Fishing with Piotr

When you go to your local fishing supply store you can be easily over-whelmed by all the different lures that line the aisles. Fishing really is a multi-million dollar business and those lure companies need to keep on coming out with new and exciting products to keep on making a profit and keep you buying. Buying all these products and specific baits for specific conditions can really hit your bottom line. Unless you are an avid angler I would suggest that you don’t necessarily need to go out and buy any lures for your first time fishing. All you will need is some hooks, bobbers, and weights. As for bait try using the most natural thing you can, live minnows.

What do all the lures try to do? They all are attempts to mimic the real thing, the fish’s natural prey, minnows. Professionals can only use artificial baits when they are competing and of course they are sponsored by these multi-million dollar companies so that is what they try to recommend to all anglers. However, if you are a recreational angler or a first timer, a minnow is the perfect way to go. It is also a great way to introduce children to angling. Many kids don’t like that idea of putting a worm on a hook, but baiting a fish always seems to be easier for them to stomach, and it can be very entertaining for them to look in the minnow bucket and see the one or two dozen minnows swimming around.

Minnows can usually be purchased around any major fishing lake. Your best bet is to ask a local and they can usually point you in the right direction. These are usually small mom and pop style shops and if you chat them up you can usually get a little information about where the best places to fish are or at least what seems to be biting. Depending on the bait shop, minnows can often be purchased in different sizes, small, medium, and large and they are usually purchased in one or two dozen. Most bait shops will put your minnows in a plastic bag and they will pump in oxygen to keep the minnows alive, however it is a good idea to have some sort of a bucket with you. There are several types of specifically designed minnow buckets on the market that can be purchased for a few bucks. Some are just buckets, others are buckets with an aerator to pump in oxygen so the minnows can survive longer while others are buckets with perforated holes in them so you can actually put the bucket in the lake where you are fishing in order to let the minnows survive that much longer. Don’t worry, these style of minnow buckets have a trap door that will not allow the minnows to escape.

Minnows are pretty hearty little fish and they will survive quite some time in a bucket or even in the plastic bag that they come in. Of course this all depends on where you store them. If you put them out in the direct sunlight of a hot summers day then they will not survive for long, but if they are kept in a shaded are, or better yet, in the lake where you are fishing, then they can survive all day or even a few days.

There are many ways to bait a minnow. I will cover these ways in a later article/video. However, just to hold you over before then, you can hook a minnow through the nostril, through the back bone, or even through the meaty part of the tail. The idea is to not kill the minnow but to hook it in a way that it will look injured. Fish can’t resist an easy meal like this and will gobble it up. If are lucky enough to get larger minnows make sure that you use a wire or fluorocarbon leader as this can entice a bite from a larger predatory fish with teeth like a pike or walleye. Once the minnow is hooked all you have to do is cast it out there on a bobber and wait for a bite.

Personally I love to fish so I have quite an array of tackle, but I still do use minnows from time to time. If I don’t feel like casting every few seconds or am just relaxing then I will always go for the minnow. The main time I use minnows is when I’m ice fishing. There are many minnow suppliers in and around Lake Simcoe, where I tend to go, and they are readily available. The perch, whitefish and the occasional lake trout love these little guys and by hooking up a minnow it allows me to put my rod down and warm up my hands.

The next time you head out fishing, give your lures a rest and try using the natural prey, minnows.

Now that you’ve learned the basics of ice fishing from my previous article Ice Fishing 101: The Basics, it’s time for some more info on ice fishing. By now you should have purchased, or are thinking about purchasing the basics for ice fishing and it’s time to cover some techniques.

The next thing to consider when you head out is what kind of bait or lure you will need for ice fishing. The easiest way to get started is by using live bait. For this minnows are the preferred bait. They are simple to use, require the least amount of work and technique. The best way to set your rod up for this technique is the drop shot. What you want is to put your minnow in the strike zone. The drop shot is an easy way to get your minnow down to the bottom of the lake where the fish like to hide in the winter. The drop shot consists of a large weight tied to the bottom of your line and then a hook tied about a foot above that. The weight will get your minnow down and will stir up some of the lake bottom making fish curious about what is going on. Fish will naturally be drawn to this as they see the commotion and then hopefully they will sense your minnow and attack. The minnow drop shot technique is easy to set up and easy to fish. Once your weight hits the bottom, you will know this once your line stops spooling out, you just have to leave to minnow down there and wait for a strike. From time to time you can reel up to check on the status of your minnow or attach a new one to keep it alive and fresh. You will know when you get a bite when the tip of your rod starts dipping up and down. At that time what you want to do is reel up a tiny bit to pull up any slack in your line and set the hook by pulling your rod tip straight up. Then all you have to do is reel the fish in.

