New to ice fishing

[lobre370]

Hey everyone i am new to ice fishing, i have been out twice so far the past to weekends, Once to Gull lake and once to Ghost Lake. I was skunked both times.
Does anyone have any pointers they could give me. As i plan to give it one last shot this season next weekend. At Gull i was trying for Perch, i was using worms as bait on Jig heads. Not even a nibble. Must have drilled 15 holes all over the place. In anywhere from 10 - 20 FOW. At Ghost lake is was trying for Lake trout, with a 5 of diamonds treble hook and shrimp for bait, Drilled 10 holes, In mostly 50-60 FOW. So yea i think next weekend im going to go try for perch again, any pointers would be great. Thanks.

[nicemustang]

Well you picked two pretty tough lakes for the fish you are trying to catch. Ghost is pretty tough fishing at best. Some people have put in their time and know a couple spots but generally you will be skunked at this lake 95% of the time. If you want to try for lakers through the ice, Spray Lakes is far better choice.

Same for Gull. There are perch in the lake but not as many as you think. Some people know where they are and can catch them but generally unless you are really lucky, you won't see much. So for perch you could try pine lake or sylvan or burnstick.

[DiehardFishingMan]

Try Sylvan lake. There are a lot of Burbot at this time of the year.

[aulrich]

This has been my first year of ice fishing hard in Alberta so I have limited lake info as I am still figuring that out. But for Perch pine was pretty easy to figure out .

As for gear this is what I had learned this year about perch fishing

Spring bobbers are gold, especially since I have yet to figure out the feel for hand fishing. maramish is a popular one but there are others.

Little jigs and jigging spoons when I say little I mean little, jig heads not much bigger than a BB and a hook that fits on your pinky nail. The jiging spoons are 3/4" to 1" or so. One trick I was taught to working with ligh stuff was to add a weight to the lure find bottom and mark with some colored dental floss.

Pearch eyes make great bait, I typically tip with maggots until I catch some.

I am running 6lb FC line that is still too heavy gonna add some more rods during end of season sales now to cover bigger fish and re rig the ones I have to go lighter.

Add a dropper fly, just because. Go to the fly shop get a couple of these flys scud, prince, phesant tail, hares ear and cronomid. Start out at about size 12.

Some times you jig and sometimes it is dead stick all the way, depends on the day

Thats is what I got after one season, man back in the day it use to be pickeral rig and minnows or a jig and a minnow. But that was for walleye and pike back in Manitoba 20 years ago.

[SushiUnagi]

Well you picked two pretty tough lakes for the fish you are trying to catch. Ghost is pretty tough fishing at best. Some people have put in their time and know a couple spots but generally you will be skunked at this lake 95% of the time. If you want to try for lakers through the ice, Spray Lakes is far better choice.

Same for Gull. There are perch in the lake but not as many as you think. Some people know where they are and can catch them but generally unless you are really lucky, you won't see much. So for perch you could try pine lake or sylvan or burnstick.

Its my first year ice fishing but have been out over 10 times already. I totally agree with nicemustang. Never been out to Gull but Ghost seems impossible. I did come to a conclusion that there is no fish in there and when people show you pics they have to be photoshopped! haha j/k But its tough...never had a bite whether its summer open-water fishing or ice fishing.

So far Spray has been pretty good for me. Chestermere was good to me as well. Try those!

[ironmaidenfisher]

Spray lake for perch? I'm going tomorrow with my grandpa. He wants to fish pigeon for whitefish, but that doesn't really interest me. Any good perch lakes near Edmonton? Went to Hasse last weekend and caught only 6 inchers. Used to live in Athabasca, fishing was great. Not so much around Edmonton. Plus I don't have any inside infortmation either, which doesn't help much! :(