If you ever need a quick depth sounder when ice-fishing, you can make one with a small bobber and bell sinker. Just attach the sinker to the bottom line retainer of the bobber and the hook or lure to the top retainer. This makes it easy to find the water’s depth.



One of the most effective tools for any ice fisherman is the fantastic Evening Secret to swarming hungry fish to your spot. A great way to increase your ice catches.

Falling through the ice

If you are out with a buddy ice fishing – and there is a possibility of breaking ice, make sure to stay at least 10 feet apart to spread out your weight. You should also each carry long poles; they can be used to straddle the hole to help you climb out. Make sure to have a poncho, waterproof matches, safety pins, bandages, knife, candles, bouillon cubes, and cocoa or soup. Put all of them in a watertight metal can which can be used to heat water over a candle in an emergency.

Freezing

If you are an ice fisherman and consistently have problems with your hole freezing up – instead of pouring anti-freeze into the hole (which shuts down fishing action), use denatured alcohol. It is less expensive, has no odor or taste, and is available at any pharmacy.

Bait

If you are an ice fisherman (which 2 million people are in the U.S.), the following bait will bring you even more success.

For Bluegills use tiny ice spoons (1/32 to 1/80 of an ounce), ice flies or No. 10 or 12 gold hooks. Tip them with gall worms, crane fly larvae, mousies, mealworms, wax worms, or maggots. Fish the offering with a light tremble or quivering movement. Try levels from one to three feet off bottom, over depths o f10 to 20 feet. A murky or weedy bottom is best for them.

For crappies, use a Swedish Pimple jiggling spoon, Rapala ice fishing plug or live minnows fished on No. 2 to 6 hooks. Crappies can suspend at just about any depth, from a few feet below the ice to just off bottom, in water from five to 20 feet deep. Move often.

Yellow perch – use the same baits as for crappies and bluegills. Also try jigging spoons sweetened with the eye from a freshly caught perch or a tiny strip of meat sliced from a perch or bluegill.

Trout – shoal areas, the mouths of inlets, and points have produced the most rainbows, browns and brookies through the ice. You can catch them on about every kind of bait or lure you can think of. Wet flies and nymphs with a sp lit-shot crimped a foot above for weight are good, as are minnows, spinners, jigging spoons and ice rapalas.

Pickerel, Pike, Muskies – live minnows or dead ones rigged to hang horizontally in the water are the best producers. Tip-ups allow you to spread your baits over a wide area in weedy coves and on points where these predators rove under the frozen lake’s surface searching for prey.

Walleyes – reefs, points, inlets and outlets are good spots for ice walleyes. Live minnows, jigging Rapalas, Swedish Pimples, Hopkins and Gay Blades are consistent producers.