Ice fishing dream trips
For big steelhead and brown trout, the harbors and tributaries along Wisconsin's Lake Michigan are beginning to turn heads in the ice angling community.
Ice fishing adventures abound across both the United States and Canada. Some of these destinations are exotic and remote while other hot spots are on a high cycle. Some locations are right down the road for some anglers while other fisheries require a road trip.
For many reasons, ice anglers are beginning to travel further away from home. More anglers are traveling to destination fisheries each winter.
Ice anglers have so much more Intel today with social media and web forums. The equipment just keeps getting better and more reliable. Factor in more dependable snowmobiles, GPS and more rugged and durable equipment and there is no surprise that many ice anglers today are much more venturous than even a decade ago. The world is indeed smaller with today's technology and equipment.
This ice fishing season, make a point to explore some of these destinations. We have traveled across the northern tier extensively chasing some of these hot bites and here are some of our favorite adventures from the past few years.
Lake Winnipeg, Manitoba
Lake Winnipeg guide Jason Hamilton with a greenback walleye that choked on a Salmo Zipper.
This massive body of water produces some massive walleye. In fact, I dare say that in a week of fishing, you will probably hold more 10 lb plus fish in your hands than what you would from ice fishing over a decade on any other inland body of water.
Lake Winnipeg is not for the feint of heart. You will need either tracks or a snowmobile but you will see a few crazy Canucks bouncing around in pickup trucks. The expanses of hard packed snow can be hard on equipment.
The conditions can be brutal. If you can break something, you will break it on "the Big Windy." This ice fishing hot spot is ground zero for the rattle bait craze but over the last few winters, big flutter spoons have become the hot presentation.
Once you get a taste of the big "green-back walleyes" this water is famous for, you will want to do this for the rest of your life.
Guide Jason Hamilton, www.jasonhamiltonoutdoors.com
Travel Manitoba, www.travelmanitoba.com
Fort Peck Reservoir, Montana
This rugged reservoir on the Missouri River in eastern Montana is remote and I have often joked that I felt like I was fishing in Jurassic Park because so many of the fish are just so big and old. Massive northern pike, walleye and lake trout create the ice angler's predator trifecta.
Because of the amount of rock along the shorelines, you will need an ATV but snowmobiles suffice some winters when there is more snow.
Fort Peck requires diligence with ice conditions as the water can fluctuate and there is moving water along with methane gas pockets that can create unsafe ice.
We often targeted primary points and reefs in the Dry Arm out of Rock Creek and found good fishing while hardly seeing any other ice anglers for days at a time. For the less adventurous, the Duck Creek Area is less remote but can produce.
Montana's Missouri River Country, www.missouririver.visitmt.com
Lake of the Woods, Ontario
Lake of the Woods is a special place and always a fun adventure. Of course there is great fishing state side and there is plenty of great water to explore out of Baudette and Warroad, I love the diversity further up north and the scenery is striking.
Within 50 miles of Nester Falls is some of the best easy to drive to lake trout water available in my opinion with fish over 20 lbs a real possibility.
Ice anglers can also find untouched schools of crappie along with hoards of walleye. If you love to snowmobile and love to fish, this destination is tough to beat.
Vic and Dots Camp, www.vicanddotscamp.com
Glacial Lakes, South Dakota
If you were to look at a map of northeastern South Dakota and draw a line from Brookings to Aberdeen, you are looking at the heart of the Glacial Lakes Country where there are literally hundreds of lakes. Small town Americana at its best, there are numerous little towns with really friendly people. Several hotels and lodges are scattered throughout the area and there are so many lakes to fish.
The jumbo perch put this region on the radar for ice anglers and no doubt that the perch fishing is as good as you will see anywhere with fish over 2 lbs possible from places like Bitter Lake and Swan Lake but don't overlook the multi-species opportunities for walleye, bluegill and crappie.
I have spent a lot of time in this area and still don't feel like I have scratched the surface. This is an unbelievable area for ice fishing.
