Click here to order with free shipping.Team Iceshanty Patches! Most iceshanty boards are represented
I always spud since I have my son along and am instilling safety 1st. It’s fine to walk straight out from the pay phone/ dock area. If you venture south from there, there’s the usual cracks where eventual heaves that make you think twice. My jiffy chisel spud is “calibrated” in my brain that 2 whacks equals ~4”. We fished on a solid 6” black and minimal snow cover with that cold last night and tonight should build another bit. As far as the bite- wasn’t great but iced 7 Lakers in about 2 hours jigging only before they went neutral. Hope that helps.
Anybody get into the ciscos in Paradox? Lure, depth? Want to catch a few for pike bait when we come up this weekend. We only caught 1 in all the years going there.
Have not heard anything about ciscos, but we have gotten into the smelt there this past week, about 6 dozen. Perch colored Hali and a spike, 35 fow on bottom.
I like fishing for pike and have had some decent success on smaller ponds but I was wondering how to locate pike in a bigger lake like Schroon this time of year. I am not asking for spots. I'm trying to learn if they stay in shallow water or if they move deeper as winter moves toward February. Is it more like 15 fow or 20 or 30 fow. I don't have a lot of experience ice fishing so any help is appreciated. Thanks.
Fish the big drops on schroon. I like shallow sets but not until the end of this month. Big females are staging deep near spawning areas now. They won't push shallow until they need to break up their egg mass pre spawn. (It's why they go so shallow) their eggs are a giant clump stuck together until they rub their belly against structure to break them up. So I'd be fishing 15-35 fow near spawning areas...specifically with dead bait. Big females are preserving energy now for the spawn and are typically scavenging for dead baits this time of year. Hope that helps a bit. I'm not a huge fan of the generalization of setting shallow near weeds for big lake pike. Especially this time of year. Ask my buddy Ed. He landed a 20lber in 40 fow there this year. Last year my buddy Brian jigged one on 45 fow.
Spot on advice, I find this true in many lakes besides Schroon. 15-35 fow is where I look until late February or early March. Dead bait is also more prevalent as the season goes on due to lower oxygen levels, etc.
Lots of studies you can Google on this. Some of what I read said the females will look for dead fish that are decomposing already because they can metabolize then faster. All this talk makes me want to get back into chasing pike but beating a 30lber seems rather impossible so I chase lakers.
Looking for info on access points to the south end of schroon? Ive only ever gone off up by stewarts and off of fowler, not that i havent done good up there id just like to try something different. thanks in advance
Pic ASAP.