Thread: First Icefishing Experience

Fishing is one of the most enjoyable sports out there, but if you take it too serious. It can be one of the more stressful one's out there. I learned flyfishing about 10 years ago and recently went Icefishing for the first time this past January. I've learned to teach myself to enjoy the sport, relax, and it's never a contest of who catches the most fish. Being out there on the ice and cold air was draining, but did get some good size white crappies. Fishing about 8 to 12 feet down over brush, produced only about 4 fish for myself, as my buddy caught around a dozen using beemoth. I could have switched to livebait, but refused to lose confidence in my artificials and Berkley Power Baits. I also enjoyed the action of twitching and wanted to fish more actively. Either way, it was an enjoyable trip and looking forward to more trips next year!

Looking good. Varying your technique will increase your catch rate.
1. Hold your depth and jig up-down (small motions).
2. Hold your depth and jig down-up (small motions).
3. Raise the jig very slowly.
4. Raise the jig slowly, with intermittent down-up.
5. Drop until you tick the brush, then twitch up.

A fairly new braid called Depth Hunter (made by Power Pro) changes color every 25 feet and has black-white markers every 5 feet. I have been using it for vertical fishing through the ice, tube fishing, and boat fishing, as well as for trolling. You always know exactly how much line you have out.

Hope this helps you ar anyone viewing.