Fishing, maybe some catching 2023

[Steamtrain]

Nice reports Steam, and pretty bow! On the jig or bait?

Bait under a tip up


I headed back up to the same pond on Monday to try a new spot on the water.  When I got there the parking area for the new spot was full, so parked back at the same spot as last week. Targeting trout with tip ups baited with eggs and worms in 10-15 fow.  Slow day overall:  only landed 2 perch jigging, 4 flags for the day with 2 of them being hit and runs, I missed a trout on the 3rd flag and landed a trout on the 4th in the same hole 10 minutes later.

[AQUAASSASSIN]

Well done

[rmoody79]

Just a suggestion, try fishing shallower for trout I typically don’t fish deeper than 5-6ft w my tip ups and have one in like 2 feet.

[Roccus]

Just a suggestion, try fishing shallower for trout I typically don’t fish deeper than 5-6ft w my tip ups and have one in like 2 feet.

Some of us make a habit of catching trout over 50 or 60 FOW,just under the ice, those fish that have spent more than one season in the lake will follow the bait and herd them like tuna up out of the depths.. its  just another option  if you would like a trophy.

[Steve H.]

Nice work, Mike! 

[Steamtrain]

Some of us make a habit of catching trout over 50 or 60 FOW,just under the ice, those fish that have spent more than one season in the lake will follow the bait and herd them like tuna up out of the depths.. its  just another option  if you would like a trophy.

I’ve heard of people using that technique for rainbows, I’ve haven’t tried it yet. Does this work for browns?


My strategy for the pond I fished is to find weeds that are on the edge of the bowl.

[Roccus]

I’ve heard of people using that technique for rainbows, I’ve haven’t tried it yet. Does this work for browns?


My strategy for the pond I fished is to find weeds that are on the edge of the bowl.

Sure does, especially  for Browns.

Most of the lakes I fish are glacier lake's,  weed lines are not my usual structure. I concentrate on bowls, points and sharp drop offs, I also frequent  "offshore" shoals and sand bars, especially if they are adjacent to deep water, anything that can be a pinch point.

[AQUAASSASSIN]

I’ve heard of people using that technique for rainbows, I’ve haven’t tried it yet. Does this work for browns?


My strategy for the pond I fished is to find weeds that are on the edge of the bowl.

I have multiple posts/ threads on here in the archives on deep water Brown/ Rainbow sets.

Those Browns I posted here on New years were all caught in 55-65 FOW only 2 feet under the ceiling of that icy Mansion

https://www.iceshanty.com/ice_fishing/index.php?topic=391280.0

[Steve01987]

nice work streamer, cool thread

[Steamtrain]

Posting from boredom tonight

Found a new bait shop in the upper valley since the place I had been going to didn’t open this season. I picked up a dozen medium shiners from Stebbins bait shop in enfield and headed over to the lake to dunk them under tip ups. I’m a tip up man at heart and love the sight of a flag.

This one had a 7" perch on it. No fish pics from Thursday.


Caught a bunch of yellow perch in the 6-8" range and put them all back today. Also missed a solid fish, which to me means photo worthy and the bar is low, on a medium large shiner in 15 feet of water. It took out 30 feet of line and I pulled the hook out, I put the same bait down the hole and got an immediate hit. I let it run a bit before picking up the tip up and applying some pressure but missed again.  When I inspected the bait the hook had turned upside down with the point hidden along the body of the shiner. 

First time this season deploying a pop up, a test run since it wasn’t really needed.



My lazy method of not bagging my pop up, I just use the straps of the bag. After a day of fishing there is no way I’m getting it in the bag.








Looked at the Vermont fish and game website to see if any bodies of water are open near me, it looks like Vermont has opened up a bunch of new water to ice fishing this season. And they allow 8 traps, that’s a regular 6 trapper plus a 2 trapper at the same time.

Stay warm.

[Steamtrain]

Fished the local big lake four days this week. I did well on small pickerel and yellow perch most days with a few singles of one rock bass, one smallie and one smelt. I did get full skunked on Wednesday, 2 marks total showed up on the flasher and only 1 flag all day. The one flag was a fish but the barrel swivel between the braided ice fishing line and the leader got stuck on something, most likely wedged between 2 rocks. I tried letting line out and waiting to see if the fish would free itself, which after a few minutes with no success I had to break it off. 

Sunday afternoon was just quick jigging session on the lake and caught some little yellows and a smelt.






Tuesday I caught a smallie and a rock bass as well as a bunch of yellows and a pickerel.  Experimenting with adding a salmon egg to my shiner tip ups to see if it catches more fish, so far no difference between a shiner without the egg and one with a cherry on top. Both pickerel and yellow perch have been caught with the added egg and no extra misses on hookups.










