Wow is coming, winter it’s time to put on your long underwear. Slip on some wool socks and a sweater. Climb into your snow pants. Pull down your stocking cap. And grab your fishing rod and bait bucket. There’s ice on the lake, and it’s the season to enjoy a true Minnesota adventure-ice fishing. Don’t worry about getting cold or bored on a frozen lake. Ice fishing is both easy and exciting. It’s fun to hike across the ice imagining hungry sunny or walleyes lurking below. An adventure to hang out around an ice hole with friends and family, telling stories and holding a funny looking fishing rod as you wait for a bite. But is thrilling when your bobber suddenly vanishes down the hole, and you pull a slippery fish from the water with a splash. So grab a grown up a thermos of hot cocoa. Go get ready for an ice fishing adventure.
Part of the fun of ice fishing is piling on comfortable, old, warm clothes and going out on the ice with goofy-looking gear. An ice fishing rods is just 2 feet long much shorter than a summer rod. You don’t need a long pole because you don’t cast. You just drop your line through a hole in the ice. Ice fishing rods can be stiff or flexible. You use flexible rods for small fish, so you can feel a bite. You use stiff rods for bigger fish, so they don’t break the rod and get away. Some people still use a simple ice fishing stick.
Ice-fishing tackle is similar to summer tackle. You can use a bobber and a jig (a small weighted lure to which you attach bait) or just a plain hook with live bait. Anglers also use flashy spoons and weighted lures that look like minnow. Minnows are popular. So are night crawlers, small moth larvae called waxies, and other insect larvae. Walleyes, northern, and bass like to eat minnows. Crappies will bite on tiny minnows. Most pan fish go for larvae and bugs in winter.
You can use a regular reel or some anglers use a device called a tip up instead. A tip up has two sticks. One lies across the hole. The other points down into the hole and has a spool with line. When a fish takes your bait, a flag springs up from the stick across the hole. Then you pull the fish up with the line. Tip-ups are fun because you can watch them while reading a book or tossing a Frisbee.
Start with a visit to your local bait store or DNR Fisheries office. Folks there can tell you in which lakes the fish are biting and where you can get onto the lake. They can also tell you where the ice is most likely to be OK. Wind, warm weather, underwater springs, and currents can all make ice unsafe. Ice must be at least 4 inches thick before you walk on it. Once you know the ice is thick enough, you can go find a fishing spot.
To catch fish through the ice, you must first drill a hole. To drill a hole, ice anglers use a tool called an auger, which looks like a giant screw with a sharp blade on the end. Another handy tool is a spud, a long-handled chisel with a sharp blade for checking ice thickness and chipping extra ice from the hole. Anglers use a scoop, a big spoon with holes, to clean out ice shavings.
If you know the depth of the water, you have a better idea what fish to fish for. Bluegills and northern like shallow water. Look for walleyes in deeper water. Some anglers use an electronic fish locator or a lead weight on a hook. You can also tie a string to a weight, hold the loose end in one hand, and drop the weight to the bottom. Then measure the length of string that’s down the hole. The simplest solution is to use a weighted hook, which drops to the bottom. Then you reel it up to fish as far off the bottom as you like.
When you feel a fish on the line, reel it up steadily but not too fast because you might yank out the hook. When you see the fish, ask your adult fishing buddy to lift it out. After landing a fish, remove it from the hook. It’s easier to get a hook out with pliers than with your hands in cold weather. If the fish is too big or too small to keep, return it to the water. Or put your catch in a bucket or a snow bank. Watch out for dogs! A dog might try to run away with your catch! It happens.
Be polite and don’t disturb your fellow anglers with loud talk or goofing around. Always pick up your trash and anything else you brought. Remember: Anything you leave on the lake will go into the water when the ice melts.
Minnesota’s most popular species to catch in winter are walleyes and pan fish, such as bluegills and crappies. Bluegills and sunfish gather in schools and can be caught during the day. Crappies and walleyes bite best just before sundown. You can catch northern and trout any time of day. You can also try to catch muskies and bass, although they don’t seem to bite as actively as other game fish.
A lot of people ice fish without a shelter. To keep warm, some anglers bring a small portable propane heater or some hand warmers. Bring a bucket to sit on, snacks to eat, something warm to drink, and you’ll enjoy being outdoors. You might see eagles, deer, or even a fox sneaking along shore. In case the fish aren’t biting, I always bring a book to read or a football to toss with my friends.
Many people bring little shacks called fish houses out onto the lake. Those made with wooden boards or metal look like cabins. Those made with canvas and aluminum poles look like tents. To heat either kind of house, anglers use small stoves.
Cabin-style houses have skis or special plates on the bottom so they can be slid across ice. The owner ties a heavy rope to the house and tows it with a truck or all-terrain vehicle. Owners of these houses don’t move them around often.
Tent like houses, sometimes called portable fish houses, are light enough to pull by hand with a rope. They have a plastic floor with rounded sides like a snow sled. Aluminium poles attach to the floor and hold up canvas walls and ceiling. Snap the poles together, pull the ceiling over your head, and you have an instant fish house.
Fish houses are like giant playhouses. Anglers sometimes paint the outside with bright colour or design, such as red-and-white candy stripes or an underwater scene with fish. People decorate them with rugs on the floor and maybe a picture or mounted deer head on the wall.
Some fish houses are almost like real houses, complete with armchairs, television, VCR, microwave oven, kitchen stove, and even a bathroom.Fish houses are usually small, but some have bunk beds for a family of four or more. I know of a fish house that had a staircase to a second-floor bunk bed.
Keeping your feet warm and dry is challenging when you are on ice. Try heavy, felt-lined boots. Wear thick, wool socks, and tuck an extra pair into your pocket to use in case your feet get cold or wet. To keep hands warm, wear big mittens, such as leather ones called choppers, with insulated liners. A thick wool or fleece stocking cap helps prevent heat loss from your head. For more warmth, wear a full-face stocking cap and put up your jacket hood. Don’t wear cotton. It gets wet easily doesn’t dry quickly, and will make you cold. Wear wool down or synthetic clothing.
You need a special license to spear from a dark house. Northern pike and rough fish are commonly speared in a dark house. You can use a live minnow or hang a fishlike decoy into the hole and make it swim by jerking its string. When a northern pike darts toward the decoy, you try to spear it. A rope tied to one end of the spear lets you retrieve the spear-and the fish, if you are lucky.
Always go on the ice with a grown-up. Because water doesn’t freeze evenly, one area of ice might be thick enough to hold a car, and another area too thin to even walk on. You need at least 4 inches of new clear ice to walk on.
Never go onto any ice without permission and supervision of your parents or other responsible adults. Every year Minnesota newspapers run stories about children falling through ice. Often, the children are playing on ice without adult supervision and don’t realize the ice is too thin. After breaking through, they might drown or die of hypothermia, a condition where the body gets too cold for survival.