Other than a minnow you can use a lure. Lures require a little more work than a minnow but can also be very effective. There are a variety of lures you can use but something like this Lindy Darter Lure is a good start.

Lindy Darter Lure – 1/8 oz. – Redtail Expand the bite window with a proven jigging patternDeadly for walleye, bass, pike and other predator fishExcellent under ice and in open waterProduces an erratic, darting action fish can’t resist 9 loud rattles attract fish from distanceKiller high-def holographic finish Complete with premium treble hooks The Lindy Darter Lure is a great vertical jigging pattern designed to expand the walleye bite window so you’re catching all day, not just fishing all day. Complete with killer, high-def holographic finishes and nine super-loud rattles to call fish from a distance, the Lindy Darter Walleye Lure darts around erratically, and at the peak of the jig the Darter quickly turns with a rolling action before naturally swimming back down. Because the Darter is naturally appealing, there is no need to tip the premium trebles with waxies or add attractant to draw strikes through the ice or when vertically jigging in open water.. Lindy® Darter Lure

With its rattles it can cause some commotion under the ice and stir up the fish. With a lure like this you want to pop it through your ice hole and get it close to the bottom. From there you can vertically jig it by pulling your rod up and down about 2 feet every 3-4 seconds. Try to change up your rhythm from time to time to make it seem more natural. If you are in deeper waters your lure will also follow the currents under the ice, so be careful that your lure doesn’t tread too far away from your ice hole or you will have a lot of reeling to do and it may cause you to lose a fish. There are a variety of lures out there for ice fishing. You can also use something like this minnow shiner from Northland Fishing Tackle. You can fish this in the exact same way as the Lindy lure. So try your luck with lures and see if you land something through the hard water.

Northland Fishing Tackle Puppet Minnow – Silver Shiner – 1-1/2” Designed for vertical jigging below a boat or ice hole Swims in a semi-circle when jigged, pumped or dropped on a free-fall Adjustable swimming action Lipstick® wide-angle hooks Tie this puppet on your string and hang on! Northland Fishing Tackle’s Puppet Minnows are some of the most versatile and deadly swimmin’ lures ever developed for vertical jigging below a boat or ice hole! The Puppet Minnow’s hydrodynamic, airplane-style body design allows it to swim in a semi-circle when jigged, pumped or dropped on a free-fall. The versatile Puppet Minnow features an innovative triple threat tie-system which allows anglers to alter the Puppet Minnow’s swimming action in a snap, while the lifelike Baitfish-Image® color schemes entice bone-crushing strikes. Deadly for perch, crappie, walleye, trout and other aggressive predators, so tie on a Puppet Minnow and hang on! Equipped with Northland Fishing Tackle’s ultra-sharp Lip-Stick® Wide-Angle Hooks. . Northland Fishing Tackle Puppet Minnows®

Minnows and lures are effective, but if that does not satisfy your appetite for ice fishing, then you can also use a vertical jigging spoon. Usually when you head out for ice fishing the lures are a lot smaller than when you head out in summer. Here is an example of a vertical jigging lure.

Bass Pro Shops XPS Tungsten Jigging Spoon – 1/2 oz. – Nickel Wherever you find fishermen hauling up fish from their deepwater lairs… wherever anglers make hay by snap-jigging the shallows and ripping the weeds… wherever superior flash, detail and action could make a difference in your catch—that’s where our XPS® Jigging Spoons really shine. These are without a doubt the finest spoons on the planet, with compact precisely shaped bodies, brilliantly detailed lifelike finishes, and 3-D Lazer eyes that scream “Hit me!” You can’t fish ’em wrong—and the fish just plain pound ’em! Discover the joy of fishing with XPS® spoons today! Tungsten is heavier than lead – so these spoons are much smaller than comparable lead spoons, allowing you to “match the hatch” with no loss of sink rate. Classic design with brilliant scale finish.. Bass Pro Shops® XPS® Tungsten Jigging Spoon

So don’t hide inside all winter long and just dream of summer fishing, get out there and hit the ice.

