Ice Fishing Tips

Living in Wisconsin for several years, I was used to eating fresh fish almost every Friday. But there is nothing like catching your own fish through the ice. Picking an ice fishing spot is a chore. Sure you can follow all the other ice fisherman and even use there holes the next day when they are gone. But I was taught by a life long ice fisherman how to find and evaluate a good ice fishing spot.

First off we normally fish rivers that we pretty much feel at home at. For us they really are more productive and not as many ice fisherman were to be found on the rivers we fish. We always look for our spots in the summer. Mostly we search for back waters that will not freeze tight in the winter. We put in a canoe up stream and

float down the river checking out many different back waters. We try to determine how we can get access in the winter without trespassing on anyones property.

When winter arrives and the river is safe for traveling we would go back to the spot that we think would be productive for the type of fishing we enjoy. I like pan fish so we normally jig through the ice, using a live minnow with a small colored jig. We test the depth with a clip on weight. Jig on the bottom and if you do not get any bites move up six inches, continue to do this until you catch a fish. If you do not catch a fish change your jig. Sometimes we have had to try several depths and several different colored jigs before we found the right water depth and color of jig to use. After we find the depth we set our lines to stay at that level of course. My friend taught me this method and I can say that we have never come home with out fish. A few times we haven't had as many as we would have liked to have. But we always catch fish. Wisconsin pan fish is great when you bread them with saltines, and fry them.