Where to find fish ice fishing

We want to keep the bait above the fish. The most active ones will go up to get it. Make them come up to get it. Try a different bait, or a different color, or try a different action. By doing so, you can usually get a few more to bite. When panfish like bluegills and sunfish are the quarry, you will do best going small and light: Small baits and light line.

One of the baits in the Northland Helium series of baits would be a good choice. Pike epitomize how most fish feed in the winter-by looking for the silhouette of their prey against a light background.

This makes the underside of the ice a magnificent backdrop. Indeed, pike are at their feeding finest when they can capture soft-rayed forage swimming above them in the water column. These baitfish graze on plankton-microscopic plants and animals—that move closer to the surface in the winter when thick ice and deep snow reduce the amount of light that penetrates the water.

If you only have a few hours to hit the ice, maximize your time by heading out when the fish are feeding most actively. Species such as walleye and sauger feed most intensely at dawn and dusk, for example, while crappie, perch, pike and whitefish are most active in the middle of the day. During winter, in fact, the light conditions beneath the ice and snow are similar to the ideal conditions during the open-water season—namely, overcast days, when most fish species feed more actively.

Indeed, the optimal amount of light that causes pike to be most active is closer to the illumination under the ice at midday in January than it is at noon in the summer. While dusk and dawn are the prime feeding periods for walleye, dusk is the more active of the two. But this daily feeding frenzy develops much earlier—usually 30 to 45 minutes before sunset—than most anglers realize. Also be sure to pre-drill plenty of holes—covering a variety of depths—in advance of this half-hour whirlwind of activity so you can follow the wave of walleye.

You usually catch the largest trout from the biggest lakes because the fish can find places to hide from anglers for the number of years it takes them to grow to trophy proportions. Bigger waters also offer a smorgasbord of high-quality forage such as ciscoes, shad, smelt, suckers and whitefish.

Catching lake trout during the winter is easy. The hard part is finding them. In short, it takes more skill, more knowledge, and more savvy to land crappie, perch, muskies, and pike throughout the winter season, and only the best anglers can catch their limit regularly.

Want to join their ranks? Study up! As the days grow shorter and the light dims, underwater vegetation starts to die. As it does, its decomposition depletes oxygen , which has a systemic effect on levels across the lake. Not only does that make fish more sluggish, adding to their cold-water induced torpor, but it also affects where they live and feed, too. As you drill holes in the ice with your auger or snag salad with your lure, take a close look and smell. What you want are green, fresh weeds, especially later in the season when fish are starved for oxygen.

Live vegetation is still producing that life-giving gas, and the fish will move closer to healthy weed beds, especially as winter progresses. And where these species go, expect larger predatory fish as well.

Topography is key, and the best anglers know the bottom of the lake they fish just as well as they know the layout of the furniture in their living rooms. Weedy areas often supply shelter, good sources of prey and oxygen, and easy access to varying water temperatures.

Because they combine varying depth with shallow water, where vegetation can get necessary light, fish love to school in these locations. Many ice anglers focus their attention on the bottom. But as oxygen levels plummet later in the season, fish may be feeding higher in the water column.