The Compleat Idiot's Guide to Hard Water Fishing

[David Churbuck]

Okay, it's the dumb questions that are the best ones, right?

With that in mind, let me be the first to step forward and admit: "How do you ice fish?"

One. Find a lake or pond. Two: make sure it is sufficiently frozen. Three: chop a hole. Four drop a hook and line through the hole, using some form of bait or lure. Five: catch fish.

As I understand it. I need:
1. A valid license.
2. I can fish 5 things simultaneously: four tip-ups or ice traps, and one rod; or five tip ups.

How does one rig a tip up? I know how to set the flag. But what about the terminal tackle? How much of a leader? Hook type? Weight? What's the deal with setting depths? The tiny little bobber things for indicating depths?

Bait: chubs vs. shiners vs maggots?

How do you "reel" in the fish with a tip-up?

Jigs? What type of jig? How does one "jig", how deep, what motion? What is the leader, swivel, weight deal for jigging?

Holes? What's the etiquette of using old holes? Best way -- in lieu of an auger -- to make a new hole?

Where to place holes?

Best beverage for ice fishing?

Thanks in advance. There's been so little frozen water on the Cape the past decade that I have to admit to only one ice fishing experience in my life and that was as a ten-year old kid in Georgetown, Mass in the 60s. And we didn't catch a thing.

DCC

[bdowning]

For tip-up rigging, I use dacron or squidding running line of 100 yds, ending in a small barrel swivel. To the swivel I attach a mono leader, except for pike where I use wire. The size of & length the leader is not that critical, although I go with a longer and lighter one for trout typically (maybe 5-10 feet of 6 or 8 lb test). Hooks, I use anywhere from a size 1/0 to 2 for pike, 2-6 for other warm water fish, and 6-8 for trout and salmon. All baitholder or live bait short shank type. Weight, as little as needed to sink the bait to the bottom, typically a split shot or two does it. For "sounding" the bottom, you can buy 1 oz weights with an alligator clip on them that you attach to the hook and then lower to the bottom. Once on the bottom, you can clip a tiny bobber or float-toothpick combo to the line so you know how far to lower the bait again to hit bottom. Usually you can get sounding weights and ice fishing markers at tackle shops. You can also thread the running line through a button and use that as a marker, but I don't like them because they tend to foul on the line when you get a hit.

Bait: chubs or pinhead minnows or mealworms for trout, and shiners for everything else. PowerBait is killer for trout although not considered sporting by some.

Reeling in: Don't bother. When you get a hit and the spool runs for a bit, pull the tip up out and grab the line. Pull up sharply to set hook and handline the fish in. If it's big, let the fish run and apply your own drag (hand pressure) as needed. Then hand over hand again. It's kind of a throwback to stone-age fishing techniques but it works surprisingly well.

Jigs: I use a homemade jigging stick, but any midget rod will do. I drop the jig to the bottom and very slowly raise and lower the stick a few inches. If there's a school of perch there, that's usually all that's needed. If not, reel up a few feet and repeat until you get to the surface. Sometimes a faster jigging motion works better, so experiment. I use very small swedish pimples, fjord spoons and Kastmasters. No leader, 6 to 8 lb mono, direct tie to lure, no additional weight.

Old holes: If no one's in the vicinity, I re-use them. If someone's nearby I ask. However, they invariably refreeze over night, so you'll usually have to rechip them. A chipping bar is sufficient for this; tackle shops sell them for 35 bucks or so. Also, a ladle to clear the chipped ice out of the hole is helpful.

Hole placement: Go to the Mass DFW site and download a bathymetric map of the pond, if there is one. Set your tipups first across a dropoff from very shallow to deep water if possible. A set your baits at various depths as well. You'll probably notice that you keep getting fish at the same 1 or 2 tipups. That's usually a signal to move some of your tipups in the vicinity of the productive tipup OR to just pull up the tip up, drill more holes, and jig the area thoroughly.

In general, keep moving and vary depths until you get action, then milk the action at that spot before moving on.

Beverage: Coffee or water (I'm a teetotaller ;-)).

-bd

[David Churbuck]

-BD
You're the man!
I wish I had known half of the valuable tips you just gave at noon today, when I hit the ice with my son, daughter, nephew and dog.

