Ice Fishing Camera Footage

[the11fisherman]

Just going through my ice fishing pictured and videos from the year, and came across this short footage. I have never seen perch this small on my camera before. The hook that I am using is one of the smaller standard ice fishing lures that you can buy at Bass Pro Shop(.75 cm), and it looks pretty big compared to the perch. I also thought it was interesting that they were schooling with a school of spot tail shiners. Once I got a size 20 hook on, I was able to be selective and pull up a bunch of spot tail shiners to freeze and later use for bait. The only thing that surprised me was how small the perch were: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuELzhyXB80 , I was trying to avoid losing my bait as I was taking this footage, but as you can see at the end, a spot tail shiner robbed me of my bait.:angry3:

[fish99]

what was the bait for the spot tails in the video. cheers.

[the11fisherman]

what was the bait for the spot tails in the video. cheers.

I was putting a full maggot onto the tiny hook as if it were a jig body. This is pretty darn hard, but is very effective on catching lots of spot tail shiners if there is a school around. Mind you, that you can go through a lot of maggots doing this. Some burst as your trying to get the hook through the center of it, and the shiners are great at robbing bait.

[fish99]

have a pond behind the house , it has lots of minnows in it would like to get some for bait. thanks I will try the maggots.

[the11fisherman]

have a pond behind the house , it has lots of minnows in it would like to get some for bait. thanks I will try the maggots.

Yep, your welcome. Fishing for minnows can be really amusing even though they do not put up a fight. Rather they almost test your skill of knowing when the right moment is to set the hook. Also it is just a fun way of stocking up on your bait supplies.
If this doesn't work for you, and you still want to get cheap bait... go to Bass Pro Shop, or a Canadian Tire and they normally carry barrel style minnow traps that work really well for 12-15 dollars. I suspend a jig in the trap (as an attractant) and then it really seems to catch them. I've used the minnow traps in all sort of instances, and it works great. But if you have a large catch in numbers (surprisingly often) it takes some time to make sure that you don't have any immature sport fish in the mix (especially perch).

Good luck, and have fun.

[fish99]

will have to try when the ice is off . as its not safe now . thanks for the help. cheers.