Some interesting information

[Iceassin]

Last night, I went to an ice fishing seminar where members of the U.S. Ice Team and current NAIFC participants spoke on a variety of ice fishing topics and techniques, some I knew and some I was a little surprised at. Here's a few:

1) Most fish with rods 24" or less.
2) Tungsten horizontals in 3 to 4mm were the jigs of choice. One said he'll start with a 5mm and go down from there. Rarely do they use verticals. And colors didn't seem to matter much. But they did say on overcast days use dark colors, sunny days, use light. Didn't even mention water clarity. Presentation is the key.
3) Barometric pressure. They have had success and failures when it's going up, down or steady. If you find what they like, they will bite.
4) All said they prefer live bait over plastics for Bluegill. A couple of them said they do use plastics for Crappie. Wigglers were mentioned for perch.
5) They drill nothing larger than 5" holes, they don't like 10" for sure. As for cordless drills or augers, no preferences.
6) Line. 2 or 3# mono. None use fluoro.
7) None use float bobbers ( no surprise ). Wires or tight line.
8) No fas-snaps...all tie direct. Preferred knots varied.No mention of using swivels.
9) When fishing tournaments in Europe...electronics are forbidden.

The one guy who's setup I found most interesting...a Schooley reel with 5# hi-vis yellow line using no clear leader. 24" rod on the light to medium light side...doesn't like them "whippy". No indicator...strictly tight line. And I believe he said he/partner took 2nd in world championship last year.

And another thing I thought was nice? Free venison burgers and deep fried walleye...

Anyway, just some fun stuff...I thought.

[RyanW]

That  is interesting. I find the hole size to be intriguing. I wonder if it’s more of a time-saver thing or a safety concern. Probably both.

Minus the tungsten jigs, that last setup reminds me a lot of how my brother taught me to ice fish in the early 90’s. Schooley’s, no electronics, 6” hole, heavy line, live bait, no leaders and a lot of line watching. Now I take all the modern luxuries I can afford. To the good ol’ days 

[Iceassin]

That  is interesting. I find the hole size to be intriguing. I wonder if it’s more of a time-saver thing or a safety concern. Probably both.

Minus the tungsten jigs, that last setup reminds me a lot of how my brother taught me to ice fish in the early 90’s. Schooley’s, no electronics, 6” hole, heavy line, live bait, no leaders and a lot of line watching. Now I take all the modern luxuries I can afford. To the good ol’ days 

Yup...hole size as you mentioned...safety and time saving. They even talked about not really needing anything bigger than 6" for the pike here Michigan. Ok...there are exceptions.

As for that last setup...it's how I started in the late 60's. 😉

[slipperybob]

Tournament/competition fishing is different from recreational/therapy fishing. 

There's a reason I go with a large hole size...I'm camping in that spot and I'm not moving when it's subzero temps.  That 5" hole will become 4" hole in 30 minutes...

[Bucket Rump]

My Dad used a 4" for many, many years chasing bluegills, but he hand drilled.  I used nothing larger than a 6" until last year when I went to an 8" because I wanted to start using an Ice Well Live Well.  I never had an issue with getting fish up from those smaller holes, but I also can't say that moving to an 8" has lowered my catch rate.

I'm somewhat surprised they go with mono over floro leaders.

[hardwater diehard]

Tournament/competition fishing is different from recreational/therapy

Very intresting points from a competition stand point..

[esox_xtm]

Competition fishing is very a very different animal than fishing for fun. As a veteran of a coupla decades of tournament fishing our first lesson was that we needed to fish faster and more efficiently because there is only a limited amount of time allotted. There were two sides to that: 1.) Find fish and really be methodical to try to turn a negative or neutral fish into a biter. 2.) Set the trolling motor on 3 - 5, tie on a medium size bucktail you can fish quickly and efficiently and cover water. Both strategies worked usually one better than the other depending.

The list offered pretty much is geared toward efficient fishing.

1) Most fish with rods 24" or less. Short rods tangle less and can be fished aggressively in a confined space. Plus you can tote more shorter rods more efficiently than the same number of longer rigs.

2) Tungsten horizontals in 3 to 4mm were the jigs of choice. One said he'll start with a 5mm and go down from there. Rarely do they use verticals. And colors didn't seem to matter much. But they did say on overcast days use dark colors, sunny days, use light. Didn't even mention water clarity. Presentation is the key. Choosing a lure that is "general purpose" allows its appeal to a larger population of potential targets. Once you begin to catch you can try to fine tune the pattern.