There is a variety of things these days that will catch fish and it all depends on what it is that you’re fishing for. Some people have their favourite lure that seems to catch fish all the time, but truth be told there is no one lure or bait that is best. It all depends on a variety of factors such as what fish you want to catch, the water temp, the clarity of the water, how hungry the fish are, etc etc.

1. Worms

This is the classic bait for pulling in the pan fish all day long and occasionally the big one. If you fish on a worm usually you are a beginner or just out to fish for fun with constant action all day long. Worms can be very productive in all types of water, all times of day, and for a variety of fish. Depending on what lake you’re fishing you can expect to pull in pan fish such as rocky bass, sunfish and perch. However, I’ve also caught largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, catfish, and one of my buddies even caught a pike on a worm to our surprise.

Tip: Keep the box of worms in a cool place. When transporting them keep them in a cooler if possible and when out fishing place them in some shade as direct sunlight will tend to dry them out and kill them, and believe me dead worms can really really stink.

2. Minnows

In terms of use, a minnow is often used exactly the same way as a worm is. You just place it on a hook, through its nostril, and cast it out using a bobber. The action of the minnow on the hook entices the fish to bite. Usually a minnow will yield you a larger fish such as a nice largemouth bass, pike, or walleye, but don’t be surprised if you pull in a rocky bass or two on a small minnow.

You can usually get minnows from a bait shop or you can catch your own using a minnow trap. I will guide you through setting up a minnow trap and the variety of ways you can hook a minnow in this article (minnow 101). You will also want to have a minnow bucket to keep the minnows in water. These traps can be purchased everywhere that they sell fishing equipment.

Tip: Minnows are often caught in streams or shallow water from a variety of lakes. As a result of this, the minnows you buy can be from a completely different lake then the one you are fishing. It is suggested by the Ministry of Natural Resources that if you have left over minnows at days end you shouldn’t just dump them in the lake as they could become an invasive species. Hopefully though you won’t have this problem as the fish love to eat minnows and if they’re biting hard then you’ll quickly run through all your minnows.

3. Lures

Now as I mentioned in my previous articles there is a variety of lures you can use whether you’re shore fishing or on a boat. Lures offer you the advantage of not having to store live bait and they will usually yield you larger fish as they are meant to represent smaller baitfish, frogs, insect, and even mice, the things that the big boys like to eat.

There are a variety of lures you can use from crank baits, twitch baits, top water lures, all the soft plastic baits, spinner baits, swim baits, and spoons. I will cover each of these baits and how and where to fish them in articles to follow. In most tournaments the pros can only use artificial means to catch fish, live bait is not allowed, and as you will see if you check out pictures from the internet on tournament fish, lures can be an extremely productive way of landing big fish.

4. Leeches

I have never been a big fan of leeches simply because I found that small pan fish will go for leeches just as aggressively as they will for a worm and they can be more expensive than worms. You can try using leeches as an alternative to worms and see if they work better for you. These are not always available at bait shops so you may have to look around to find them.

Tip: When attaching a leech to your hook, let them grab onto your nail with their sucker, I usually used by thumb nail. This way they won’t start sucking your blood like a vampire and you’ll be able to attach them to your hook no problem.

5. Bread-balls

Bread balls are used mainly for catching vegetarian fish, that’s right not all fish are meat-eaters. They can be very productive when catching carp which can tend to grow quite large and be a great fighting fish. I tend to use bread-balls with the exactly same set up as I do for worms. Simply put a nugget of the bread ball on your hook and you’re good to go.

To make bread balls is very easy. Simply take a potato and nuke it (microwave) for 5 minutes, or until it is soft in the middle when you poke with a knife. Once it cools cut it open and scoop out the middle flesh of the potato. Take that flesh and mix it with a slice or two of bread, Wonder-bread works great for this. Start mashing it together with your hands until you form a sort of doug. If need be you may want to add some water to the mix to get the dough like consistency. You can rip little chunks of the dough, place it on your hook, and you’re good to go.

6. Other bait

If you’re squeamish of worms or minnows you can use a cut up hotdog to catch pan fish. Small chunks on your hook will entice the fish, as hot dogs usually are jam packed with goodness and vitamins that can stink a lot and entice the fish to bite.

Another alternative to the bread-balls for the veggie fish is corn. You can attach kernels onto your hook and wait for the action. This has worked for me in the past but I always found that live bait or lures are the way to go.