From: rigg@valeron.che.wisc.edu (Tim Rigg)
Subject: Re: Ice Fishing
Organization: University of Wisconsin-Madison, Chemical Engineering
Date: 13 Nov 92 10:04:30
In-reply-to: peder@tamarack.cray.com's message of 13 Nov 92 08:09:25 CST

In article <1992Nov13.080926.29429@hemlock.cray.com> peder@tamarack.cray.com (Peder Sterling) writes:

   Does anyone out there get into ice fishing?  I have gone ice fishing only
   once in my life, and that was way back when I was in cubs scouts ;-)

   What equipment is neccessary?  ...

There are two "kinds" of ice fishing.  The first is fishing for
panfish like bluegill (bream) and crappies.  The second is for real
fish like walleye and northern (pike).

The only piece of equipment common to both is an auger (and warm
clothes).  There are different size augers for different sized holes.
A 4-6 inch diameter is good for panfishing while a 6-8 (or 10) inch is
good for real fish.  A 6 inch is a nice all purpose auger.  $30

Now for panfishing.  The idea here is to use very small poles, light
line, small lures and little bobbers.  A basic panfishing pole has
plastic reel filled with 2-6 pound test.  There are a lot of ice
fishing jigs around.  Just pick some that look cool.  Put on a little
bobber, tie on you jig, put some sort of grub on the hook of the jig
and adjust your bobber so the jig is about 6 inches off the bottom.
Jiggle you bobber every once in a while and start pulling up the fish
by the bucket full (or move to a new spot and catch 3 all day).  Watch
some other folks for the fine points.

Now on to real fish.  The basic idea for the real fish is to use a tip
up with a large minnow and wait for the fish to take the minnow.  When
they strike the minnow, a flag goes up and you go try to catch the
fish.  A basic tip up has a spool filled with 20-30 pounds test ice
fishing string which is a braided line (monofilament doesn't work real
well).  

If you are going for walleye, you tie a 3 foot section of 6-8
pound test monofilament on the end and a #8 or 10 treble hook on that.
Put a moderately sized sinker about a foot above the hook and put on a
3 inch shiner or similar minnow.  Set the tip up so the minnow is
about 6 inches above the bottom.

If you want nothern pike, use the same set up but instead of mono, tie
a 8 inch steel leader to the braided fishing line.  Use a #2 or 4
treble hook and a sinker or two about a foot above the hook.  Put on
the biggest shiner or sucker you can find and set the tip up so the
minnow is about 6 inches from the bottom.

Now you need to wait (and wait and wait...) so you might want a warm
place like an ice house or shanty.  This is where the heater and beer
comes in.  But I usually do most of my fishing in the morning so the
beer is usually replaced with coffee.   But just a place out of the
wind is usually good enough if you are dressed warm enough.


Getting a decent fish on the ice after he trips the tip up is not a
straightforward as it may seem.  Northern and walleye usually hit the
minnow pretty hard and move away a few feet.  They will then sit there
and mouth the minnow for while with the minnow sideways in their
mouth.  After a while, they turn the minnow around so its head is
facing down its thought and then swallow it.  After turning the
minnow, the fish will swim off. The standard technigue is to go over
to the tip up and watch it for a while.  If the fish is taking out
line, you set the hook and try to pull him up.  If he is not taking
line, you wait until he does.  Once you get the hook set, you need to
pull hard enough to get the fish up but not hard enough to break the
line.  If he starts making a run for it, let some line run through you
fingers like a drag on reel.  Eventually he'll get tired and you will
get him through the hole.

Now that you've got him on the ice you need to decide if you going to
keep him.  If he's small or you don't want to keep him, quickly remove
the hook or cut the line and put him back through the hole.  You
should do this pretty quickly or his gills will freeze and he'll die
later.  If you are going to keep him, just remove the hook and let him
sit on the ice.  They lose consciousness pretty quickly due to the
cold.

This has turned out to be much longer winded than I intended so I'll
stop here.  Good luck,

tim
--
    ...  Then they came for me,
	   and by that time there was no one
	     left to speak up for me. (Rev. Martin Niemoller, 1945)

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