3) Barometric pressure. They have had success and failures when it's going up, down or steady. If you find what they like, they will bite. In competition you can't choose weather or moon phase. Even for fun many of us only have certain days when we are able to fish and cannot always choose optimum conditions. There are some fish that will always bite something, somewhere. It's just a matter of finding where the biters are and what they want.

4) All said they prefer live bait over plastics for Bluegill. A couple of them said they do use plastics for Crappie. Wigglers were mentioned for perch. Nothin' rings a dinner bell like real meat. When the money is on the line better have a buffet in yer pocket. Sure plastics work often and are better when the bite is really on. But day in day out if you need fish better have some kinda meat available. Sometimes you have to balance efficiency with effectiveness.

5) They drill nothing larger than 5" holes, they don't like 10" for sure. As for cordless drills or augers, no preferences. Simply a time saver. None of those competition guys are targeting pike. There are probably some walleye events and I'd bet those fellas are in an 8" hole just to make it easier to get that winner into the hole.

6) Line. 2 or 3# mono. None use fluoro. Light line, general purpose, don't need a leader. EZPZ and stripped down efficient.

7) None use float bobbers ( no surprise ). Wires or tight line. Yep. Self explanatory...

8) No fas-snaps...all tie direct. Preferred knots varied.No mention of using swivels. Yep. Eliminate any extra terminal tackle steps and minimize potential failure points.

9) When fishing tournaments in Europe...electronics are forbidden. Yeah, well, they pay for petrol by the liter too... 

[Iceassin]

Tournament/competition fishing is different from recreational/therapy fishing. 

There's a reason I go with a large hole size...I'm camping in that spot and I'm not moving when it's subzero temps.  That 5" hole will become 4" hole in 30 minutes...

Not if you're pulling up fish fast enough. Keeps it cleaned out pretty good. 

As for tourney vs. recreational,  I would say my rec fishing is kind of tourney style: 

1) I travel light with no shelter on most days. I can carry my locator, 3 rods, small bucket and skimmer in one hand( it's an all-in-one package)...drill/auger in the other.
2) I rarely sit over one hole. It's not often I get a limit (25 here in Michigan) of gills out of one hole. I may go back to it later though.
3) And I have the Smitty sled if I need to travel to another part of a lake. Toss everything in the tub and off I go. Back to step 1.

[slipperybob]

Not if you're pulling up fish fast enough. Keeps it cleaned out pretty good. 

LOL...until that fish get's stuck.  I remember the very first time I had to deal with the incredible shrinking hole...and it was during the crappie boom on Upper Red Lake.  Never had I ever encounter a crappie getting stuck in the hole, but it was stuck at the bottom of the ice hole.   Started with the 8" hole and when a 16" crappie gets stuck....darn that hole was way too small....

Then again if I had to smelt fish...after a hundred or so...pulling them up...I does get sort of tiresome and I wish them fish would slow down. 

[tommy-n]

sounds like I have been doing something right alll along
I do however prefer 28'' rods over the 24'' models

[DR.SPECKLER]

Im kind of a hunter fisherman.i will drill 5 to 8 holes in a area and if fish are there i sit and wait and pluck them off 1 by 1 and catch most my limits in just a few holes.but if theres no fish i will move and start over.i go from sun up to sun down and in no hurry to get a limit.id wear myself out in a few hrs bouncing all over the place.i use short rods unless i am hole hopping then its 48” or longer to hole hope standing up.i slso dont tie on swivels or splitshots on my jigs.i find if i get fish in a hole that are keepers,they continue to come thru in waves all day long.if not i have tipups to watch mid day.getting a limit in a hr is nice but i truly enjoy being on the ice all day and throw back lots of fish guys would throw in a bucket.

[missoulafish]

Great post, thanks for sharing. Interesting !

[BK105]

No doubt Mike Bodecker was present, met him @ Kalkaska before.

[esox_xtm]

And there tends to be those two schools: The sitters and the stalkers. Dad always wondered why I was always on the move when I fished. Why didn't I just pick a good spot and wait for 'em to come to me, just like we hunted deer? Yet he'd often comment on our "arrogance" at picking a spot in the woods and expecting a deer to come along to let us shoot it.

I've come to learn there's a time and place for both approaches. If I could edit real life like video I'd never move 

[hnd]

everything a tournament fisherman does is for efficiency.  the rods, reels, augers, etc.  thats all giving them the ability to keep a bait in the water as long as possible.   

