Looking for old school help!

[clemmy]

Hello All!

I'm bringing the family up to the Grand Rapids area for Christmas with my folks..

I'd love to take them ice fishing, but I've been down in Florida the last 16 years, and my folks no longer ice fish. Here's my situation: I've tip-ups and ice poles, and a gas auger, but no vexilar or camera. No atv or driveable access, so walkout only. They live on a small bay of a lake with deep water available, and a good population of ciscoe, resulting in some pretty good sized fish.

I've been there in the summer once or twice, and their bay is mostly gradual 1' to about 6', then dropping off to bout 15-20'. Not the steepest dropoff in the lake, but I can guess roughly where it is. I'm ok drilling a series of holes, but won't be able to hop and check sonar.

My Questions:

1) For pike, should I set up a tip-up at a certain depth x-mas week? I was thinking of trying to find the approx weedline at 10' or so and soaking a big bait about 7'...

2) at this time of year, without sonar, should I go base of 20' water or guestimate dropoff, or weed fish for walleye/crappie? I figured dropoff if I could find would be a good bet during sunrise/sunset, but how about night/daytime?

3)Any other reccomendations?

4) Thank You! I miss Minnesota! But wife hates the cold!

Craig

[Seabass77]

Any weeds you can find are going to be a plus for all species. You can use a tape measure as a fill in for a fish finder. It can help you find the drop offs.

[Hakksaww]

yeah - stick to 8 to 10 ft' just outside the weedline for the tipup. Slap on a sucker and let 'er go.

Remember crappies are prolly going to be an early/late bite. pannies all day. use smaller hooks, and bring waxies to keep the kids entertained. Remember - if you plop yer head over the whole with a good sized hood over the hole you'll see straight to the bottom (poor man's camera ).

Get fathead minnows - a scoop'll go a long way, and at least 20-40 waxies. Those little buggers go and I like to stack them on the hook.

Good luck and welcome back!

[clemmy]

Thank you both!

Any particular depth I should look for? 5 foot? 10? more?

Craig

[Gordie]

clemmy if your going to try for pike fish any where from 5-10 fow int he deeper water dont be afraid to soak that sucker down 3ft under the ice and in the shallower water half way down, drill some holes just off the weed line 10 -12 fow and try for some panfish during the day the panfish will seek refuge in and along the weeds. and thats also why the pike are there. GOOD LUCK and Have Fun

[adamm1]

I would try pike or pan fish in the shallows. Along the weed edges like was suggested earlier it would give you a fair chance at sight fishing the pan fish and the pike will come in and out and you will have a decent shot at one hitting on a tipup. The deep holes would be harder without electronics as the craps might be suspended anywhere in the the water column. Your other option might be to see if the local tackle store rents cameras or vexilar I have found that a lot of them do. Good luck

[clemmy]

Thank you!

Living in Florida and fishing some in the saltwater, I had a couple spools of 60lbs. fluorocarbon leader material, and used it to make a few quick-strike rigs. May well get cut0off, but it'll be fun anyway!

Craig

[Tom7227]

You can use these to get your license and to get a map of the lake you're going to be fishing. The maps are not all that detailed but it's better than nothing.

http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/licenses/fishing/index.html?type=fishing

http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/lakefind/index.html