advice for a rookie...

TinBoats.net

Help Support TinBoats.net:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

shawnfish

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 17, 2010
Messages
924
Reaction score
0
Location
OMAHA NE
besides gear and what not, what is the best way to locate panfish during early ice in a more or less featureless lake? (no real structure and limited cover ie.. trees) with an average lake depth of 10 -12 ft..
 
I usually start over the deepest water in the lake be it 40 feet or 15. If the fish aren't there early in the day try fising the weed beds mid day and more back to that deep hole around sunset.
 
Find out what your regs are for tip-ups (or tip-downs which are better for panfish). For example New York State currently allows 5 tip-ups and three poles per person (this will change until next spring when new regs go into effect). What this means is if I go fishing with my father we can have a total of 10 tip-ups. I generally set up a "base camp" on the ice (sometimes with a shelter). At the "base camp" we each sit on a bucket with three holes near each bucket to fish with rods. We then set up the tip-ups. Preferably we space each tip-up 10 yards apart and create create either a v with the base camp forming the spot where the two lines meet or we put the base camp in the middle of a straight line with tip-ups on either side. This allows us to cover a lot of water on the lake. Ideally your setting up along a weed line or putting the tip-ups at different depths. Also use different baits like minnows on some and wax worms on others.

There is a disadvantage to setting up this way. Although you can move tip-ups or your base camp, it does take a long time to set up. Also last winter was brutal and I was drilling 17 or 18 holes through 2-3 feet of ice with a 5 inch hand auger. This year I am going propane.

One other piece of advice is to scout out the lake ahead of time. Mark weedlines or changes in depth with a handheld GPS.
 

Latest posts

Top