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Might be old news for some of you. When Perch fishing I learned to hook my minnows at the back end of the dorsal fin (on the body above the spine) so the head is hanging down slightly. This compared to hooking it in the dorsal and have the minnow hang level. The fish come up from the bottom and strike the head first. My catch rate improved drastically.
Although its a dead bait Pike technique the logic make sense...why wouldn't it work scaled down and with live bait and a single hook placement 4:57 mark
When Perch fishing I learned to hook my minnows at the back end of the dorsal fin (on the body above the spine) so the head is hanging down slightly.
I learned i have enough icefishing gear and i am no longer buying anything new but bait.why invest when the season gets shorter and shorter and prices go higher and higher.i already have a hoard of gear.think im back up to 5 flasher/fish finders.
I learned that government lockdowns (here in Canada) while paying people to stay home from work indefinitely, end up promoting fishing like never before. Never seen as many people out ice fishing on weekdays as last season, on spots where I'm normally alone. Now that the free ride finally expired for most people, hoping to have some more ice to myself again this season.
My buddy and I ice fish a lake with large weed flats ( they extend 3/4 to a mile out from shore and 2-3 miles wide across the entire end of the lake. Water depth in the weeds run from 1' at shore to 10 to 12 feet out at the far edges). The weeds stay mostly upright throughout the ice season and are hard to fish in the Winter. There are quit a few sparse weed pockets throughout and most fishermen move around trying and find these pockets to fish in. Lake bottom is a gradual slope out the 40 ft. Perch caught within the weeds run about 4'-8" with a occasional 10" fish. As large as this weed flats are when you get hundreds of fishermen wandering around looking for the spare weed pockets and continually cutting holes, the fish bite can be difficult. It was the 2nd or 3rd ice trip to this lake last year that we decided to get away from all the fishermen, so we moved quit a ways out beyond the last hut. I cut a sting of holes and found weeds at the 1st two and the other holes were weed free. I had found the weed edge and no one within 400-500 yds of us. The rest of the day we were into some very nice perch 9 - 11" as average and two of us catch around 75. Needless to say we went out to the weed edge the rest of the season and no one caught on. Lesson: get out away from the crowd.
I learned that even if we had ice in Texas we wouldn't ice fish.Hell, it'd take all day to chop a hole big enough to get the boat in...
Local fishing notable Spence Petros also won’t ice fish. He said he couldn’t get the hang of casting into the hole.
I grew up targeting trout, because that's what my grandfather went ice fishing for and I went with him. Only recently did I start targeting panfish through the ice. I better learned where to catch them.I also learned a valuable lesson while ice fishing in Erie too.
Care to share what your lesson was for fishing Erie? Was it Erie, PA or are you talking Lake Erie (western basin) in general? Just curious because I went all-in to ice fishing after the 2014/15 Lake Erie ice season, but have since learned that it's not too often we get the opportunity to fishi it! Got out a couple days last year, but it was as sketchy as can be.
I was fishing the Presque Isle Bay area and, after doing some hole hopping, lost track of the ice in relation to the shore line. The wind had been probably a consistent 35-50 mph all day and the ice got blew off the shore line. Needed ice rescued by the US Coast Guard. I live 4.5hrs away so it was definitely an eventful first time ice fishing the Erie area. Definitely going again, but will pay better attention.
Fishing with a camera is an absolute blast. Really helps show fish behavior when they are being finicky. Also learned that I may need to downsize my gear for trips. I’ve been using an otter lodge as a one man. I got a cottage at the end of the year and I am really enjoying it. Also if the fish aren’t biting somewhere get the hell out. Wasted an entire day of a South Dakota trip waiting for a bite window that never opened.