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Getting experienced at the no-fish experience

bobber_down_1979

By bobber_down_1979
in Ice Fishing

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bobber_down_1979 Collaborator

bobber_down_1979

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So what do you do when you go to a lake, weather it be new to you or not, and you can't seem to locate any fish with your flasher? I mean no fish at all, like a dead sea. You know that there are lots of fish in the lake, but you drill holes in all sorts of depths and structures and they are just not there. This has happened to me twice this season. Once on my favorite summer time lake, and now with Weaver Lake in Maple Grove today. Is there some super secret hang-out, or did they all fly to Mexico to chill on the beach?

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Crm7290 Community Regular

Crm7290

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I would say drill a bunch of holes, then sit at each one for 10 minutes. Just because the fish aren't their immediately doesn't mean that they aren't in the area. Jig a bit and you will sometimes see fish come in! Its been happening here.

Whats worse is when someone around you has the hot hole. They catch all the fish and your left sitting there jigging.

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simple1 Community Regular

simple1

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Well this has happened to me on several occasions. I actually enjoy it more when fishing is tough as I like the chase more the actual "fish in hand" thing. When I am fishing a tough lake, I drill a lot of holes. I have a hard copy map and the navionics app on my iphone. These help me decide where to start drilling.

I usually start around 30' or if a shallow lake, I start at the deepest part and drill holes as I work my way to shore. I also have a heavy jig tipped with whatever, quickly drop down holes to make sure the fish just are not sitting on the bottom, and not being picked up by my flasher.

I have drilled at least 25 holes by hand before without having any luck and thats just the way it goes. It is called fishing and not catching for a reason. Good Luck

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herefish101 Proficient

herefish101

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Last year I found fish in a place I would have never looked, ever! But sure enough the fish that should have been in that big deep hole were no where near it, they were all stacked up on a ten foot deep dead weed flat, bad oxegen and all. Once I found them it was game on!

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hamms-scooter Veteran

hamms-scooter

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Had a hard time this weekend locating fish for some reason... I am usually on my game but this time I was thrown off a bit. I was given a couple of hot spots by local bait shop owner who can fish very well and knows the lake beter then most as he is a muskie guy at heart and spends many hours on the lake. In the winter he chases gills like I do and he gave me location to a hot weed bed and I couldn't find anything but dinky perch. This lake is known for it's gills and lots os them... Not that day i guess. oh and the snow storm we had probably didn't help me any. I will be going out with him to show me where exactly he was directing me to go. Hope to have a good time and put gills on the ice.

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leech~~ Grand Master

leech~~

Posted
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So what do you do when you go to a lake, weather it be new to you or not, and you can't seem to locate any fish with your flasher? I mean no fish at all, like a dead sea. You know that there are lots of fish in the lake, but you drill holes in all sorts of depths and structures and they are just not there. This has happened to me twice this season. Once on my favorite summer time lake, and now with Weaver Lake in Maple Grove today. Is there some super secret hang-out, or did they all fly to Mexico to chill on the beach?

Try a different lake, there are no fish in Weaver lake! laugh There use to be before every sq, inch of it had a hugh house built around it! Try over on Eagle! wink

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bobber_down_1979 Collaborator

bobber_down_1979

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I can understand some people being down on a lake so close to the cities and with such an overdeveloped shoreline. However, I don't get the take about there not being many fish. A fairly recent DNR survey seems to indicate large amounts of Bluegill of fairl decent size structure (for the area). We did try jigging the test holes. I can't say we tried them for very long, but we did wet a line in most of them to try to call some fish in and nothing happened. The shallowest we drilled was about 6 feet and then out to about 35 feet. What I wanted to do was fish for pans while watching some tip-ups from a reasonable distance away. The lake report on weaver suggests good pike. Not sure where they would be though if no small fish could be found.

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irishwalleye Community Regular

irishwalleye

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I can understand some people being down on a lake so close to the cities and with such an overdeveloped shoreline. However, I don't get the take about there not being many fish. A fairly recent DNR survey seems to indicate large amounts of Bluegill of fairl decent size structure (for the area). We did try jigging the test holes. I can't say we tried them for very long, but we did wet a line in most of them to try to call some fish in and nothing happened. The shallowest we drilled was about 6 feet and then out to about 35 feet. What I wanted to do was fish for pans while watching some tip-ups from a reasonable distance away. The lake report on weaver suggests good pike. Not sure where they would be though if no small fish could be found.

As someone who saw the same DNR survey on the same lake and fished the same lake, I can tell you what your problem was.

You were too deep. They were in less than 5 FOW. Two different approaches worked. Find a patch of weeds and sit/wait. Or drill, drill, drill then start at your first hole and hop.

Good luck

*Red Bro's Bloodworm also

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SFC Mentor

SFC

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The panfish I have caught on this lake the last couple of years have been in the 8' depth range or less. I drop down a chubby or lindy darter, whip it around a few times, draws the fish. Went Sat. was able to see the fish, they just werent biting.

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blackdog1101 Experienced

blackdog1101

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I'm going to check out a few "off the beaten path" places over the next two weekends. I'm guilty of pretty much fishing the same few places, and I figure I should broaden my horizons. I am told by old timers that there used to be good fishing in two of these places, and the third just seems like it should have fish. They all have depth, weeds, and contour, so I can't imagine they won't have fish. But I've never seen anyone ice fish any of them. So either everyone else knows that these areas are a bust, or just maybe I'll find something interesting. In any case, I plan to drill plenty of holes so I can get an idea of what's down there.

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