finding fish when the bite goes sour

Ok Gang, things have been great up till a week ago. We gained another foot of ice (over 3 feet right now) and the fishing for pike and rainbows was good to great. Nothing huge but pretty consistent catches. A week ago things changed. In that time we added close to another foot of ice. We are fishing the same general areas for pike and even went back to what was working to see if it was us and zilch. Not a flag, not a nibble, not even a marked fish for pike. Today we tried two new lakes. Fished shallow, fished deep, fished suspended, off points, flats and a channel, didn’t even so much as mark a thing. THe second lake has both pike and trout. So we put down two flags, one fairly shallow, and one close to max depth. I jigged for pike while my partner jigged for bows. This lake is only 16 feet deep at it’s max and is as round as a quarter with what appears to be very little in regards to humps, bumps, piles. The only thing we know of on this lake is a some sunken brush in one particular area, which we fished alongside of and the deadfalls along the shoreline in 8 feet of water or so.

What in same heck is going on? We are marking NOTHING! I’ve been told pike and most other fish will suspend or go to the deeper parts of the lake come mid to late winter. We’re staying fairly mobile, fishing a spot for an hour or so, 2 flags and two rods, mixing things up and still coming up short.

So just what do YOU do when the bite goes sour?

Let me add. The temps right now is -30, we are slightly over 3 feet of ice. Mainly fishing pike though we are going out for arctic char later today (1 am here). The barometer’s been falling for the past few days however it’s just leveled out as of today. I’ve never started payin attention to this until now. We are only allowed to fish dead baits or artificials and we are doing both. Some dead bait with almost no movement along with some moderate and aggressive jigging.

I drink beer!

I have noticed that here too when the temps plummet. Fish just seem to go into neutral mode for an extended period of time. When the barometer makes a change, make time to be out there. A cold blooded fish’s metabolism has to be affected in my mind when the temps drop like that. I don’t know what it takes with those species that you are looking for, but here, I would drill a bunch of holes, and just look for signs of life, and set up there at low light times of the day.
Tuck

I would try setting your baits just below the ice line. I have caught a many pike just below the ice- from now until ice out. I know that with a flasher if they are just below the ice, you won’t know that they are there. I have had this happen many times as well with crappies. You won’t be marking any fish on the flasher, but if you put your jig one foot below the ice, bam, …crappies all day.

Fish On!’s idea is pretty darn good.

I have noticed when fishing a low pressure front, activity picks up. Try before or during a snow storm, or for us, a rain storm, as its not too cold out anymore.

Well today we went out looking for lakers just to mix it up a bit. We did mark something that came up to check my rig out but wouldnt take. Also marked what appeared to be a school of minnows (baitfish, or small whitefish). Brand new to the laker scene so didn’t expect much though it was nice to see something and also learn to use the lx-5 in DEEP water.

We pulled out a little early as we weren’t finding anything willing to bite and got tired of the lil volvo who persisted on whipping doughnuts on a monster lake fairly near to our setups, doubtful he saw our tipups.

I did ice one pike and marked another while we were jigging for char right along the bottom. This pike and char lake is also only 16 feet and extremely small. It does however have more typical ‘landscape’. Temps were -35 this morning. It looks like the barometer has leveled off. Talked to some guys who stopped by while we were chasing pike who said the rainbow fishing was extremely slow. This is for a lake where catching isn’t an issue.

I did loose our digital camera today. So much for the new ice house eh. Was trying to get a fish trap yukon up here one way or another. Don’t think my wife will be so happy with the bill of that. Heard gander Mt sells them for 399, must be nice.