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hey guys just looking for some basic tips/suggestions you might have for me out on the ice. ive been open water fishing for a number of years and have it down pretty well but i'm new to the ice. few questions:
1) do the fish move deeper for the cold weather?
2) what are bite times for northern/walleye/pan fish? same as open water?
3)if the fish arent takin suckers/shiners, is any other live bait useful?
any if anyone is feeling really zealous i'm going to layout the lake i fish on for you and maybe you can help analyze where the fish might be as we cant seem to find them in their normal places.
the lake is only 30 acres, depths only to about 10ft. unfortunately the weeds are killed late spring each year so for ice over the water has barely any weeds and is crystal clear (if i drop a jig to the bottom i can see it up to about 8ft of depth) panfish are found mostly on shorelines with some schools of them around some surviving weeds and in deep holes.
heres a map i made of the lake:
http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/3956/lakeup3.jpg
we most commonly catch snakes (15-25" northerns), ~15" eyes, good size lmb's, and average crappies
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![[Image: 31945152tk7.jpg]](http://img403.imageshack.us/img403/828/31945152tk7.jpg)
![[Image: 12454458th2.jpg]](http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/9163/12454458th2.jpg)
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I would say your crappies will be in the deepet place they can find and the predators will be on the fringes waiting to bounce. My crappies are in 40+' of water and my tiger muskies are all over the water column with most of them about 23' down from the ice. Someone else with shallow water exp. might be better off helping you out.Good luck.[cool]
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I KNOW A LITLE ABOUT THIS. I LOOKED AT YR MAP. THE TRANSITIONS BETWEEN THE LAKE STRUCKURE LOOK LIKE GOOD SPOT WITH NO PLACE TO HIDE THE PREDITORS AND PREY WILL MOVE AROUND ALOT. FISH THE CONTOUR LINE ON THE DEEP SIDE OF THE DROP OFFS. ALSO THE THE BACK OF THE LITLE BAY ON THE BOTTOM THAT DROP LOOKED GOOD TO. OUT WEST WE HAVE NO LIVE BAIT BESIDES WORMS SO????? DONT KNOW. FOR THE CRAPPIE I WOULD USE A TEAR DROP ICE FLY WITH A SPIKE OR 3 ON IT FOR THE EYES GO BRONZE SWEADISH PIMPLE WITH A MINNOW. FOR THE PIKE THE SAME BUT BIGGER MINNOW. GOOD LUCK THIS WINTER. TO LERN MOORE IN FISHERMAN IS WHAT YOU DESERVE.[  ] BUY ICE TECH VIDEO FOR WHAT FISH YOU WANT. KEN
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where to find walleye,
that really depends on the lake your fishing.
if you find them in the summer, you will have them marked for the winter, they dont realy move to much unless they go hunting for a dinner...
walley have no spicific feeding time.. they feed day and night, meaning when they are hungry they will hit. the trick is to be on top of them jigging, then drop below them and let it sit and play possom, walleye hit by going down as aposed to crappie that will hit by comming up.
to day I was catching crappie 6 inches below the ice, other days I will catch them 25 feet down, one thing to know about crappie, once you mark their depth for the day you pretty much just need to get back down to the same spot. most crappie hunters I know use hand over hand method and a bobber with a minnow or wax worm. pickled minnows work well too...
if you dont have a fish finder hug the drop off, drill your self about 10 holes about 10 feet apart along the drop off. go from hole to hole start at the top and jig your way down to the bottom then back up, if ya dont get a hit move to the next hole, then a gain and again till you hit them...
if you do have a fish finder or camera and you can see them and they wont hit, dont wory about it, just mark your hole and come back twards night fall or early morning or any time during a heavy over cast day... I tend to do my best on crappie befor 10 am and then slim to none till the last couple hours of day light to a couple hours after dark....
white or silver jigs for crappie, glow works well too....
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I have never fished your lake, so not knowing it but having the info you have provided by looking at your map, for crappie [ul] [li]I would hit those yellow bars for crappie, [/li] [li]either side of the closest shores between the island and shore.[/li] [li]any where in the center of the deep holes[/li] [li]any where around the blue lines of the drop offs.[/li][/ul]
for walleye, go to your purple spots and follow the drop offs down and target that area first.
for pike I would set a tip up between the island and shore on both sides or any where near the edge of the drop off.
did I look at your map right? is the deapest hole only 10 foot deap?
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thanks for the tips guys. [cool]
yes its only 10ft maybe 12ft in a couple places. its a man made lake so basically a bowl with no structure and the water clears up so much with the ice over it and all the weeds dead so the fish seem to get really secluded.
gonna have to try attraction like juicing bait and chuming for panfish if nothing else will work.
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no structure? you gotta be kidding, from the pic of your lake it is full of structure, each one of the coves is structure, in between the island and shore at its closest points are structure, the island it self is structure, the blue line in your pic is structure. to me your lake is full of structure...
if you took the time to find the pan fish beds in the spring and summer, head there and go to the ledge and fish that area,
chumming wont be nessisary,
wax worms will do the trick. wigglers if you are aloud to use them work well too...
get out to the bed area, cut a dozen holes up and down the side of the drop off, including on top of the 5 foot shelf.
I am asuming that your lake drops to 5 foot almost emediatly from shore? this being the case you could have gills almost any where, weeds wont go down for another month yet. so deffenantly check aound the weedy areas, in and just out side, set tip ups around weed areas for pike... Pike love to set in the weeds and lunge out when they are ready for a dinner...
