Although the yearly community ice fishing locations are still producing ….. with the good early and steady ice this year we have gotten the urge to get away from the crowds a little more. For those of you that don’t ice fish or are just considering starting I just wanted to mention that just like in open water fishing similar locations often yield similar results. Especially for Northern and Bass on tip ups, and to some extent panfish.
By far the most productive areas for northern and bass have been the same or close to the locations that were productive in open water. In particular the outside weed edge closest to shore. Even in small backwater bays in Goose and other areas that basically have weeds everywhere … the outside edges of the main weed growth along the shoreline are still by far the best locations for both Pike and Bass.
So I don’t waste a lot of your time here I need to clarify that we are fishing locations that are long season locations… places where the fish seem to be there during spawning and outside of spawning times,( literally all open water season long). We have found that seasonal spawning areas that have only a tiny resident permanent population are usually very very slow when you fish them outside of spawning time and are usually equally as slow on the ice.
In open water tournaments all over the US in practice I fish spots that when you locate them on maps or pull up to them in a boat you have the urge to say out loud… I’ve fished here before. In some cases I have never even fished in that state before. They are just spots where all or most of the charactersitics look and come together like productive spots that have fished well in the past. So don’t forget to look for them ice fishing too.
So as safety and a scouting partners permit, (Life is to short to check out new ice locations completely alone), and time allows I would encourage you to try new locations this year where you can actually say… we didn’t see another soul all day long , and the fishing was great. I can actually say by the time I get ready to leave for the South this year I will have visited many locations on the ice I never have before, and already they are yielding an average size fish that is larger than most of the community locations. I’m even talking about fishing locations on lakes not on the river systems we have never fished before.
I guess more importantly as in my case where I’m on the water so much I have a lot better feeling about not having to use up a spot and rotating around helps with that a lot. More than any other year I would also have to say that “the spot on the spot” has been very very critical this ice season and if you have multiple locations to fish , by the time you return to that location the population has replenished itself.
Anyway have a great Christmas and I hope Santa brings you a huge gift certificate for your favorite sporting goods store.