FS Digest

I've been fishing all my life but I've never ice fished before. Going to head to Port Bay on Lake Ontario where, during the summer, we aim for large mouth bass and sometimes perch. There's also northern pike, crappie, and walleye. Basically wondering what to expect and what techniques and lures I should be using for my endeavors. Cheers and thanks for any guidance you may have to offer!

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by pwndabeer

FS Digest

I really recommend investing in a couple of Tip-ups. On the tip ups you'll have a minnow on the end of the line and itll target the larger predators.

For bluegill and crappie, fish small florescent jigs topped with either plastic or wax worms with an ice rod.

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by Cibeleee

FS Digest

I think I'm moreso going for perch and walleye. Thanks for the suggestion!

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by pwndabeer

FS Digest

Glow in the dark lures. And take a UV flashlight one click flash and the glow bright. And jig it slowly up and down. About 1-2 feet off the bottom.

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by BrokenFret

FS Digest

You're gonna want an auger, 3 or 4 tip ups, a bucket of medium shiners, and then the small brightly colored jig heads like someone else mentioned. Perch will still hit these all day, but you really need waxworms for them to be effective.

You'll want to set up your tip ups first. Your gonna need a sounder to Guage the depth, it's a weight you can thread the hook through. Drop it down to the bottom, reel up just a tiny bit, and put a very small ice fishing bobber on the line in front of the eye on the reel. Your going to be pulling the weight back up by hand, and your also going to be pulling your fish on the line by hand too. Throw a shiner on, depending on how they're acting sometimes I use a split shot to make sure they get down, other times I don't have to and they simply swim as deep as possible or are shocked by the cold and kind of just fall. Get a cheap ice scoop too, it's a ladle with a slotted spoon attachment at the head, and you'll use this to scoop the slush at the top of the hole out. Bring handwarmers too, I usually throw foot warmers in my boot. They're pretty self explanatory in function, once the line is pulled out by a fish a t shaped post connected to the reel spins, disengaging the flag and causing it to pop up. Then you run your ass over to it and pull that line up!

While waiting for flags to pop you can either jig in a different hole or keep warm!

For walleye I really like either a jig-n-rap or some type of gold spoon. The jig-n-rap has a really cool circular action that they seem to really like, and the spoons tend to flutter in a way they like as well. Panfish also like the spoons too.

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by CarlinHicksCross