First Time Out Ice Fishing

[Pig_sticka]

my first time was in wisconsin near webster. super cold not much ice, and no walleyes to come home with. but hey it was ice fishing and i loved it. good luck to all

[Guest]

I fished near Albany MN last Friday, Kings Lake and Hunter's Bay. Good solid ice (about 4", never cracked and never flooded the hole when you walked). Only small perch - no Walleyes. Then went up north to the Iron Range and pulled in some nice walleyes. Funny thing though, with all the money I have in ice fishing tackle, glow and non-glow, flutter falling, and straight droppers, etc.etc.. I caught all the walleyes and on a plane hook and the smallest fatheads in the bucket. Nothing else worked - lots of looks, but they were all negative. Minnow heads didn't work either; just small hook and small lively fathead. Never had that before. It's like the $20.00 toy you buy for your kid and they play with the wrapping..go figure. Oh well, 3 nice 2 pounders is a good meal for me, even if it took a while to get 'em.
Biwabik

[Pig_sticka]

yea the more you think about it all of the money n new technolegy doesn't always catch the fish. nice to hear someone going back to the old ways for a change.

[Guest]

i am new to fishing family and i love it my first time out was over the long thanksgiving weekend i went up to park rapids and did well walleys biggest 5# couple small 2-3# sunnys and northern it was great i to just bought new equipment this year vex,srikemaster lazer power auger,aqua view and built a permenent fish house this spring. went by white bear today the bay by vfw is fozen over and looks like this weekend with the cold might be able to catch some fish.

[Guest]

Biwabik and others:

For the plain hook, what size do you typically use for walleye? And just how small were the minnows? Do you ever use treble hooks+minnow on eyes?

[Pig_sticka]

i thought treble hooke were illegal, i thought u could only use them on artificials. i donno maybe i am wrong?

[Guest]

i to caught all my walleyes on a plain hook it was eagleclaw syle 139- size six with med fatheads the walleyes would not toutch nothing else i watched on aqua view they would come in and look at jigs but no takers so i switched to hook minnow and thats all she wrote

[the squirrel]

That is a good question is a plain treble hook illegal?????????????

[Guest]

hurben,

I was using a #6 hook. Natural color (no colored hooks). The fatheads were small - about 1.5 inches in length ans smaller. Again, even the bigger minnows (and I tried shiners and wax worms too)didn't work. I put the hook through the back, running the same way as the minnow, with the open hook end toward the head - it seems to help with my hook-ups. Next time I go, it may very well be something different, but ya gotta try everything when they're not biting. When they're feeding, they hit everything hard, that's easy. Remeber, if they're down there, you can catch them. Thank God for my vex.!

[Jim W]

Treble hooks are illegal in MN unless you incorporate a spinner or such creating a lure effect.

Do not use trebles!
Don't need them anyway!

Jim W

[Pig_sticka]

yea i thought they could only be used on artificials. thanks for the help jim.

[Guest]

I have had alot of luck catching neg walleyes with plain red # 8 and putting on two crappie minnows one foward one back. You get a nice suttle movement no swimming around the hole. Have done this more so in the middle season, but neg walleyes are negative.

[Guest]

Since everyone is close to or already been out already I just thought I'd start a topic on how things went the first time out.

I went out to Coon Lake with Exudedude yesterday. I caught a lot of pike, most of which didn't pass 2 pounds. Also caught a few small gills, a crappie, and a nice size perch. Saw a few nice size largemouths caught by local anglers. Got to meet Hawgtime and eyeballs out there. I would say that it was a pretty successful first outting. We were aiming for the crappies but fell a little short (I think one or two only). But we still caught fish.

Good Fishin, Matt.

[This message has been edited by MJ5 (edited 12-02-2002).]