It was raining/snowing/sleeting/hailing with 45 mph winds forecast, but hey, the only way to deal with winter is to embrace it, right?

So I commandeered one of the kid's plastic sleds and loaded it with four tip-ups, a jigging rod, a borrowed ice auger (manual), a small barbeque grill, bag of charcoal, lighter fluid, lighter, bait bucket filled with chubs, tackle box, eight hot dogs, eight linguica hot dogs, hot dog rolls, squeeze bottle of mustard, and a six pack of Coke.

Finally get to Lovell's Pond -- which is one of the closest to my house here in Cotuit -- and where I usually do my grand total of three or four freshwater fishing trips every March when I can't stand the cabin fever any longer and need to justify the $28 I spend on a fishing license.

Anyway, we get to the pond in a driving rain squall, and there are at least four other hardcore ice fisherpeople on the ice near the boat ramp. So we go to the other side of the pond, park, and drag all the gear over the beach and out onto the very wet, very slippery ice.

It's almost black ice and the kids get freaked out, convinced at any minute that they're going to slip through. The dog is in low-crawl mode. These are Cape Cod kids -- not northern Vermonters -- so frozen ponds are a novelty, not a frequent occurrance these last ten years. It's a novelty for me too. Suddenly I'm not limited to how deep I can wade before the pond goes over the lip of my waders. I can go anywhere. It is a frightening thought. Where to drill the holes?

I look out at the ice and think a "bathymetric map of the pond" would be a good idea next time.

There are lots of old frozen over holes, but I grind new ones through the foot of ice in very short time with the auger, and decide to make a box, about 100 feet on each side, with a fifth hole in the middle. Get all the holes drilled, then start rigging tip-ups. Not too hard, but I used way too much weight -- 1 oz. rubber-cores -- so it was hard to get the flags set without the thing tripping and zinging down to the bottom. Split shot is how I'll go next time. Thanks for the leader tips. I was fishing way to short. Essentially two feet of 12 lb. test snelled onto #4 Gamasaktu Octopus hooks perfection looped onto the dacron.

15 minutes and the corners of the square are loaded. I light the grill (not easy in the wind), and the kids, soaked as they are, are saying, "This is pretty cool." Fire and ice. Can't get more basic than that.

One tip-up pops up and the crowd goes wild. False alarm.

It's getting windy and then windier. My glasses frost over. Nephew soaks mittens (but I have spare pair!). Dog has complete freakout and begins to sprint in circles and manages to find the center hole, plunging in face first (the dog has the dimensions of a dachsund, but the hair of a sheep dog) and almost going all the way in. We get the dog out of the 8" hole. Dog freezes into a Wolfman Jack pompadour kind of look. Very funny.

Another tip-up goes off. The crowd goes wild. I look in the hole, the line is slanting off to one side. This is a good sign I think. I tug the line, it tugs back. Hand over hand and up comes a nice yellow perch.

At that moment the day became a total, complete, utter success. We are on ice. We have pulled a fish out of a hole in the ice. Therefore we are icefishermen and we know what we are doing.

So we celebrate by compassionately letting the perch go back in the hole and then by cooking eight hotdogs and eight linguica hot dogs and eating them all -- the four of us -- in fifteen minutes. The dog gets some and runs in circles again.

The grill is melting a hole in the ice. Will it melt through? This is debated for some time.

No more tip-ups go off. Jigging in center dog-hole yields nothing. A few more holes are drilled and tip-ups are relocated, but still, no more tip-ups go off.

Two hours standing in the rain, and finally, the first kid asks the Question that endeth all fishing expeditions:

"When can we go home?"

I start winding in tip-ups. The surviving chubs are returned to the icy deep, the grill is dumped and makes impressive steam clouds. All is loaded back in the sled, back in the car, and we go home, light a fire, warm up some chicken gumbo, and change into dry clothing.

Life is good. Winter has been stared in the face, embraced, and beaten.

The best part was the question asked tonight after dinner: "When can we go ice fishing again?"

Never thought I hoped it would get cold again and stay that way.