Most run their flashers with a bucket mount so they don't have to carry multiple things from hole to hole. 

For the casual fisherman, the thing to pay attention to the pros is the baits they use.    I spoke to a few while they were prefishing Cedar lake in MN.  many of them came poking around my spot which i didn't mind.  in return i peppered em with questions.  most loved to sit and talk shop for a few minutes.   He showed me his Just in case jig box and it had every color of 3-4mm tungsten you could imagine.  He was like, i haven't had to use that jig box in 4 years but i'll always have them.  His jig box that he always used had 3 colors.  bright chartruese/green/yellow,  like a natural perch color, and pink.

none of them had eyes.  he used pink or white plastics, he said that was basically it.   anything else is just to sell fisherman.   

[GBguy]

My go to setup for shallow water, 6' or less, is a schooley with one of those metal band spring bombers with the orange circle at the end. Set the depth so I can bounce the jig on the bottom without dipping the end in the water and good to go. Catch a fish, pull it up by hand and I'm right back to fishing.

[TheCrappieFisherman]

Good info.

I've heard the USA ice team guys only pay attention to line diameter, not pound's. Those palm rods they use are something completely different than most of us are used to

[Bigassbassman]

Interesting info, thanks for sharing!

Yeah, definitely tie direct for small tungstens.  And for me, the knot of choice is the surgeon's loop. It allows properly-balanced jigs to hang at the angle they were intended to.

Mono only is an interesting take.  For me, sometimes I'm chasing perch in 60 fow, so I like the sinking ability of fluoro (and better sensitivity of braid with a fluoro leader).  But if you're fishing in ~10 fow chasing gills, hole-hopping in sub-zero temps, I can definitely see the advantage of 2-3# mono.

[Bigassbassman]

I fish in 20-30 a lot for gills and specks using mono, hence the reason why I use mostly tungsten.

Yep, tungsten sure is nice to get it down quickly when the bite is on.  But 50,60,70+ fow, and the line choice other than mono can be a big factor, imo.

[SLAYERFISH]

What I get out of it is there's no need to over-think it.   Pan-optix? They are fishing like blind cave-men for gods sake!

[Bigassbassman]

Fish smarter, not harder!    

[Luckydog]

Interesting post.

[perch chacer]

I never changed from the original equipment and techniques I learned and used in the 60's accept today I added electronics, changed from direct tie lead horizontal jigs to tungsten (for drop speed), changed from a spoon auger to a spiral auger and changed from rocking a small float bobber back and forth just under the water surface to a spring bobber.  I still use my original short spooley rods with 4# line, direct tie horizontal jigs and a spring bobber and hand line all my pan fish.  A few years ago I started using small white plastics with wiggle tentigales with live white or pink grubs for the soft biting perch.  There still are the humbling days but for the most part I bring home sufficient perch and other guys ask me how I am doing that when they are just a few yards away.

[rdhammah]

I fish for crappie from a 6" hole til I start losing them at the hold because they bump the hole and get unhooked, then I go to a 7" hole.. no need to go bigger. sometimes, it's a tight fit through a 6" hole.

[Iceassin]

Another question that came up at the seminar was whether or not drilling a hole spooked fished, and all said it's not the drilling as much as it is the pulling up and down of the auger to clear the hole of slush and ice. Just drill it, get it out of the hole and thread your line through the remains. Something about the air bubbles created by over doing it is worse. I've always done it this way. As long as I can get my jig down through the slop, I was good. Less light through the hole the better.

[albo]

good information, thanks for sharing it. I have been ready to dump the 10" auger for quite a while. takes up too much space in the flip over for one and I am always nervous that little kids could fall in

[GitRDone]

Very Interesting. Thanks for posting

[Ice_Fly_Guy]

I've always kept some slush in the hole.  As long as I can get my jig to punch through it, I'm good.

As far as jig selection, I've really simplified my options in the last two seasons.  I've basically kept the same 3 jigs on the same 3 poles, and nearly always it seems one of them has done the job.  I haven't done much re-tying, and I don't think I've been missing out on fish.

[DR.SPECKLER]

My 3 colors i could have tied on all year are black,red and white.for panfish anyways.

[Iceassin]

My 3 colors i could have tied on all year are black,red and white.for panfish anyways.

And my 3 were gold, wonderbread and orange/chartreuse. The other 3 that were in my box that I didn't use...black, red and white. Go figure.