IceShanty.com's Ice Fishing Community
Maine => Ice Fishing Maine => Topic started by: Seamonkey84 on Feb 19, 2024, 06:05 PM
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I went out to try for my first hardwater pike. We were on foot so we didn’t go too far from the boat launch. We didn’t get any flags, but I didn’t really see others going for flags either. One person next to us got two, and he was using md/sm shiners, and I was using lg goldens. Though I don’t think my bait was even close to the depth I wanted them to be at, since the 2-3 split shots I used wasn’t enough to keep the 5-7” goldens from swimming all over. Should I put a 1/8oz sinker above the swivel? Would that even be enough?
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Usually a big split shot 6-8” above the shiner does the trick. Never really had a problem with shiners swimming down the hole.
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Pike up their are caught more at n. end of lake and off west shore area
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These are very lively golden shiners, 5-7” in length. They’re swimming off to the side, pulling the line at steep angle and doing circles pulling on their “leash”. Kinda surprised that they didn’t set the flags off honestly. Watching the way the line moved, there were times I though it looks like it’s trying to get away from something suddenly, but nothing came of it. I’m going to try a bullet weight or loop on casting weights till they are relatively anchored below the hole.
I know the north end is where there tends to be more action, I’ve fished it in a boat a few times. Problem is I don’t know about any public access parking spots on the north end, and we are on foot. Prob going to give it a try again on Wednesday, I still have some large bait that I want to use up.
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These are very lively golden shiners, 5-7” in length. They’re swimming off to the side, pulling the line at steep angle and doing circles pulling on their “leash”. Kinda surprised that they didn’t set the flags off honestly. Watching the way the line moved, there were times I though it looks like it’s trying to get away from something suddenly, but nothing came of it. I’m going to try a bullet weight or loop on casting weights till they are relatively anchored below the hole.
I know the north end is where there tends to be more action, I’ve fished it in a boat a few times. Problem is I don’t know about any public access parking spots on the north end, and we are on foot. Prob going to give it a try again on Wednesday, I still have some large bait that I want to use up.
Try nasons beach off sawyer rd. Guys used to park there in years past.
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These are very lively golden shiners, 5-7” in length. They’re swimming off to the side, pulling the line at steep angle and doing circles pulling on their “leash”. Kinda surprised that they didn’t set the flags off honestly. Watching the way the line moved, there were times I though it looks like it’s trying to get away from something suddenly, but nothing came of it. I’m going to try a bullet weight or loop on casting weights till they are relatively anchored below the hole.
I know the north end is where there tends to be more action, I’ve fished it in a boat a few times. Problem is I don’t know about any public access parking spots on the north end, and we are on foot. Prob going to give it a try again on Wednesday, I still have some large bait that I want to use up.
Fishing pleasant pond Wednesday for the same fish if you wanna join
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Can slow large baits like that down with scissors some tail clip and fin too. I find no split shot and clipping there tail and fin I get less tangles. I've noticed rugged ones will swim circles above split shot sometimes leaving awful nest
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1. ) On that day, maybe the pike preferred smaller bait, however it seems like you would have gotten at least 1 flag with the large shiners. FIND THE WEEDBEDS if you want pike.
2.) In NY lakes, I usually hang the minnow 3 feet off the bottom. On the occassion in which I am fishing in a very dense weedbed, I will check the bait after the 1st 30 minutes to make sure it is not tangled in the weeds. If it is, then I lift it even higher to have it just above the weed tops.
3.) A larger sinker should achieve keeping the big shiner down, but don't overdo it with the weight of that sinker. Use just enough to keep it down.
4.) I don't usually suspend my pike baits halfway down, but I have accidentally caught pike on a few tipups that I did have bait suspended halfway down in 20 FOW before, so they will come up and look for bait. Having your shiner going up and down or staying up may not be ideal but does not prevent flags altogether.
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Nows the time to fush the goldens dead. Kill them by the hole, pop the swim bladder and let them sink to the bottom.
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Buy a sucker for bait and cut out chuncks lay on bottom, If you catch a chub cut out chunks goog bait
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On the bright side, there a lot more trout in there now that all the benefits of the pike bounty have kicked in.
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Blue skies never good
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I ended up going to little sabattus yesterday, another mostly sunny day. Got lots of flags on med shiners, and a few on the large ones, exciting but mostly lost bait. I’m thinking the perch got well fed without feeling the hook. Didn’t find any of them perch the little bit I jigged, but we did finally get 4 bass at last hour of sunlight. Still no pike.
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I ended up going to little sabattus yesterday, another mostly sunny day. Got lots of flags on med shiners, and a few on the large ones, exciting but mostly lost bait. I’m thinking the perch got well fed without feeling the hook. Didn’t find any of them perch the little bit I jigged, but we did finally get 4 bass at last hour of sunlight. Still no pike.
Not many pike in little sabattus during the winter due to low oxygen. North end of big sabattus is your best bet for a giant.
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Got out there again today for the last trip of the year. The boat launch was wide open. I was able to get on where the ice heaved up onto shore, only had about 6” of decent ice at most. Glad we were able to get it done, as both of us got our first ice fished pike.
(https://i.postimg.cc/5QjfkBxg/IMG-8110.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/5QjfkBxg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/7bQHJWVW/Resized-20240304-152737-1709585404251.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/7bQHJWVW)
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Good you got out and scored. Soft water season is almost here. I took my friends shopping for brook trout season yesterday and we have that to look forward to.
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( Soft water season is almost here. ) with warm nights and rain its HERE!!!
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Yea I saved a couple dozen shiners for ice out trolling, assuming it’s not too windy and my boat doesn’t have a leak in it after sitting for 3yrs.