Some Ice-Fishing Tricks To Try

It doesn't always require a storm to slow down ice fishing. At times, fish can easily go off their feeding routine.

There are several tricks that can help change poor fishing to good. The first trick is to find any green weed beds, and fish near them. The weeds provide some extra oxygen, cover and forage fish for the larger game fish to feed on.

One trick I learned many years ago is to take a plastic snow shovel out fishing. Sure, you'll build up a sweat using it but clearing snow away from an ice hole will allow more sunlight to filter through the ice. Many lakes have little snow on them although we picked up a couple of inches last night and this morning,

Some friends shovel off a 15-foot by 15-foot area around each ice hole, and then drill five or six holes fairly close to each other. Once anglers begin to connect the dots of each ice hole, a great deal more sunlight will reach the weeds. This can stimulate a bit more activity and improve the appetites of bluegills, sunfish and yellow perch. The same trick can work wherever antlers put out tip-ups for northern pike,

Yeah, yeah, I know how much work shoveling is. I can promise you it is not nearly as difficult as shoveling my front and back decks whenever it dumps a load of snow on us. Besides, there was so much wind on over the weekend that it scoured much of the snow off many area lakes.

Try to clear away the snow, and drill ice holes near the weed beds. Sunlight over weed beds can trigger more action.

Casey Richey with a pike from Platte Lake.

Another suggestion is to stay as far away from other fishermen as possible. Ice fishing often means that fish are feeding very little, and excessive noise can spook them. I've watched people walk up to an area where I'm fishing and doing well on panfish, and they decide if I'm catching fish, they may as well join me. Ice fishermen are gregarious souls.

The power auger roars into life, ice chips fly, they ram the spinning auger up and down a dozen times to make sure the hole is even larger than it needs to be, and begin unloading their ice sled. The bait bucket clatters to the ice, they wait until they are ready to start fishing, and then auger another hole almost all the way through and leave the power auger standing upright in it.

Ten minutes of augering holes, banging around, and then they start fishing. By this time, all the commotion and noise has driven the fish far away from my hole and theirs.

Did you ever try talking to these guys? It's something like talking to the closest tree. They don't understand that being as quiet as possible is part of how winter ice fishermen should be.

Drill most of the holes you'll need in one drilling session.

It's true that we must auger holes, but we try to drill as many holes as we need as fast as possible, and then scoop out the ice chips and start moving quietly from hole. It usually takes several minutes before the fish start to bite, but a quiet approach can pay big dividends.

Another ice fishing trick to try is to go fine, go small, and use less bait but change it more often. Instead of four-pound line, try switching to one- or two-pound line.

I've gone from a 1/32-ounce to a 1/64-ounce ice fishing fly or jig. A fat wax worm may be too large so I'll try wigglers or make the size of the wax worm smaller by cutting it in half. It's a messy job, and difficult to do, but try to make the bait smaller. Using a 1/64-ounce ice jig will make using a smaller bait mandatory.

Learn how to "shiver" your baited ice fly or jig for panfish.

One last tip is to barely wiggle the baited ice jig. Don't even try to move it up and down an inch. Instead, just try to wiggle it sideways. That a;sp is hard to do, but a wiggling lure often will out-perform a more vigorous up-and-down action.

Late-season panfish are known for being hard to catch. That is because many anglers try to use the same methods they used on first-ice, and that just doesn't work very well.

When weather and ice conditions change, ice fisherman must follow suit. It means changing to suit the existing conditions, and it means being on the move at all times.

Do it right, and you'll catch more fish. Do it wrong, and you can commiserate with all the other fisherman who are unwilling to change their tactics as we move deeper into the ice-fishing season.

Posted via email from Dave Richey Outdoors