fishing is the ultimate for me. I hope you get into some fish while they are gone. Good luck!

This is my first year on the ice, and I've learned quite a bit. For one, as SK Justin said, I would definitely get a power auger before any of the other stuff. Once the ice gets this thick, I pretty much just drill two holes and fish 'em. I moved around a lot more when the ice was 4-6" thick. Hand augers are nice, but wow. I'm out of shape.

I use a pop-up deer blind as a shelter. It's not as good as a proper ice shelter, but it keeps me out of the wind, and it'll do until I can afford a portable (30 or so years from now...).

As for techniques, well... It seems I always start out jigging a minnow head or waxie on a jigging spoon on one rod, and deadstick a rod (baited with a lively minnow on a bare hook) right next to it. I usually catch the bigger fish on the deadstick while I jig. I catch 5" perch with the spoon. If I had a flasher, I'd probably do a lot better. But again, that's at least a few years down the road, and it's not like I'm gonna stay home because I don't have a flasher.

My tackle box has about a half-dozen spoons, lots of #4 and #6 hooks (and smaller), tiny split shot, a couple small jigs, and a few ice buster bobbers. Bait has been fatheads or crappie minnows, and a small container of waxies.

Best of luck to you. I know that some of the Mpls lakes are tough to deal with, but I'd be happy to compare notes on a couple lakes if you PM me.

Ben

I have only been ice fishing for a couple years but I started the same was as you: light rod, medium rod and hand auger.

In order of importance: tip up, spring bobber, and power auger.

You never mentioned having a tip up? I think they are great. When ever I am fishing for pan fish I always set a tip up near by. I don't always catch anything but Bluegills and northers are often found together so why not fish for them both?

Second: A spring bobber. I really like the Thorne bros one I have but anything is better than nothing. With out a good spring bobber it can be near impossible to detect light bites. And a regular bobber can be as good as nothing. I once set a bobber up in the same house as my fishing buddy. He caught 80 fish on his spring bobber, I caught 4 with out one and nothing on my bobber. Never detected a hit.

Third: Beg, borrow or steal a power auger. I went out last night on Como: 20" of ice. 20! For the love of God. That combined with my dull blades (either that we are both out of shape) and me and a friend drilled 5 holes, and we got so tired we were trading off on the same hole!

Thanks a ton! just what I'm looking for. I have some ideas to supplement my jig supply and will for sure try the spoon/waxie rig....hopefully tonight if it's not ten below.
Corey, I did grab my winter "trout" box.... full of scuds, brassies, little black stones and plenty of midges. I figured the brassies would be awesome on a two fly rig.... but it got dark faster than I counted on and I was trying to earn the whereabouts of the supposed fishies....and so stuck with the jigging spoon and waxies deal. (that is one rod with a jigging spoon and the other rod with a small jig and waxie)

At least I have a reason to hit the tackle shop....as I also realized one of my reels had regular 4ln mono from this summer and it didn't perform as well as the ice line in the other.


Hey, do you guys have color preference for time of day, type of water etc? Thinking mostly for gills and crappies...... but what colors work for your favorite species?

thanks again.

For panfish I have been using one jig all year long. Glow white with a pink spot. For walleyes it doesn't matter as much (they are color blind) so I usually go with something with high contrast or glow, or both. Also, for finicky fish I would recommend 2lb line. I have landed 9" sunfish and 14" walleyes on it with no problem.

I got out for two hours tonight. Applied a bit of the info you all offered. Andy, I really like the spoon/jig set up. I did drill about a half dozen holes and moved around a bit, but the fish were not real active and the ice is darn near 24" thick. I had a few small taps.
However, When I was drilling another hole I watched my ultra light rod whip down out of the bucket I had it in and quickly travel to the hole. As I ran to it the real caught on some ice and the fish broke me off. Half the rod was in the hole so I guess luck was with me even if the fish weren't. It hit a bead head pheasant tail with a waxie about nine inches under a small spoon.

It's gonna get cold again in MN.

sounds like you got some excitment tonight! The suspense of the mystery fish is enough to make a man go back to chase the on ethat got away. I don't like leaving unattended rods with the bails closed. I have heard about way too many rods finding their way down a hole. I like to use an ice buster bobber to keep my deadstick jig afloat with the bail open. I just loop the line around the clip hook, and it will stay put. The bobber is mainly there to keep the line from unspooling, and to see if your jig was taken. If a pike takes your rig with the bail open, you'll be abale to get to your rod and not worry about it sliding down the hole to davey jones' locker.

I tend to use glow colors mostly. That said my next three favorite colors are chart chruse (spelling?), green, and GOLD.

9weight wrote:

QUOTE:
I like to use an ice buster bobber to keep my deadstick jig afloat with the bail open.

I do that too. I always have a small neoprene stopper on my line. Another trick is to put an elastic band on the rod grip. Then you can just loop the line in the elastic while keeping your bail open.

thanks for the rubber band tip, that's a good one

I nearly lost a rod down the hole two weeks ago and it was in a rod holder that had stood up to several fish. I was lucky I was standing right next to the rod, I grabbed it just before it went down the hole. Previously I had left the bail closed with some slack in the line. The fish takes the bait, swims a foot and hooks itself -in theory anyway. It has worked for me on small walleyes, but I won't be doing it anymore where there are pike...