[SamRiley]

You've got the bug for sure Dave. Great family sport to get through the winter. Next time you could bring skates for the kids to keep them busy on slow flag days. With 12" of black ice your season should be a long one

May your auger stay sharp and your flags fly,
Sam

[BobG]

Dave,

Bill gave you excellent advice!
As an 'ol ice fisher,an myself, i was going to chime in, but there was simply nothing to add. He covered it all, and well.

But i'll tell you dave, for your first time out, you more or less got a good taste of what it all about.
Full grown men, kids and dogs, standing around on a frozen lake, catching small pickerel and perch.
The highlight of any day on the ice is often the food which tradition dictates MUST be cooked over an open fire, on the ice.
believe it or not, sometimes i've heard that guys when the fishing is occasionally slow.

[bdowning]

Glad I could be of help. I've only been able to get out once this season, so my "ice fishing" has mostly consisted of reading other people's reports .

One other tip, which will probably rile the purists (if there is such a thing in ice fishing). If you have an electronic fishfinder, try sticking the transducer in each hole. It's an easy way to find schooling fish and their depth, especially perch, which you can then jig up.

-bd

[Bob Parsons]

Dave glad you got something. There are some nice perch in lovells which is why I think a bunch of us fishing could catch enough for a perch fry.

Don't worry about the 2' leaders, in a pinch I've caught fish when tied directly to the dacron.

[Yozuri-Man]

dave,

sounds like you did ok. My usual goal is 1 fish. It's always good when it comes within the first 1hr after setup. I went to Hamblin and got a brownie(~13") and a ~2lb smallie in a few hrs early saturday.

A few tips:
Make a depth finder. I use string on an old spool rigged up with a winder and marked off every 5 ft with a 4oz weight. Getting different depths for each hole is important in visualizing the bottom structure. Especially for cold water species like trout/salmon which criuse these drop offs looking for smelt/bait.

I like flourocarbon for a leader. 2-3ft. Reason being that it can be straightened out easier than mono. Small hooks are critical. Size 6 is perfect, just big enough to sitck behind a dorsal. But 4's are good for bass,(I usually target salmonids).

And try not to hurry a fish up the hole. Usually the fun begins as that swivel and leader appear and re-appear and the fish goes side to side. Always the worst when seeing a salmon down there that refuses to come up head first !!!

I hope there's still good ice this weekend!!

[David Churbuck]

Two stalwart men of the ice. Taken 15 seconds before the question was asked: "When are we going home?"

[PeteV]

Dave, This my routine ....its a little unorthodox from a pure fishing perspective.

STEP 1, collect the kids & dog , load em in truck
STEP 2, Find a Lake not too populated, surrounded by some woods & were people don't complain about your kids or dog (this gets tougher every year)
STEP 3, Find a decent spot & drop your stuff on the lake.
STEP 4, go in the woods and ask your kids to start collecting dry branches and make a pile on the Ice.
STEP 5, while kids are collecting branches you start digging holes in the ice. When hole is dug then yell to kids to come over and help you pick the shiner for baiting the first trap. when done send kids to collect more wood.
Repeat step 5 until enough wood is collected.
STEP 6, Start a fire. tell kids to go back in the woods and find a branch suitable for first roasting Hotdogs & then switching over to marshmellows.
STEP 7, If all traps are set and the fire is roaring & hotdogs/ marshmellows have been munched then its time to either start work on a snowman or a snow fort.
If there is no snow on the ice then you can break out the skates and go skating.

One side note: every now and then while your doing this stuff a Flag will pop. if that happens you tell the kids. "Hey!!! A FLAG!!!!" Then your run like crazy and check it out. every now and then there is a fish at the end.

My Girls love it ...and believe it or not I've never heard them once complain about the cold. I'm suprised that they actually say they think its one of their favorite winter activities.
I figured it would take a backseat to snowboarding or other girlie things...

Goodluck,

PeteV

[Yozuri-Man]

is it legal in mass to build fires on the ice..?? I know in Maine it is very much illegal.

[Bob Parsons]

I see them often enough. And even had one myself.

It appears the epo made a couple guys put out their fire. but since the left the ice they might not have had licenses in the first place. One could always calle the local fire department in the town they plan to fish.