First Time at Winnipesaukee

[Isaac_scar]

Hey guys! Been ice fishing for the past couple years but just decided to get an account. I recently started exploring northern states (originally from Delaware, currently living in Rhode Island). Wanted to log my first trip to Winni. My buddy and I decided the day before that we wanted to run a trip north and after some research and scouring maps, we came up with a plan. Berry's bait and tackle helped us narrow down options based on safe ice. After doing the 3.5 hr drive up in the am, we hit the ice around 6:30 after stopping at Berry's. People were out on snow mobiles and ATVs. Ice was 5-8 inches thick.

After setting up 2 tip ups and then popping holes and jigging we landed 1 laker and hooked 2 others. We had maybe 5 or so fish chase our jigs for a while but wouldn't commit. The one we landed was in 15 fow on a rattle spoon i was jigging for small perch with 4lb test. Perch bite was slow so overall slow day. Super pumped to catch my first laker though. I am planning on making another trip this weekend if anyone wants to share some info on targeting perch or getting on a better laker bite. Probably going to try some other lakes as well as ill be up for a 3 day period. Any tips and recommendations are much appreciated!

[Steve H.]

Nice report and congrats on your first laker. I still remember mine many years ago from Lake Sunapee, live smelt under a tip up.  Damn I'm getting old.

Welcome tho the Shanty.

[Ruimachado]

My choice of bait for lakers is a 2inch paddletail on a chartreuse jig, this year I found the googan squad 2 inch snacky swimmer  and been enjoying fishing that in the monkey milk and natural color, last few year the big bite baits crappie soft plastics did me good, I will sometimes go a little bigger to a keitech 2.8 or 3.5 if I'm trying to cut the amount of rats I'm catching, as for perch my suggestion is to move around a lot, haven't really done any good up there this year for white perch, but looks like you're setup in the right direction fishing a rattle spoon, I will say that sometimes when they are chasing bugs they won't touch the spoons, tungsten with a tiny piece of worm works great on those occasions or a fly with a spike, they particularly like the clam rattle spoon and the pk spoons tipped with a piece of worm.
If you find a school of smelt stay put those lakers will be coming by aggressive, tell tale sign there's a laker nearby is when the smelt disappear from your flasher in a hurry, at that point I slowly start bringing my bait up the water column up to mid water, if no chase I'll just drop it right to the bottom and stir some mud before starting to raise it again to half way up in the water column, you will have lots of chases that won't commit to the bait, but if one is chasing don't ever stop the bait or they will just hang up and turn around.
Hope that helps and good luck out there!

[Isaac_scar]

Nice report and congrats on your first laker. I still remember mine many years ago from Lake Sunapee, live smelt under a tip up.  Damn I'm getting old.

Welcome tho the Shanty.

Thanks man! I am absolutely hooked. Lakers are so fun.

[Isaac_scar]

My choice of bait for lakers is a 2inch paddletail on a chartreuse jig, this year I found the googan squad 2 inch snacky swimmer  and been enjoying fishing that in the monkey milk and natural color, last few year the big bite baits crappie soft plastics did me good, I will sometimes go a little bigger to a keitech 2.8 or 3.5 if I'm trying to cut the amount of rats I'm catching, as for perch my suggestion is to move around a lot, haven't really done any good up there this year for white perch, but looks like you're setup in the right direction fishing a rattle spoon, I will say that sometimes when they are chasing bugs they won't touch the spoons, tungsten with a tiny piece of worm works great on those occasions or a fly with a spike, they particularly like the clam rattle spoon and the pk spoons tipped with a piece of worm.
If you find a school of smelt stay put those lakers will be coming by aggressive, tell tale sign there's a laker nearby is when the smelt disappear from your flasher in a hurry, at that point I slowly start bringing my bait up the water column up to mid water, if no chase I'll just drop it right to the bottom and stir some mud before starting to raise it again to half way up in the water column, you will have lots of chases that won't commit to the bait, but if one is chasing don't ever stop the bait or they will just hang up and turn around.
Hope that helps and good luck out there!