It may be a little shaky this week after that thaw, but there has been fair to good ice on most of the smaller inland lakes and folks have already been out on Crooked, Pickerel and Burt Lake, to name just a few in the area and have been catching fish.Ice fishing gear is quite different from the equipment used for summer fishing and for someone just getting started, this requires taking on a whole new set of tackle.

How many anglers cold weather means not fishing. But for those anglers who enjoy standing on a frozen lake and looking through a hole in the ice, colder weather means one very important thing. Ice fishing in this article is provide to you with some practical ice fishing tips to help you be more successful.Ice fishing, has always been a band-aid for not being able to fish normally, and it’s also a great excuse for having a few adult beverages. But the bottom line is that I’ve done a lot of it over the years, and in the process learned a few tips. These tips will help you become more successful angler.

The first tip is to make sure you are prepared. Obviously fishing on the ice mean that it’s going to be pretty cold so you must dress accordingly. The most important parts of your body to keep warm are your hands and feet. If either one of these appendages become too cold. Your ice fishing trip will be over. Remember the old adage that it’s easy to take layers off. But more difficult to put them on. Bundle your hands and feet up, and if you become too hot, start taking layers off.
A great technique is to wear a pair of glove liners under your gloves as a way of layering. This way when you need your fingers, you can take the outer gloves off and still have some protection. Glove liners are a wonderful idea for anyone who’s going to spend an afternoon on the ice.

The next tip is to make sure are you fishing at the most opportune times. This simply means that you should be on the ice when the fish are going to be the most active. How do you know when the fish are going to be the most active simple. By paying attention to the weather and moon. These two factors play a huge role in the activity level of fish. Plan your trips onto the ice around the phases of the moon and frontal systems, and you’ll catch more fish.

If you like to use bait while ice fishing, gang hooks are a great idea. See gang hooks are simply a pair of smaller hooks tied in tandem. Which enable live bait to be presented in a totally natural way. And if you like to use synthetic baits while ice fishing, pre-tied gang hooks enable you present twice as much bait effectively doubling your chances of a hook up. They are attached to your line using a small barrel swivel size 10 or 12 which is all but invisible underwater. If you use bait of any kind, gang hooks should be a part of your repertoire.