Are they all over the lake or do they hold around stucture(ie. shoals, humps, off points or around islands)? Any help would be appreciated! Ice fishing for Lakers
Ice fishing for Lakers
I'm thinking of going up to my cottage at the end of the month to try and get some lakers through the ice. What are the best baits/techniques to use? I'm a total rookie when it comes to Lakers! Are they all over the lake or do they hold around stucture(ie. shoals, humps, off points or around islands)? Any help would be appreciated!
Are they all over the lake or do they hold around stucture(ie. shoals, humps, off points or around islands)? Any help would be appreciated! I'm a goin' fishin', mama's goin' fishin' and my baby's goin fishin' too.
.......Taj Mahal.... "Fishin' Blues"
.......Taj Mahal.... "Fishin' Blues"
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Northern King
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I have only tried ice fishing for lakers once up towards Killaloe area and had no success but I would like to try for them again. Here is a good arrticle about ice fish lakers:http://www.fishontario.com/ice-fishing/ ... index.html
Hey bowzog, you got it right with shoals, humps, and structure.
I'm a rookie anglers who's tried lakers thru the ice only a couple times, and the following is what I found worked so far.
The best tried and tested set-up is a splitshot, hook, and minnow. Depending on the size of the lakers in your lake, buy the size of minnows accordingly. I usually start try with a minnow on bottom, and if my ff are marking them cruising higher, I add one more hook about 5' above. Usually when you have lakers, you might have Lings & Whitefish in the same lake, and having a minnow on bottom might let you score on these fish too.
If you're jigging, a half/half Williams, size 40-60 are a good choice, Mr. Champs, Vengulars, and banana jigs also work.
My gf caught a 10# with a pearl white w/ pink dots banana jig tipped with a minnow and I got a 6# ling and 4.5&5# laker on my Williams with a pearl on a treble, tipped with a medium sized minnow.
If you see those clip on floats, they're good strike indicators to have. I had 2 hits where the float went flat, and finding it odd, I reeled in the slack, and set the hook...these lakers picked up my minnow off bottom, and came up.
If the lake you're in is very deep like ~100 fow, then look for humps/shoals at 45-60 ft. Having a good depth chart/map of your lake would definitely help.
Make sure your rod is on a secure holder, or you might have to say bye, bye to your set-up
Good luck on your laker hunting, and I look forwad to your report.
VB
I'm a rookie anglers who's tried lakers thru the ice only a couple times, and the following is what I found worked so far.
The best tried and tested set-up is a splitshot, hook, and minnow. Depending on the size of the lakers in your lake, buy the size of minnows accordingly. I usually start try with a minnow on bottom, and if my ff are marking them cruising higher, I add one more hook about 5' above. Usually when you have lakers, you might have Lings & Whitefish in the same lake, and having a minnow on bottom might let you score on these fish too.
If you're jigging, a half/half Williams, size 40-60 are a good choice, Mr. Champs, Vengulars, and banana jigs also work.
My gf caught a 10# with a pearl white w/ pink dots banana jig tipped with a minnow and I got a 6# ling and 4.5&5# laker on my Williams with a pearl on a treble, tipped with a medium sized minnow.
If you see those clip on floats, they're good strike indicators to have. I had 2 hits where the float went flat, and finding it odd, I reeled in the slack, and set the hook...these lakers picked up my minnow off bottom, and came up.
If the lake you're in is very deep like ~100 fow, then look for humps/shoals at 45-60 ft. Having a good depth chart/map of your lake would definitely help.
Make sure your rod is on a secure holder, or you might have to say bye, bye to your set-up
Good luck on your laker hunting, and I look forwad to your report.
VB
For lakers, one piece of equipement that is very important is the Windlass tip-up. We have caught plenty of fish with these and the strikes are very impressive. Bang, you hear the metal plate hitting the ice and the spool peeling off at an incredible pace. On these contraptions, a spoon+5 inches of line+a hook and minnow will work. Will beat regular tip-ups 10-1 if the wind is up and if tweeked properly obviously.
On the jigging rod, a quarter ounce jighead with a micro-tube from berkeley works wonders. This set-up looks wierd (jigead looks oversized for the tube) but it works. While double-handing jigging rods, one with a spoon and one with the jig, the jig gets almost all the action. For spoons, can't go wrong with a Sutton west-river if you can find them. Williams whitefish, sidewinders and cleos have caught fish also. We have found that spoons that flutter work best and, contrary to summer fishing, small is best (for us anyways). Add minnow parts.
Haven't caught anything on regular-sized tubes but many poeple swear by them so could be worth a shot.
When jigging deeper water, don't be afraid to jig higher up. If you don't have a fish-finder, start at the bottom, reel 5 feet, 3 minutes, reel 5 more feet, 3 minutes again etc etc.
Manny
On the jigging rod, a quarter ounce jighead with a micro-tube from berkeley works wonders. This set-up looks wierd (jigead looks oversized for the tube) but it works. While double-handing jigging rods, one with a spoon and one with the jig, the jig gets almost all the action. For spoons, can't go wrong with a Sutton west-river if you can find them. Williams whitefish, sidewinders and cleos have caught fish also. We have found that spoons that flutter work best and, contrary to summer fishing, small is best (for us anyways). Add minnow parts.
Haven't caught anything on regular-sized tubes but many poeple swear by them so could be worth a shot.
When jigging deeper water, don't be afraid to jig higher up. If you don't have a fish-finder, start at the bottom, reel 5 feet, 3 minutes, reel 5 more feet, 3 minutes again etc etc.
Manny
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