Do the white perch frequent similar waters to the lakers? I really appreciate the knowledge. I'll try some small paddletails this weekend if I can find some non-lead jigheads to pair with them. I'll keep you updated on how I do!
Thanks again!

[lowaccord66]

Thanks man! I am absolutely hooked. Lakers are so fun.

Its all I ice fish for when I have the opportunity.  Champ lakers > winni all day ever day.  In numbers and size when ice allows.

[Ruimachado]

Do the white perch frequent similar waters to the lakers? I really appreciate the knowledge. I'll try some small paddletails this weekend if I can find some non-lead jigheads to pair with them. I'll keep you updated on how I do!
Thanks again!

Yes and no, white perch I find mostly from 25 to 45ft of water, while lakers run way deeper than that, find inside turns in a basin or some kind of funnel where they can push the bait into, even if a little shallower but adjacent to the deep water, most of the same places you would expect to find basin crappies, but wherever you find white perch you will find lakers, sometimes you will find a school of white perch feeding on a trapped school of smelt and after they move away the lakers come in to clean the scraps. Fishing for perch will get better as the season goes, the schools will start getting bigger by the end of February in preparation for the spawn

[IceDog88]

Nice way to start off the season and a new spot. Good luck with your next trip

[HuntnFish603]

Welcome and nice work.
we appreciate your first post not being just "where is there safe ice"
See that's how it's done. Effort pays off.
Spending a little gas money and time exploring, getting outside your area, looking over maps, charts and trying new tactics. Thanks for the share.
Good luck in your  future trips. with enough time you'll have those mudsharks figured out

[jigmaster5]

Congrats!   

[800stealth]

Nice report man, sounds like a great adventure! It's a great feeling to plan the plan, burn the fuel, roll the dice and get rewarded nicely. Welcome to the shanty.

[Jschumacher]

The heck with the lakers. I'd try and find some of those nice white perch like your picture. Well done

[Brendog9]

Great report and fish! I haven't been out on Winni before, but fish Newfound a lot. There's some good laker action in there, nice yellow perch too.

I lived in RI in the 2010s, there are some good ponds down there too. Some awesome guys on the RI forum too, a couple that I still keep in touch with and try to fish with a few times a year.

[jigmaster5]

After doing the 3.5 hr drive up in the am, we hit the ice around 6:30 after stopping at Berry's. People were out on snow mobiles and ATVs. Ice was 5-8 inches thick.

Hey - that's great!  You put in the work & it paid off.  Congrats!   

Winni is so big that my main strategy is to look for choke points....places where predators can corral & pin bait.  Good luck on your next trip!   

[SALMONEMIA]

nice post looks like a good trip. welcome aboard.

[Isaac_scar]

Its all I ice fish for when I have the opportunity.  Champ lakers > winni all day ever day.  In numbers and size when ice allows.

I'll have to give it a try sometime! A little far for a day trip haha!

[Isaac_scar]

Yes and no, white perch I find mostly from 25 to 45ft of water, while lakers run way deeper than that, find inside turns in a basin or some kind of funnel where they can push the bait into, even if a little shallower but adjacent to the deep water, most of the same places you would expect to find basin crappies, but wherever you find white perch you will find lakers, sometimes you will find a school of white perch feeding on a trapped school of smelt and after they move away the lakers come in to clean the scraps. Fishing for perch will get better as the season goes, the schools will start getting bigger by the end of February in preparation for the spawn

I was able to put this advice to work today! Found some white perch and plenty of lakers. Going to update in a larger post in this thread. I really appreciate the advice and hospitality! happy to be a part of the shanty.

[Isaac_scar]

Hey everyone! Thank you so much foe the hospitality and advice. I was able to get out on the lake for a full day, and am planning on staying for the weekend. Heres a run down of today's action and conditions.