I was out ice fishing yesterday for pan fish, I was fishing in a 3 foot of water of a man made canal... of the ten of us on the canal 8 of us took home thier limit, I only took home two crappie because that was all I wanted...
most man made lakes I have seen like that run 5 foot and jump down to about 14 foot in deapth. this makes for an excilent fishery and produces some howgs of LMBs...
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by structure in meant variations in the lake bed (humps and dips) and rocks and fallen trees etc. it is just a shallow bowl. and yes it an excelent lake that produces some big sow LMBs and some nice 12" crappies, but we just seem to struggle finding them over ice.
all the things youve pointed out would in theory and practice be perfect. however, only in a couple places does the shoreline drop to 5ft. (the dropoffs ive marked) most places it is about a foot along the edge and then slowly decends. and as far as weeds, they are all gone. i got out once in november when the ice was just on the edges and spotted around the whole lake only to find to weeds gone and super clear water.
i will definately hit drops that hold the walleyes pretty hard and the beds where the blues usually are. and i also have to start checkin local bait shops for wigglers, a buddy of mine was also telling me about those.
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no structure? you gotta be kidding, from the pic of your lake it is full of structure, each one of the coves is structure, in between the island and shore at its closest points are structure, the island it self is structure, the blue line in your pic is structure. to me your lake is full of structure...
if you took the time to find the pan fish beds in the spring and summer, head there and go to the ledge and fish that area,
chumming wont be nessisary,
wax worms will do the trick. wigglers if you are aloud to use them work well too...
get out to the bed area, cut a dozen holes up and down the side of the drop off, including on top of the 5 foot shelf.
I am asuming that your lake drops to 5 foot almost emediatly from shore? this being the case you could have gills almost any where, weeds wont go down for another month yet. so deffenantly check aound the weedy areas, in and just out side, set tip ups around weed areas for pike... Pike love to set in the weeds and lunge out when they are ready for a dinner...
I was out ice fishing yesterday for pan fish, I was fishing in a 3 foot of water of a man made canal... of the ten of us on the canal 8 of us took home thier limit, I only took home two crappie because that was all I wanted...
most man made lakes I have seen like that run 5 foot and jump down to about 14 foot in deapth. this makes for an excilent fishery and produces some howgs of LMBs...
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be sure to keep us in the know, how you do,
pictures are always welcome..
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you know what you can do. it will be work but pay huge. take my sled out a few times to a good deep hole and drop a poop load of rocks down for a bush i would drill 4 holes square and chain saw out the ice. then take a five gallon bucket put branches in it fill pit with post hole mix and water. let it dry a few hrs and drop it.[ ] ive seen this done worked great on a big flat . another is to pile rocks on the ice where you want them to drop when it melts in spring. works good but you cant fish it till spring.[unsure]
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i did some moore thinking about your situation. if all the weeds die and its so shallow. most shallow spots will hold a lower oxigen level than the deeper spots. is ther a feader stream? if so this will pull the fish as well as the deeper spots.
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so true, springs and arteasian wells will hold perch and pike in the emediate area,
where as a dranage ditch or a house sump pump will hold gills crappie and rock bass in that area...
both situations offers food for those species year round.
caution, any moving water creates an extreamly dangerous condition for ice, even in the deapest freeze of winter... many of angler and passer has gone though and few have yet to be found...
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with a lake beiing this shallow and clear as you say, the fish just might be avoiding you. I would try setting on that long skinny point off the island at the first drop off in the afertnoon hours until dark.
try not to move around alot and don't wear bright clothing either.
looks like you have alot of answers already, I thought I would throw in my $.10 later
chuck
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thanks for all the tips guys. we went out one last time before all the ice melted. (we had record highs here in SE WI these past couple days)  ly, no luck on the tip ups around the whole lake. i tried a number of the suggestions posted to no avail. we did however, find a spot holding a school of crappie and ended up bagging about 15 or so. o well, only a couple months till open water again.
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that sounds like a good start...
go off about 50 feet along the edge and set your tip up there...
mind you you may have already found the exact spot for your tip up, we all failed to mention that pike only hit when they are ready... a pike may sit just off your bait about a foot all day never moving an inch...
I too tried to get on the ice today but could not, by the time I went the ice was 3 feet from shore...
we too had record high temps, about 63
I figure at least to the midle of next week before I will be able to get on the ice agan..[unimpressed]
any size to them crappie?
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Nice job! [  ]
We have had near record snowfall and low temps here. I fished a local pond that had almost a foot of ice in spots!
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if hit the the hard deckand went out in the boat all on the same lake in the same day. ice 63 burbot over night then jigged up some 20 plus pound lakers in the boat.[ ]
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crappie where 9-10" one 11" nothing major. i think we may try changing bait sizes out next time, maybe going with some smaller shiners and suckers instead of the big guys.
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that sounds like a good start...
go off about 50 feet along the edge and set your tip up there...
mind you you may have already found the exact spot for your tip up, we all failed to mention that pike only hit when they are ready... a pike may sit just off your bait about a foot all day never moving an inch...
I too tried to get on the ice today but could not, by the time I went the ice was 3 feet from shore...
we too had record high temps, about 63
I figure at least to the midle of next week before I will be able to get on the ice agan..[unimpressed]
any size to them crappie?[/reply]
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GO TO A TINY ICE FLY AND SOME MAGGOTS ORE WAXIES. WHEN THEY SLOW DOWN GO REAL SMALL. THAT IS THE KEY.[ ]
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