IceShanty.com's Ice Fishing Community
Idaho => Ice Fishing Idaho => Topic started by: Quackstacker on Feb 08, 2017, 02:27 PM
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Has anyone figure out how to get catfish under the ice? im in southern Idaho and have been trying to find them mostly at cj strike. Just curious if anyone on here targets them specifically.
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Caught the heck out of them the last time we iced Brownlee. Never caught a catfish at CJ, even in open water.
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I have heard of them being caught at lake Lowell through the ice?
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I've heard of it and seen it at Lowell, but never caught one myself through the ice at Lowell. Standard catfishing techniques seemed to work okay. Cutbait either on the bottom or just off the bottom. Worm also works. I see no reason stink bait, or whatever suits your fancy wouldn't work just like open water. Catfish aren't typically that picky from what I've observed.
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im not a big believer in stink baits personally. I have never fished Lowell so I may have to give that a try. Where at Brownlee? I summer fish there but never on the ice. Thanks for the input guys!
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I have had OK luck with jigging spoons tipped with cut bait.
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the biggest challenge for catching catfish through the ice is finding them. they don't roam around quite like they do in spring and summer, instead they all bunch up in deep holes and the active fish will circle around in those small areas. inactive fish can be found under sunken trees, and can be caught, but you literally have to drop the bait on their nose for them to bite.
if you have a depth map, take a look around deep water in the 20-30 foot range, and focus on places with steep drops or isolated humps. points are good as well, and as i said earlier, any sunken trees are a good thing to target.
as for baits, all you need to do is downsize. small bits of cutbait, half a nightcrawler, etc. i've had the best success using a small rattle spoon with 3 or 4 waxworms.
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Search in-fisherman on Google for tips on catfish fishing through the ice. They have several good articles on the subject and basically back up what panfish just said.