Got out around 8am because i hit traffic on the way up. Stopped at Berry's for some smelt and new ice picks then went to the same access point i hit last weekend. less people were out but more shanties around. Decided to walk 2 miles to try a new feature i found on navionics. Targeted a 40 fow choke point and ended up on some lakers. caught two on a tip up and 5 jigging throughout the day. same general trend all in 30-40 fow. They wouldnt hit 2" paddletails but would chase them for a couple minutes. They would only commit to the rattle spoon. Caught 1 large white perch on a tip up as well. Got a smallie mixed in jigging too which was a really cool suprise in 30 fow. Had alot of fish show up on the sonar but not commit, unsure what i should be doing differently. Ice was 6-8 inches everywhere i fished. snowmobiles and atv's were running around but didnt seem to go much farther than me. Possibly going to try and find a new access point tomorrow. If anyone wants to meetup or fish let me know! I'm up here till sunday night.

[Ruimachado]

Hey everyone! Thank you so much foe the hospitality and advice. I was able to get out on the lake for a full day, and am planning on staying for the weekend. Heres a run down of today's action and conditions.

Got out around 8am because i hit traffic on the way up. Stopped at Berry's for some smelt and new ice picks then went to the same access point i hit last weekend. less people were out but more shanties around. Decided to walk 2 miles to try a new feature i found on navionics. Targeted a 40 fow choke point and ended up on some lakers. caught two on a tip up and 5 jigging throughout the day. same general trend all in 30-40 fow. They wouldnt hit 2" paddletails but would chase them for a couple minutes. They would only commit to the rattle spoon. Caught 1 large white perch on a tip up as well. Got a smallie mixed in jigging too which was a really cool suprise in 30 fow. Had alot of fish show up on the sonar but not commit, unsure what i should be doing differently. Ice was 6-8 inches everywhere i fished. snowmobiles and atv's were running around but didnt seem to go much farther than me. Possibly going to try and find a new access point tomorrow. If anyone wants to meetup or fish let me know! I'm up here till sunday night.

Sounds like a decent day!
And yes, sometimes they are just absolutely off, that was the case for our group on Saturday, but the week before we had a laker on the ice every few minutes for over 3 hours before we decided to chase some white perch

[bassin212]

Nice work! Glad you were rewarded for your long walk. Pretty sure I know where you were fishing, my buddy used to have his bob house on that spot. It produced a lot of fish for us over the years!

[SHaRPS]

There you go! Im on that lake ice fishing 3-5x a year chasing whites and laker and cusk. My favorite place to get away and chase giants.

[jigmaster5]

Decided to walk 2 miles to try a new feature i found on navionics. Targeted a 40 fow choke point and ended up on some lakers. caught two on a tip up and 5 jigging throughout the day. same general trend all in 30-40 fow. They wouldnt hit 2" paddletails but would chase them for a couple minutes. They would only commit to the rattle spoon. Caught 1 large white perch on a tip up as well. Got a smallie mixed in jigging too which was a really cool suprise in 30 fow. Had alot of fish show up on the sonar but not commit, unsure what i should be doing differently.

You've got them almost dialed in...found a choke point....putting in the work + fish on the ice.  You're golden.  Last piece is to get those shy biters to commit.  They're attracted by the sound of the rattle spoon, but some won't commit to it.

Some ideas (a few of these might work, many won't....and every day can be a little different)...
- Try tipping your rattle spoon w/ a single hook + a piece of smelt
- Try a different rattling bait (maybe something like a lipless)
- Sound could be calling them in, but some may want to eat something else - so pull the rattle spoon & try something else.  "Bait & switch".
- Might be a tube or other soft plastic if they won't eat the swimbait (sometimes scent helps, too)
- Might be metal - like a 1/4 oz leech flutter spoon (or other metal) tipped w/ single hook + smelt
- If they still won't eat, try dropping down to 2 lb test straight mono (maxima ultragreen) & a tiny tube or similar.  If you hook something large, it's going to be a battle.  But maybe can convert a few more fish.
- Underwater camera can ID fish....I had a pair of suckers come in to look at my jig this w/e.  Without the camera, I'd think they were gamefish. On Winni, could be anything looking at your jig - even cusk.
- If all else fails, pull the tip-up - get them to come in for the rattle spoon & drop a smelt on their heads.