good bait for perch??????

[Kevin21]

I'm the guy who asked about live bait and am from Pennsylvania.  We had ice for fishing in December and then we got our usual January thaw for the past 3 weeks so ice fishing hasn't been safe at all.  In fact they will be stocking the local lakes around me with trout on Wednesday and I'll be fishing from shore in open water, which sucks.  We can use any live bait we want.  Some guys even use rainbow trout for bait for muskies and northern pike.

[Tombo]

  Kevin21--That's a very short ice fishing season-but I guess as long as you can open-water fish, that helps. Live bait would be nice but I suppose they're trying to stop the introduction of foreign species plus to some extent the spread of micro organisms(disease) to other water bodies. I'm from Sask. Can. and we've had an unusually mild winter so far,the ice around here probably averages around 16in thick but we still have to be carefull as currents and under water springs will mean less ice. Will you get ice again or is that it for the year, I suppose it depends?Good luck fishing

[Kevin21]

We usually have ice every year for February and sometimes March.  It's always a weird weather pattern.  Very cold in December, then the January thaw(sometimes we can ice fish in January but not this year or last), then cold again in February and March.  Last year I fished all of February and March.