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do you have locater?
If your fishing a ledge thats a start. Try moving up on the ledge until you find the weedline and fish right oon the edge of. Since you dont have a locator start by jigging just off the bottom. Then every few minutes if you dont get bit move up a foot or so and repeat until you hopefully find the fish. Crappies will suspend at this time of year and you will need to be slightly above them for them to see your bait. Crappies feed up from underneath their prey so you will need to stay just above them for them to see it not below.Just a few quick tips to get you started. Good Luck!!Kelly
I'm no expert on jigging, but I'd say the jig is fine, you just need to find the fish. Try tipping the pimple with a spike or mousie. The first time I ever ice fished, I caught perch on a pimple that wasn't tipped with anything. Finding the fish is the hard part. Once you find them, you'll catch em. Good luck.
If it's just Perch and Crappie you are after, I think a pimple is maybe overkill. Lots of the panfish in my area will not hit big lures. Try starting with the pimple if you like, but be sure to bring some real small jigs. White with glow colors have worked well for me. We tip it with wax worms/maggots and the crappie and perch eat it up. Sometimes a small minnow will work just as well if not better. Let the fish tell you what they want.Without a flasher you have 2 options. 1) the guy above stated it perect. Start on the bottom, jig up if you don;t get bites. Keep raising the bait until you find the level the fish are at.2) Just go find the crowds. Set-up reasonably close to other shacks. More than likely they have flashers and are set-up on or at least near fish. Just keep a respectable distance and don't go right on top of them. 20-30 feet or so of space is plenty in reality. Maybe give it a little more if it's only a small gathering of people. But if the crowds are dense, get right on in there.Hope this helps...and if you enjoy it, start saving for that flasher! You won't regret it.
Depending on the amount of lines you are allowed...it helps to sometime stagger the distance off the bottom....1 lure a foot off, second 2 feet off or more. Use a dead stick on one line maybe? Just change it up and move. And if you see someone with a Vex...maybe ask them where they are marking fish and adjust. 18" up is a good starting point I suppose. Right off the bottom may put you below cruising fish. You can fish there for the perch...but it never hurt to raise that jig about 4..even 5' off the bottom with the rod up near your shoulders. Jig it....drop it 6 inches and hold....jig it....drop it 6" and hold. Once a fish sees it, they may decide to pursue it as it drops. And with crappie, you may get a what I call a negative hit many times. They will come up underneath, hit the bait, and continue upward and you won't see it unless you have a spring bobber. This is another reason to not use a split shot. If you have even 6" between the shot and your jig, it allows a fish 1' to swim up undetected. Also look for side to side movement of your line. Crappies are soft biters so you have a challenge...and that can be rewarding young man. Best of luck.
Try tying on a really small jig with 2 lb test line right on to the hook of the swedish pimple, let the jig hang down about 4 inches below the swedish pimple and tip it with a waxie, that is called a dropper rig. I have been killing them with it. The big spoon attracts them and then they hit on the small jig. The fish I have been catching are right on the bottom or coming just off the bottom maybe 2 feet up off the bottom.
will 4lb fluoro work?
If you cannot afford the 2lb right now and have 4lb.... give it a try. Lighter line will be less likely for fish to see it, but 2lb to 4 lb isnt too bad, not like going from 2lb to 8lb. Give it a try and keep us upated since I am sure we would like to see you posting about a good day catching fish.Matt
If you know there are fish in the area you are fishing set tipups in a circle in that area with fatheads or shiners a foot or two above the bottom this will help you follow the schools also if you are with a bunch of people who have tipups you can set them in a large grid pattern and will also work. If you are just gonna jig sometimes the fish will want the bait dead still, constant action slow or fast, or just a little twitch here and there all this things are just things your gonna have to try from day to day your presentation might need to be different in motion or color and some days it just doesn't matter
When I first started icefishing and didn't have a fish finder I would try the deepest spots first. It seemed to work for me.
If you are out fishing and there are people fishing, just talk to them. Ice fishermen, including myself, are more than happy to share tips with fellow ice fishermen.
killed em on rock pond in georgetown. over 100 tipups and 20 fish. over 45 percent of my tipups were wind but still 5 perch 3 bass and 3 pickeral
Not too shabby...lol. At least you must have been busy while out on the lake. BTW, if a lot of your flags might be due to the wind, turn your tipup 180 degrees when setting it on the ice and it should reduce the chances greatly of the wind causing the false flags. Other than that, sounds like you have it figured out. I tried a new lake today and got something unexpected. I was the only idiot out fishing and found out why in a hurry. Within 30 minutes of me setting up, here comes the trucks and trailers with the ice racing snowmobiles and atvs coming out to practice on the 70 acre lake I decided to fish in peace and quiet. Not trying that one again on a weekend...lol.Matt
Hey Quantumreel........... ..In one of your posts, you commented that you were getting skunked at winni. Is that in Minnesota? If so, that is probably Winnibigosh (loaded with fish)?? Either way........to catch fish, you have to be on fish and it helps of course to fish lakes that have good numbers of fish. As previous posts have stated, keep your eyes open on what others in your group are doing and talk to them and other folks on the ice. Whether on the ice or in a boat, I am constantly watching others to see if there is a "bite" taking place. And also paying attention to the areas that are being fished. For perch and crappie, a plain small hook (with split shot) and a lively crappie minnow will catch fish. If you are intent on using jigs, would keep them on the smaller size for crappie (can go bigger like you are with a pimple for perch). Good luck. One good day of fishing will make up for many poor days.
