Your ice fishing success

[Troublehook]

I'm trying to figure out what might be considered normal for you guys when you go ice fishing. My question is what is your level of success every time (on average) that you hit the hard water? Do you tend to catch a good amount of walleye or pike or those big perch or crappies every time you get out, or those results maybe half the time, maybe olny a couple fish per outing, or are you like me where you cant seem to catch anything worthwhile most of the time so you resort to lureing those millions of tiny sunfish?

Also a secondary question that comes to mind: are you catching the pike and walley on the tip-ups while fishing for panfish on the rod and reel, or the big guys on both or whatever other ratios out there?

[Blainebob]

My panfish success is usually pretty good-havent got skunked for pannies as long as i can remember. I do put out a tip up sometimes, and on a lake with good pike numbers,but havent seen much action. I fish lakes with a good number of sunnies in the day,and crappies move in at sundown out of the same holes. Would love to occasionally hook a walleye

[magic_minnow]

I target slabs 10" +. A successfull outing for me would be approximately 3-4 slabs, taking into consideration I fish only for about 2-3 hours.

For stunted pannies, a successful outing would be what I call a "15 minute Limit". Meaning, from the time you setup and hole drilling is complete, 15 minutes I would have 10 crappies. It IS possible I'm patenting it right now.

[JigginIsLife]

its tough to say, for a post like this, pannies and crappies about 10 nice ones, perch fill the limit of Monsters, walleyes somewhere in the ball park of 15-20 would be a great night with 3 maybe going in the bucket. northerns a good day would be zero them slime balls yuck...

[Troublehook]

so far it soumds like i need a better lake or im not good at ice fishing yet haha. Well i still cant wait to get out!

[water_wizard]

It all depends on if you are out for quantity (like when taking a youngster out with you) or quality. Personally I tend to peruse the latter most days on the ice. I also like to try new lakes or new spots on lakes I have fished regularly. Moving often helps as well (even if you hit a spot where you are catching fish, especially smaller ones). Over time if you pay attention to what you are doing you would be surprised at how many good spots you pick up along the way. Also it pays to review a good lake map and make a plan before heading out. Good luck on the ice!!

[pjhaef]

I count my day as success as soon as my feet hit the ice. We seem to do well and generally find some fish but it dose take some work and a lot more work on some days. You end up moving a bunch of spots to find some fish and then once you find them you can end up trying about everything in your tackle box to see what they are in the mood for.

All in all even the bad days are pretty darn good.

[Troublehook]

this is true. like they say "a bad day fishing is still better than a good day at the office" or for me.. class.

You guys mention moving a lot. For me being the owner of only a lazer hand auger, and an eskimo quickfish 3 which is easy to set up, but the stakes to keep the lines pulling on the walls to hold from the wind take a long time to screw in, what do you guys recommend for me as far as moving around often. I have never minded drilling holes by hand, but it is definetly slower.

Anyone else in this type of situation where their portable isnt the quickest set up in the world?

[pjhaef]

Generally for me when I talk about moving around it starts with moving in an area. I pick what I want to fish. Say it’s a weed bed, a break from shallow to deep water, or a hump or rock pile. Once I know where I want to go the first thing I do is punch a bunch of holes. Say we are fishing a break I punch the holes from shallow to deep. Then I move from hole to hole till I see something down there. Or get some action. Then I move the hose to that spot. If the fish move from that spot and I don’t see anything for a while I go back and check the holes that I already drilled.

With doing it this way you can also fish on set of holes and toss a tip up down another. That way you can cover a little more.

[Rippinlip]

Depends on the sutuation like stated above, if I am taking my wife and daughter then the day may be filled with lots of chippers.

A normal day for me is usualy around 3-4 hours on the lake.

Before I set-up I do quite a bit of searching with the Lowrance, Vexilar and Camera, if the weather is somewhat decent, I will drill several holes in the area and hole hop until 1 or 2 of the holes seem to be better. Then the house will get put up.

There is the days when I am not in the mood to fight the weather outside of the house, being wind, sleet or whatever and I will just set-up on a piece of structure and wait them out.

Hardly ever come home with a "0".

Will fish tip-ups once in a while, really depends once again on the situation.

I would rather catch pannies anyways.

[Duffman]

Icefishing is just like open water fishing, some days ya slay 'em, some days ya don't get squat, and the rest of the days fall somewhere in-between.

[Irish]

A good day on the ice for me would usually be about 10 keeper 'gills if I was targeting them. 5 keeper crappies if I was targeting them and a couple of 'eyes if I was targeting them. An average day on the ice for me would be 2-3 hours.

[pulleye16]

on our cabin lake I can usually catch my limit of panfish in about an hour, though I've been fishing that lake forever and have it down great. Northerns using tip-ups on that lake I again will have my limit fairly quick. If catch-and-release northerns, could easily catch 6-8 in a day fishing!!

When going to other lakes....well thats a whole new story and I could be out their all day with slim pickin's but will usually get my hand on a few crappies.

As for winter walleyes, I don't fish them often cause I can never catch them damb things!!!!!

[09ultra]

I agree with the guy up top some days you get and some you dont.I generally target eyes and that can be tough. A good outing would be a couple. I have caught more and yes I have been skunked!!

[thedeadsea]

I usually fish 5-8 hours but sometimes make shorter afternoon trips. With my new permanent I will definitely be doing more short trips as I won't need to worry about set up/take down time.

What I would call a successful day on the ice fish-wise.

Walleye: more than one

Crappies: more than 4

Trout: having at least a solid strike on a jigging rod or a good tip-up run.

Northern: limits for all present in a couple hours

Mostly I call a successful day one that involves no broken/lost equipment and fun for all present.

[anyfishaldo]

I like you have been in the hand auger dilemma. I say tell everyone you know that you want to buy a power auger from X store. Please get me X store GC for Xmas!!!!!

[icefishing21]

For walleyes I consider a Couple of them in a couple hours a good day, for northerns if i fish for 3 hours i expect to catch 3-4 on tipups, for pannies it all depend but i usualy consider 5-10 keeper panfish a good day for a couple hours on the ice.