Wednesday got skunked.



I had some shiners leftover and some time Thursday morning so tried a different area of the big lake. Only set up 4 tip ups since I only had 6 shiners left and the pickerel ate them at all 4 holes. I used up the bait got home before it got nasty out.

[AQUAASSASSIN]

Nice showing! Thanks for sharing

[800stealth]

Nice report and pics, well done.

[DConICE]

Well done.... keep at it

[SALMONEMIA]

Well done. Nice report.

[Steamtrain]

Fished the local lake a bunch this season, caught a bunch of pickerel, tons of small perch and 3 white perch, nothing exciting to post.

[Steamtrain]

Fished yesterday to finish the season at a pond with trout up north of me. I was going to hit my usual spot on the pond for a couple hours and call it over for the season for me. When I arrived there was only one angler on the entire pond and 50 yards from where I wanted to fish, so I headed to another access and went to an area I wanted have wanted to try but I have never fished or seen anybody fish. My original spot would have been a mentally relaxed fishing spot to fish since I have caught fish there in the past and if I didn’t today it was just a bad day. The new spot put me in fish finding mode, which means relaxing would not be relaxing. So I fished 5 tip ups and jigged one, playing ice hole "Battleship" to pin point fish. Caught a bunch of perch and a small pickerel jigging.  Landed 3 perch on tip ups and missed 2 trout. The tip up that missed the trout twice had a split shot that was sliding up and down the leader.

[Steamtrain]

So that trout from yesterday didn’t end my season, I had to go back and see if I could catch it. First I removed all split shots.
Went back up today to the same spot and cut a triangle of holes all within 20 feet of the trout hole from yesterday. While setting up my second trap the first goes off, I’m close enough to hear it, about 30 feet away. Line is ripping off the spool, I watch for 5 second and there is a pause, kneel down, line goes again, line stops and I pick up the trap. Spool spins crazily and then stops , I quickly put the trap down, pull and nothing. So I’m thinking the rainbows don’t care about the bright sunny day and I have a chance to land one.
Played more tip up ice hole battleship and was able to get 3 more flags with 2 rainbows landed, they preferred it a little deeper today.
Also caught a bunch of perch and a 17" pickerel jigging, I need better trout jigging skills.

[fishingidjit]

Looks like a good way to end the season !

[DConICE]

What to go back and end it on a win.... well done

[Steamtrain]

I’ve never caught a trout jigging and I think I might be able to make it happen on the weedy trout pond up north of me, just need to leave the tip ups at home.

If I can carve out some time on Monday I might be able to squeeze in some jigging.

My pk’s tipped with nightcrawler and salmon eggs were looked at but no trout bit. I’ll be downsizing next time out.
These are heavy pressured stocked trout.

Any suggestions for lures or  bait?

[DowneastPescador]

Pink wooly bugger on a jig hook or a tungsten ice jig with a tiny piece of worm (real or fake) threaded onto it. Also very small silver Swedish pimples with yellow or chartreuse tape. All of those work very well for me. But you have to play keep away. When the trout comes to the lure bring it up just out of his reach, this will spur him into attacking.

[Steamtrain]

Luckily I was gifted a pink wooly bugger today. It was not weighted but I rigged it Texas style.
My starting lineup for tomorrow if I get out.




Next year some one start at thread “what would AA do?”

[Dirt23]

If you're jigging pressured trout i personally downsize offering to something easy to sip in.  I personally start with a large Hali tipped with couple spikes but set your drag hooks easily straighten.  No takers on this then go to tungsten ice fly tipped with spikes if this doesn't work start cycling through rubber imitations stonefly damsel fly things of that nature worked real slow in shallow.  Trout love bugs even large ones

[Steamtrain]

Unsuccessful in my attempt to lure a trout to bite on Monday. Caught a ton of perch and lost a pickerel at the hole. Downsizing resulted in catching even smaller perch than my normal tiny perch. It didn’t feel like I was messing with any trout.
I may go again.

[Dirt23]

Forgot to mention I do that in  2to 8 fow generally don't catch many perch that shallow at least on waters i fish

[Steamtrain]

Bibbs are inside out to dry and waiting to get the crotch area febreezed for storage. I finished my ice fishing season today jigging the weedy trout pond north of me. I might be the only one who calls it a trout pond. Left the tip ups at home and just jigged. The area by the launch which I started at was very slow amd after 5 holes the only marks on the fish finder being small perch, I decided to head across the pond to the weed bed which I get trout on tipups.
No trout today but landed an 11inch bass and a nice yellow perch (Wormy—not eaters) and a bunch of little yellows.

[Lv2hunt]

Good way to close it out!