One of the most common things I hear at the bait shop or local cafe during the hard water season is that a person (or group) was "on fish" but they seemingly disappeared for no explainable reason. Perhaps the fish went home with other anglers and indeed did disappear or maybe the fish just adjusted to the fishing pressure and moved to a different location.

Open Water Preparation for Ice Fishing

Having several spots located on your favorite lake (and others) away from large crowds will give you the best chance at consistently catching more and better quality fish. The best time to find these type of spots is right now, from your boat rather than when the ice is here. Covering water with your electronics from a boat in September through November is much easier than using an auger. The single most important factor to making sure you're being efficient while searching out your hard water fishing spots from the boat is to know the lake and what it has to offer (i.e. vegetation, structure). If you're not sure, grab a map and have a look. For this part of the state, vegetation plays as big a role as any. Green weeds still standing at ice-up will hold fish because they give off oxygen that attracts microscopic plankton and baitfish. Baitfish draw larger species like panfish, walleyes, northern pike and bass. When scouting a lake, determine the weed line depth and then drive along it, looking for changes in depth, bottom content and weed line direction (i.e. inside and outside turns). Mark any changes, even if very slight, on your GPS. As it relates to depth change, the sharper drops are less likely to support vegetation versus those breaks that are more gradual and even "flat". Focus on the more gradual areas because they will have better and larger concentrations of vegetation and thus able to hold more baitfish/fish. Once you've established a weed line and everything about it, move deeper and look throughout the water column for suspended activity as well as any mid-lake structure that may (or may not) be available. Again, if you note anything, have your GPS powered up and ready. Repeat this process on several spots of one lake and then move on to the next lake. Sooner than you realize, not only will you have hard data to support your thoughts but you've also just created a "milk run" for each winter outing and a mental picture of what's "down there".

Great tip TO!

I found some aweasome small structure last fall that produced fish all winter. The best part was I had it to myself the whole year! All sumemer long it is a good idea to be keeping ice fishing in mind. If you find a small but very strong change in bottom content or a small rock pile while out trolling cranks, take note, it may be the "spot on the spot" come early ice.

The flip side to scouting for ice fishing in open water is that being on the ice allows you to get a very detailed look at a rock bar or point. You can check it from every angle and have time to put everything together, this allows you to fish more effectivly in the summer.

To help "map" structure out, I will often "write" the depth of the hole in the snow next to it. This lets me see in an instant how deep the water is and I can look around and know what the bottom looks like.

A very simple but effective way to stay organized while ice fishing. I started doing this after I saw you do this a few year's back. Always learning...

That is a great idea. I like to get out early afternoon and get my holes drilled and the depth scratched in the snow. Then I can go fish pannies or pike till evening. Once the sun starts to dip all I have to do is slush out the holes and start fishing. This really helps on shallow structures.

Thanks TO

September 2009 - "Tip of the Month" Ice fishing.
The best open water fishing of the year is about here and were talking Ice fishing. We just passed the half way mark of the open water season!

We just passed 5 months of open water fishing. Gosh, I hope we have another 5 before ice killing starts!

46 degrees this morning Gary. Might be a bit closer to Ice up then half way? But the river is always open!!

May 6th, June 6 th. July 6th and August 6th 4+ month of open water season down. Sept, Oct and November to go. My Avitar is form late November!

I never said you couldn't fish while scouting...

April 6! Carp are catchable! I would much prefer sunnies, though. April through August = 5 months softwater (thus far) for me.

Yea, come April will have everyone saying, I can't wait of the Season opener!

With the high water temps this time of year and do to the fact that water becomes less dense as it warms (except at the point just above freezing) you should concentrate your fishing efforts to deeper water then you were earlier in the year. With water less dense the zooplankton and other bait fish foods do not ride as high in the water coulomb and you will have to fish deeper to be in the zone. Combined this with high barometric pressure and you can setup ambush spots.

Look for choke points in the 12-20 FOW range where the zooplankton will be bunched together as it settles from the shallow water into the deeper water as high pressure moves in. Combined this with fishing the down wind side of the lake after the Low pressure front came through and your odds of catching fish will be much greater!

That is a September TIP!

I thought you bass fisherman where only after the HUGE fight fish put up?? A carp is more of a fight and more of a challange then sunnies!!!! You also can't be in it for the great tasting filet's cuz we all know what bass tastes like!! I am very confused now.

The way I see it there are only two kinds of fish. Big fish >10 lbs and little fish <10 lbs.

That is a good outlook, but you have to divide the <10 pounders into edible and non-edible. So if I am gonna fish for <10 lb fish I will usually chase the edible ones. Big fish for fun, little fish to eat and fun. My new outlook! Enough hijacking by me.....