Fishing with Piotr

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.

Trolling is a method used by many anglers to cover a lot of water in hopes of catching one of the larger species of fish such as walleye, musky, or pike. Trolling involves casting your bait and letting the line go out as you slowly putt your boat through the water. By casting your bait out and keeping your bail open you will allow the bait to move out a safe distance away from the wake of your boats motor so as not to spook the fish. Of course, once your bait is about 50-60 metres away you should close your bail just in case a fish bites and to begin your troll. Once your bait is out in the water you can hold your rod or use a rod holder and simply manoeuvre your boat through canals, around structure, or through open waters in hopes of catching a hungry monster. This method is very successful when using larger baits such as large crank baits, large spinner baits, or big spoons. As larger fish species tend to cruise around looking for a quick snack, a well presented bait that is moving through the water with a bit of speed can entice them to bite. By trolling you may not put as many fish in your boat as you would when you are fishing for pan fish but when you do catch a fish using this method it is usually a trophy.

Classic Trolling

Classic Trolling: Side view

 The other method of trolling is to use a trolling motor. Now this method is not “really” considered trolling but it also allows you to cover a lot of water and get into some tight places where fish may be hiding. A trolling motor is an electric motor that attaches either to the bow of your boat or the stern. You will see many professional bass anglers using their trolling motors once they find a place where the fish are biting. By using the trolling motor you can pull up your main engine so that it does not get snagged or damaged on anything and then you can simply manoeuvre your boat in and out of weed pockets or shallow areas, the places where the monsters like to hide. When using a trolling motor you will usually be casting your bait and retrieving it making it a quite different method from the traditional trolling method described previously. The electric trolling motor is also whisper quiet which does not spook the fish and allows you to creep in on them as if you were stalking your prey.

For the traditional trolling methods you can use a trolling plate or even a drift sock on your boat to slow down the speed at which you are travelling. When your main engine is on, even if you are going at a slow speed, your propeller will still create a tunnel of water behind your boat. By using a trolling plate you disperse this “noise” from your propeller and help maintain a calm water zone behind your boat which in turn will not spook the fish. Secondarily the trolling plate allows you to slow your boat down even more so that you can slow the presentation of your bait if the fish are proving to be a bit sluggish. A trolling plate simply attaches in and around your propeller and can be lowered quite easily when you desire to do some trolling or can be easily raised when you wish to get under way. They come in a variety of sizes and materials but it is best to get the largest trolling plate you can afford and one that is made out of metal, not plastic, as the plastic ones have been known to easily break off.

A drift sock can also be used when trolling but it is not as effective as trolling under the power of your main engine. A drift sock is quite simply a large cone shaped device with a hole at the thin end to allow water to pass through. A drift sock is lowered into the water and adds more friction while you are getting pushed around the lake by the wind. This too will allow you to slow down your bait or will allow you to spend more time over certain structure, such as a sunken island or drop off, where the fish will be hanging out.

As mentioned you can troll a large bait behind your boat in order to entice to big boys to bite. Traditionally when trolling you will use a large crank bait that can be either deep diving or shallow diving depending on the depth of the water column that you are fishing and the fish you are targeting or a large spinner bait such as a Musky Killer. You can also use a swim bait or even a spoon when targeting the large fish you can catch when trolling. You would never use a worm and bobber when trolling and jigging is also a bad idea. You can easily get snagged up if you were to troll with any of these methods and it wouldn’t prove to be a very effective way of catching monsters. I will go in greater depth about trolling methods and baits to use in later articles but for now this is just to give you an idea of what trolling is all about and what to use.

Check out some of the maps I have posted and target some of the trolling lines I have outlined. Try your hand at some trolling and don’t forget to get some large baits to target the large varieties of fish you can catch using this method.