Muskies on Ice?

Anyone have experience catching muskies on purpose through the ice? I have some locations I think would hold some fish, but not sure how I should rig my tip ups? My only experience using live bait for muskies is the traditional big 16+” suckers and quick strike rigs but I don’t think I’ll have access to real big suckers for bait so it’s going to have to be a rather finesse set up and I’m not sure how to walk that line between having enough strength to handle the fish / drive hooks into the fish yet not be too bulky on some smaller 6-8″ suckers. I think I have a couple ideas, but am curious if anyone has experience with this. Are just regular pike sized quick strikes enough?

What state?

Muskies are illegal to target after 12/2 so it’s pretty rare in mn that anyone targets them through the ice. I don’t have any info for you.

I’m actually in South Dakota. The season doesn’t close here and I think there might be a good window during early ice. Got a few lakes that are starting to kick out 4 footers now.

The idea of muskies through the ice always intrigued me but I’ve never tried it. There was a guide in my area who had some success with it last year.

I’d contact a bait distributor and ask about any left over muskie suckers or at least getting some spearing decoy suckers. I’d think you should be able to find one or the other since the seasons almost overlap if you’re in MN. With the big suckers you’ll need good quality tip ups to hold them, and just use whatever sucker rigs you use in open water.

If your only option is smaller pike sized suckers then I’d go with a circle hook rubber banded to the nose. There’s a good video from Lee Tauchen on youtube with this rig and using smaller suckers.

If you want to use a QSR on smaller suckers then I’d get some 49 strand and 1/0 gamkatsus to make my own. No way I’d trust the typical Northland or Clam rigs you usually find in stores.

Sam Smith wrote:

I’m actually in South Dakota. The season doesn’t close here and I think there might be a good window during early ice. Got a few lakes that are starting to kick out 4 footers now.

If you’re on Lynn then my bet is smaller suckers will get hammered non stop by all the pike in that lake.

We have muskies in our lake in WI. They hit big sucker minnows from Oct – Nov (feedbag is on). We tipup fish for walleyes most weekends in the winter from first ice until the end of walleye season. In over 20 years of fishing, I can only think of 2 or 3 muskies that have been caught by me and my buddies. Around here, I’m not convinced muskie fishing through the ice would be very productive.

This is how I did the one time I was able to try:

I used my musky rods and quick-strike rigs like during open water… Then I hooked up suckers that were/might/could be/can’t find in the regular way on the quick-strike rigs. In WI we can run 3 lines so I ran two suckers, then drilled a bunch of holes all around the two suckers. To a third rod I attached a jigging style bait, like a Fuzzy Duzzit, Bondy Bait or my boss even uses big jigs and lip hooks them (suckers) with quick strike hooks attached as well… and any of these are jigged from hole to hole around the suckers.

I was fishing the bottom of a break and had no success, if I were to do again, I’d probably start, then start to drill holes on and along the break and start rotating the suckers along the bottom of the break to keep moving. Ice is rarely thick, so drilling shouldn’t be bad and I would try it again, if the right opportunity would present itself.

Mark

1st ice is supposed to be a great time for Tigers.

Yeah I’m not setting my expectations too high, but we just caught a 45″ musky last weekend in 36 degree water on live bait in MN and I can’t imagine just because 5″ of ice forms above their head, they stop eating entirely. I don’t know, I could be wrong and most of the time I am, but I feel like they should be catchable in the first couple weeks of ice and am going to take a couple shots at it.

PS these epic trophy hunts always sound so fun on paper, but when I’m actually out there, I just end up getting frustrated and giving up. So we will see how this goes…

They did an episode about this on keyes outdoors might be worth checking out.