Favorite Way To Ice Fish?

Since its so cold outside it must be time for sharing everyones favorite way to ice fish. We can do that from the warm comforts of our homes. What is YOUR favorite way? Thanks, Bill

I would have to say jigging a ice jig with bait using a locator, flasher works best, and watching for fish and then adjusting the jig to the depth that the fish are at as you can see the jig on the locator.

I agree… jigging and the Vexilar all the way. I most often set a tip-up out and just jig inside the Otter.
Using the right baits and playing the “video-game” on the locator is such a blast… here fishie, fishie
Hoggie
Dave Hoggard

Now I know why your boys like video games. They learned that from watching Dad on the Fish locator!

My favorite way to ice fish……. About 3 inches of solid early ice, in the shallows, an hour before the sun hits the trees, inside the otter with the heater on, watching the vexilar, jigging a spoon with no bait, and icing 20-30 ‘eyes in a couple hours!

I have to admit that it is after it melts and I can drop a jig in the water over the side of my boat!

Well, Bill _did_ ask for “favorite” and not “most productive”, so I’ll throw this in.

The first couple years I went ice fishing was back in the early ’80s with my buddies in their late teens, early 20s. We’d all head out to the lake before noon on Sunday and set up a whole field of tip-ups around a 4×8 fish house. The only thing the fish house was used for is to keep the beer warm. There’d be a table setup outside near the fish house with a battery-operated TV with the Vikings game (or some other team). If the Vikings weren’t doing so well (anybody remember Les Steckel?) then we’d turn the volume down on the game and crank up some rock and roll.

All the tip ups were common property. Who ever got to the flag first, got the fish! Sure, sometimes there was some pushing and shoving, but it was all good fun and there always seems to be enough snow to cushion a head-first dive to the hole!

Maybe the commotion on top of the ice scared away more fish than we caught, but the hours from 11 – 8 were spent joking and laughing and playing football in the snow. The fish were just a bonus!

Anybody want to watch the superbowl on the lake tonight!?!

– Thumper
Rick Torgerud

a crappie minnow on a little jig, with a take on and off bobber so i can jig when i want. Hot dogs and some pop. I love it when the aqua view is postioned right in front of the bait with an vexilar showing where your bait is, the camera, and of course the fish. You learn allot about the bite at different times. Then i love to use a rattle wheel with a shiner and a bobber or a tip up riged with a juicy shiner (yuck)

I enjoy fishing so much that it is hard to pinpoint my favorite way to Ice fish. I enjoy going out in my trap and chasing fish all day but I also enjoy kicking back in a warm permnet house in a tee-shirt and listening to all the sounds of nature waiting for a buzzer to go off, or even getting up in the middle of the night to catch a walleye or if you are to close to the bottom an eelpout, then going back to sleep waiting and listening for the next buzzer. I feel that it is too hard to pick a favorite way to ice fish because every way of fishing is equally enjoyable. I will say that I catch more fish not using a bobber but instead deadsticking a rod and hooking it up to a buzzer or just watching a line and jigging my second line with my flasher (I still like my old clearwater classic or the new lcx3). Even though this is the case it is still hard to pick a favorite, I guess I’m just a fishn’ fool.

Tip ups outside and me inside the warm shack enjoying an ice cold beverage