South Dakota Glacial Lakes Tourism Association, www.sdglaciallakes.com
Guide Corey Ewing, www.waubaylakeguideservice.com
Guide Jarrod Fredericks, www.southdakotaguidedfishing.com
Lake Gogebic, Michigan
This sliver of a lake in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan is an adventure. With average snowfalls each winter that measure over the top of your head, people sometimes use snowmobiles to get to work.
This fishery is one of North America's top bodies of water for consistently kicking out perch over the magical 2-lb mark. You will probably catch more perch in the Dakotas but there is perhaps no better place to specifically target that caliber of fish.
Expect to encounter a finesse bite that requires a methodical grinding approach where anglers often score the biggest fish by dead sticking with mayfly wigglers.
Guide Jon Sibley, www.fishwithguy.com
Devils Lake, North Dakota
Ice Anglers are traveling to destination fisheries like never before. The author Jason Mitchell highlights some of the regions top ice fishing destinations right now.
A longtime popular ice fishing destination, this massive natural lake in North-Eastern North Dakota can be simply incredible. The good days are as good as it gets with trophy class perch, pike and walleye all a possibility.
For perch over 2 lbs, I am partial to Lake Irvine and Lake Alice, which is connected to Devils Lake through the Mauvais Coulee. Good fishing can be found throughout the entire system however and with a walleye season that doesn't close, late ice can be prime time. All the fish seem to share that incredible girth and the walleye numbers in particular are off the charts.
Devils Lake Tourism, www.devilslakend.com
Woodland Resort, www.woodlandresort.com
Perch Patrol Guide Service, www.perchpatrol.com
Lake Michigan Harbors, Wisconsin
While the Milwaukee Harbor remains open through the winter and provides incredible fishing for kings, browns and steelhead, there are some really cool ice fishing opportunities on some of the smaller harbors and tributaries for both brown trout and steelhead.
We have filmed a few times on the Sheboygen River for steelhead and these small streams and harbors have become a true destination for ice anglers across the Midwest. Perhaps the best brown trout fishery on ice for fish that can exceed 20 lbs. Also one of the best bets for icing big steelhead you are going to find.
Guide Eric Haataja, www.wibigfish.com
Lake Oahe, North Dakota
This Missouri River Reservoir starts south of Bismarck, North Dakota and winds all the way to Pierre, South Dakota. The upper end of Oahe in recent years has seen an incredible explosion of crappie and these fish often surpass 14″.
This fishery is riding on an incredible year class of fish that will die of old age in a year or two but for right now, this fishery reminds me of the Red Lake glory years.
Focus on creek channels that have submerged brush in any of the larger bays like Beaver Bay, Four Mile Bay and Porcupine Bay. Walleyes can also be reckless as well and there is a really good chance of tangling with pike that can surpass forty inches.
North Dakota Tourism, www.travelnd.com
So many fish, so little time
Of course there are so many great destinations we didn't get to cover in this article. Places we hope to explore soon. Bay of Quinte walleyes come to mind. There are the pike and walleye of Tobin Lake and other road trip fisheries for giant lake trout like Clearwater Lake in northern Manitoba.
Of course the closer to home standbys like Minnesota's Upper Red Lake or Nebraska's Valentine Refuge Lakes are always fun.
One particular ice fishing adventure we hope to film soon is sheefish in Alaska. Many of these destinations can be fairly affordable particularly with a handful of friends and can truly add to your life experiences.
Upward and Downward, with Realism
Plastics in modern ice fishing, Part 2
When we left off last time, you might have been surprised to learn that Dave Genz has become increasingly confident in soft plastics - and finds himself fishing with them more often (without giving up his beloved live bait). Several factors are at work, the most important of which is improved plastics.
