Targeting browns?

[jflood]

I have had luck with bows through the ice. Not so much with browns. Should I set up differently for browns I was thinking just under the ice in shallow water (5- 15fow) with emerald shiners and/or with a varerity of grubs and crayfish. should I be setting up off the bottom. Not really sure  Suggestions early ice is a coming....I hope

[salmotrutta]

I would set traps just under the ice over the deepest water.

[baldy]

We have had pretty good success fishing within 5 ft of bottom just off rocky ledges in 30-40 ft of water.  A lot of crayfish so we use the brown/green/orange colorred jigs.  Been using more and more tube jigs with scent.
We seem to catch more browns in spots like this as opposed to the bows off of flat bottoms.
Nick

[MikeVT]

If you have a gravel bottom , browns also like to cruise the shoreline.  Some of my biggest browns throught the ice have been taken with the bait just under the ice, in 3-4 feet of water just off the shoreline.  Sounds kind of strange but it works.

[deadsmelthead]

If you have a gravel bottom , browns also like to cruise the shoreline.  Some of my biggest browns throught the ice have been taken with the bait just under the ice, in 3-4 feet of water just off the shoreline.  Sounds kind of strange but it works.

DITO, caught a few slob Bowns, in less the 5fow it seems the overcast days are when this tactic works best for me. Sunny days I will still leave a tip up or 2 in shallow for a few hours and I have caught them in shallow on sunny days BUT When the sun is beating down they seem to suspend in deeper water. Bigest thing I would recomend is mixing it up.Shallow and semi deep, varying bait sizes at first until you get on them can make or break your day.

I also recomend looking at the solar and lunar times also IMO you could bet your last dollar Browns will become very active in accordence with them. More so with a mid day moonset.

[jflood]

DITO, caught a few slob Bowns, in less the 5fow it seems the overcast days are when this tactic works best for me. Sunny days I will still leave a tip up or 2 in shallow for a few hours and I have caught them in shallow on sunny days BUT When the sun is beating down they seem to suspend in deeper water. Bigest thing I would recomend is mixing it up.Shallow and semi deep, varying bait sizes at first until you get on them can make or break your day.

I also recomend looking at the solar and lunar times also IMO you could bet your last dollar Browns will become very active in accordence with them. More so with a mid day moonset.

I go to the weather.com and the have a fishing forecast. it does reference moon phases..is that the same thing your talking about

Any preferences on bait

[deadsmelthead]

I go to the weather.com and the have a fishing forecast. it does reference moon phases..is that the same thing your talking about

Any preferences on bait

Yup, I didn't mention it all that much because some people think its hogwash. Anyway I like fishing during Majors and Minors with a monrise or moonset within a couple hours of them. Sometimes it happens at night sometime during the day.

 As far as bait, I prefer traping my own but with all the new regs here in NY, I'm not even going to bother anymore. I liked useing creek chubs, shiners, darters, red bellied dace, 2-3 inches long, my favorite would be mud minnows the same size. Jigging I use small jiging raps and pimples.

[MeadowPikeman]

we can't use live bait here in sask but would like to target browns was wondering what i should use on my tip ups

[adkbrookie]

we can't use live bait here in sask but would like to target browns was wondering what i should use on my tip ups

what are you using to catch those pike if you aren't allowed to use live bait and you fish tipups? or acn you only use dead baits .

[deadsmelthead]

we can't use live bait here in sask but would like to target browns was wondering what i should use on my tip ups

I've tried on several occasions to catch Browns on dead bait. I went as far as putting gobs of power bait on the dead monnows and, NADA.
Never once , I still try a tip up or 2 now and then and nothing.. I think a good question to throw out there would be.

Anyone here ever catch Browns with any success on dead bait ? Not I.

[MeadowPikeman]

all the the pike we catch are indeed on dead baits like dead herring and ciscoes.

[akdg]

I've tried on several occasions to catch Browns on dead bait. I went as far as putting gobs of power bait on the dead monnows and, NADA.
Never once , I still try a tip up or 2 now and then and nothing.. I think a good question to throw out there would.

Anyone here ever catch Browns with any success on dead bait ? Not I.

We used to catch them on dead smelt all the time.  Don't fish for them much anymore but have caught a few in the last couple years on dead smelt if we were fishing in a lake that had browns in it.  We used to get them in the shallows 3-6' at first ice, then suspended down to 15' later in the season.

[Polar]

live minnows just off the weed edge. put one bait just below the ice thickness and run the others about 1 ft off bottom in 5-9 fow. This works great in the body of water which I fish. it's a man made lake of about 50 acres with the average depth of 10 ft and a few spots 16-25 ft.

[jflood]

caught 2 yesterday in 3-5 fow on trout worms. the larger one had 2 frogs in his belly

[deadsmelthead]

caught 2 yesterday in 3-5 fow on trout worms. the larger one had 2 frogs in his belly

Just curious Jflood do you fish your worms on the bottom or do you suspend them ? I can never make up my mind...

I have also caught browns with some frogies in their gut along with a pile of dirt I always find it interesting though.

[brandan]

caught 2 yesterday in 3-5 fow on trout worms. the larger one had 2 frogs in his belly

Jim,

Caught two on Friday in the north branch of the Saranac River. The large one also had a frog in its belly.  They must have to dig in the mud for them this time of year.  The stream was just about iced in on saturday after 6" of snow and temps below zero Friday night.  Glad I got a chance to fish it when I did.  This will truly mark the end of stream fishing for me until spring.  Noticed that Colby was still open.  It will be a few weeks before I find my way to hard water.  Glad to hear you found a spot you could fish for trout up there.  I have a buddy up in the Grafton area.  I will be checking in on Shaver regularly.

Eric