FINE TUNING YOUR ICE FISHING
For the past eleven years I have been lucky to pursue my dream of fishing competitive bass tournaments in the U.S. I’m made some good friendships with the anglers that I compete against, many of whom are from the south and have never experienced ice fishing or even ice on their lakes. Ice fishing is a topic that comes up quite frequently and most of these guys can’t fathom how drilling a hole in the ice and waiting for a fish to bite could possibly be fun. Yet, for those of us who live in the ice belt and must live with ice on our lakes for six months every year, we love it.
MISCONCEPTIONS EXIST
The perception that a lot of people have is that ice fishing is going out on the ice with a case of beer, drilling a hole, sitting on a bucket, and hoping a fish comes along and bites. They don’t realize that we have a strategy that involves the use of high-quality mapping in conjunction with electronics. This allows us to drill holes on prime locations and know within minutes if there are any fish around.
We have quality clothing, shelters, and ways to stay warm in any condition. We have refined our tackle, rods and line to effectively present our baits and get bites. When we go ice fishing, we expect to find fish and catch a bunch of them. I bring a bucket to put fish in that I might have for dinner after a day on the water, not to sit on it.
USING ELECTRONICS ON THE HARDWATER
If you’re reading this, you probably spend more than just a day or two on the ice each season. If you are spending multiple days on the ice, you should be using some sort of sonar when you fish. Whether it’s an old school flasher, like the Humminbird ICE 55 machine that I still use, a colour screen with traditional 2D sonar or the newer live sonar like Mega Live, sonar will help you catch more fish.
Sonar units give you the opportunity to look beneath the ice and know very quickly if there are fish present on the spot that you’ve chosen to drill holes. You also get to watch your bait as you fish and see how fish react to it. You can watch your jigging actions and learn relatively quickly what you need to do with your rod to trigger fish to bite.
FORWARD FACING SONAR
The newer live sonar transducers are mandatory equipment on every boat now if you want to be competitive in most tournament situations. They make us much more efficient on the water and we’re able to put our baits in front of fish on almost every cast or drop. On the ice, the same scenario is playing out. These transducers shoot a larger angle of coverage than traditional sonar so you can cover a much wider area in a down viewing mode. If you want to scan a point to see where the walleyes are or find the school of crappies on a mud flat, you can put the transducer in forward mode to cover an even wider area and then drill holes on top of the fish.
It makes the hole drilling much more efficient than in the past. Do you need live sonar to catch fish, no, but if you want to maximize the time you get on ice and catch more fish, there is no argument that this technology is going to help you.
TREMENDOUS ADVANCES IN MAPPING
The other aspect of electronics that has improved significantly in recent months is the high-quality mapping that we now have access to on many bodies of water in both Manitoba and Ontario. The new Humminbird LakeMaster VX map cards for both Ontario and Manitoba offer high-definition mapping on many waters that were not previously covered and they give us the option for unique colour palettes and features that have not been available on previous map cards. Simply put, these maps make it easy to find high end spots to drill holes on and they are going to open more doors in open water as well.
SPOONING FOR WALLEYE
In many columns for Hooked over the years I’ve written about my use of the Northland Buck-Shot Rattle Spoon for walleye fishing. For the past twenty years, I seldom stray from using one of these spoons when I want to put fish on the ice. They work everywhere that I’ve fished, and they come in all of the sizes we need to catch walleyes in any depth. Add trout, crappie, perch, and whitefish to the list that Buck-Shot spoons work for as well.
A spoon tipped with a minnow head offers a good profile that walleyes of all sizes can eat. Spoons get to the bottom quickly and are easy to feel. When used with electronics, we can play the cat and mouse game with fish based on how they react to the jigging actions that we impart on the spoon. They are fun to fish with, and they are effective!
I have fished all the different models that Northland has released over the years and the ones that stand out the most for me are the Buck-Shot Coffin Spoon that has been around for the past couple of seasons and the new Glass Buck-Shot Spoon, which is making its debut this season. Both have done very well on the end of my line.
RATTLES OR NOT?
Having used rattling and non-rattling spoons over the years I have no doubt that rattling spoons produce more bites than silent spoons. They aid in calling in fish from a little wider area and just seem to trigger bites.
When it comes to rigging up for spoon fishing for walleyes, I like to use an ice rod in the 35”-39” range in a medium action. If I’m fishing water with big fish, I like the longer models that offer a little more shock absorption. I have been using the G. Loomis IMX PRO ice rods the past couple of seasons and they are a pleasure to fish with. I like a 1000 size spinning reel, some 8 lb. Power Pro ICE braid, and an 8 lb. fluorocarbon leader. If the spoon doesn’t come with a split ring, I like to add one or use a small snap to give the spoon more swing when I’m jigging it. Finally, I always tip the spoon with a minnow head, usually from a frozen shiner. Adding meat will get more bites than using the spoon without and a head is better than a whole minnow because a whole minnow will hinder the action of the spoon and makes the profile to big.