End Ice Fishing Ignorance

[jpietrzak1979]

I haven't been ice fishing since I was a little kid and all I remember about it is sitting around freezing and catching nothing. I'm interested in breaking out of the winter blues though and trying ice fishing. However when I look at websites and such I cannot seem to get any real information on the basics, such as how deep/far out you want to go for ice fishing, do you jig or let it sit, what does or doesn't work (there is a little about that), etc.
I'm thinking about hitting jackfish lake near stony plain and blind shooting it but it would be great if I could go in for a positive experience. Any advice for a noob would be great, thanks. (also is the ice still safe to walk across on jackfish anyone know?)

[pdfish]

The thing with ice-fishing is that you're limited in the amount of water you can cover vs. open water fishing. That being said, its best to get out and experiment at different depths, different presentations, and so forth. It also helps if you know the lake and have fished it in the summer keeping your eye out for structure that would attract fish. That way its a little easier to start your search when its hard-water season. What are you going to be fishing for at Jackfish? I know the lake pretty well and can probably help. As for ice, I hope you've got a power auger, its over 2 feet thick.

[jpietrzak1979]

I have been there a few times last summer, and notice the shore across from the dock seems to have alot of walleye, we caught six in an hour and the pike seem to be all over. I would go for either I suppose I heard there are large pike in the lake though we only seen 2lbs.
Regardless I was just trying to figure out if they go out deeper when its winter or if they are relatively close to shore still.
No auger but I'm handy with an axe.

[goober]

I suggest finding an auger you can borrow. Look in about 5 - 10 fow for Pike. Try a quick strike rig on a tip up with a smelt as bait. Jig a rattle trap on you ice rod. Using these 2 techniques you should find something.

[pdfish]

No auger but I'm handy with an axe.

Yeah, good luck with that!! Let me know when you get thru, probably sometime in April, oh wait, season's closed then.

[jpietrzak1979]

I'll be there sunday morning, stop by and lend me an auger! That would turn it all into useful criticism :evilgrin: However i did chop through the north sask river ice in about 10 minutes...

[Appletree]

What folks are trying to say (somewhat obliquely) is that chopping through the amount of ice that's on the lakes now really wouldn't be fun at all. Given the current ice thickness, you'd have to make your hole four or five feet wide at the top to allow room to keep swinging by the time you're getting to the bottom. A hole that big is dangerous, as well as a royal pain to fish in. Anyway, all that's to say that you'd do well to find/borrow an auger.

[Cal]

The thing I realy hate about chopping is when you finaly get to that last little bit of ice you inevitably put the blade through the ice and your hole fills up with water but only has a microscopic opening in the bottom. You are then forced to chop it out bigger and spash cold water all over yourself. If I lived in the area I'd loan you an auger. 2' is not bad to drill through with a hand auger in my opinion.

for pike the advice you got was pretty good. If you dont want to make a quick strike rig or buy a tip up cause its the last friggin week of the season
you can just put a smelt on a treble hook and hang it under your open water rod with a bell on it. If you've got some 1"x1" or 1x1/2" or similarly sized skinny lumber cut into 12- 14 inch chunks and make a notch in each end, then wrap your line around it lenght wise. This is the first year in a lifetime of ice fishing that I have used a rod instead of this simple jigging stick to go after pike. I still use this rig for perch because I can make a bunch of them whenever I have any scraps laying around. Then I tie a different hook to each one which makes it quick and easy to switch hooks.A big slotted spoon from the kitchen makes a gheto skimmer if you realy want to be cheap.


The usual jigs and spoons you use in the summer wil work, jig them, bounce them off the bottom, let them sit awhile, play with the depth (A foot off the bottom is a good starting place), tip them with minnows etc untill you start catching fish... or not. And for crying out loud sombody loan this guy an auger or drill him some holes or take him fishing or somthing.

[jpietrzak1979]

Well I didn't mean to imply I don't appreciate the advice, rather I was hoping they would show up and save me my chopping arm. :lol: However yes I am the only person I know that actively fishes and up til now that was always in the summer. Ah well I got some smelts and some form of double hook rig for them so we'll see what happens, if i catch anything other than a cold i'll put up some pics of noob pride.

[Lantzd]

what time you goona be there on sunday mornin ???? i could maybe help ya out i would hate for someone to drive in to a hole like that on the ice after your done hackin away for half the day,,,,just like someone already did on the north side of the island

[jpietrzak1979]

Well the trip is over, thanks for all the advice. I did make it through with the axe but its not too tough if you use someone else's old hole as the ice is rather thin.
Didn't land anything but definitely did have one on the line, which at least shows me the bait and area are working. Good start at least.

[Cal]

Congrats man, you've got one more week to try and get one up the hole get on it!