They're softer and more realistic, meaning they look and feel better to the fish. With the options available these days, you can strive to match what fish are currently feeding on, in terms of size, shape and color. Watching talented tournament anglers pluck pressured fish off crowded spots, Genz gradually deepened his appreciation for the potential of plastics. Then, last winter, while fishing in Vermont with Jamie Vladyka, the "light bulb came on."
The refined approach to plastics has to do with the fact that ice fishing is a matter of 'dangling,' more than anything else. You're dangling baits downward and bringing them upward, striving to make them seem real even though they don't travel outward very far.
Vladyka's typical approach is to thread plastics on so they assume a 'tails up' posture. Rather than the plastic hanging horizontally on the hook shank, the tail (or tails) is angled upward.
"Jamie is the one who got me thinking this way," credits Genz. "When the tails are upward like that, when you work it, it seems like it's swimming up or down. You can go down and tap the bottom and make it look like this creature is swimming up out of the bottom. It's more realistic than if it's swimming around in circles by the bottom."
When asked about his overall philosophy on plastics, Vladyka talks about matching the hatch, in the same way fly anglers do.
"We have spikes, wax worms, things like that," he says, "and they catch fish, for sure. But that's not what the fish are feeding on. With plastics, we're matching what the fish are actually eating. Ultimately, we can hit the full color spectrum, including glow, with plastics. And we can scent the plastic so it smells like what the fish are eating."
One area of intense study for Jamie has been what's swimming and crawling around down there, and what he sees in fish stomachs. When he keeps fish to eat, he always checks what they've been eating. And he spends time with an underwater camera, to see what he can see in the prey department.
"I use (his underwater camera) to see what's down there," says Vladyka. "I go into the weeds and study what's attached to the weeds. I put on a big jig and rip weeds to see what jumps off of them. I'm looking to see what those fish are there for. If crappies are feeding on pinheads or smelt fry or baby bluegills or some kind of insects, I try to figure that out. If I can match what they're eating, in size and color, then our success rate goes up.
"I'm not saying you can't catch fish with other things, but if we can match, we do much better." (He says "our success" because he leads guide trips, at www.fishhounds.net
By studying what's available to the fish at the moment, and thinking about how those prey items move in the water, he feels confident about appealing to the fish.
Jig as Delivery Mechanism
Vladyka thinks of the jig as simply the "delivery mechanism" for the plastic, the thing that gets the plastic up and down during trips to the potential fish zone. Even for bigger fish, he tends to use light jigs (especially in shallow water), so the plastic is given a chance to maximize its appeal. "I love tungsten jigs," he says, "because they're small for their weight and they get you down there quickly. They can bump down through weeds really well, too. I use them all the time."
When fish are extra finicky and the bite's tough to figure out, Jamie will downsize his delivery mechanism even more than usual, often using jigs like the smallest size of either the Drop or Epoxy Drop jig (Clam jigs that he's most familiar with).
"Sometimes I use the plastic on a very light jig," he says, "to slow the fall rate and keep the bait almost neutrally buoyant down there. When fish are extra finicky, they might come up to a bait and just blow on it. If a fish blows on your bait and it stays in position (because it's heavy) they won't bite it. But if a fish blows on it and it moves around in the water, the fish thinks it's something real that belongs down there."
Presentation Approach
We decided to try something, in an effort to help you catch more fish even if you don't go in-depth on underwater prey study. We asked Vladyka to give us his two favorite setups and presentations, one for generally active fish and one for finicky, tough-bite fish.
"Typically, I start off with a small tungsten horizontal jig and a plastic I can swim," he said. "Color depends on where I'm fishing and what I'm fishing for. I usually start with a dark color."
He likes a long (30-inch) rod for swimming plastics - just the rod, no spring bobber. His go-to plastic on this rig (as he tries for fish he believes will be generally cooperative) is a slender worm-style with a narrow paddle tail called the Spiiki. "First thing I usually do is bite about a quarter inch off, to shorten it up a bit," says Vladyka. "That allows it to match up better with the small jig, so it hangs more horizontal, rather than the paddle tail hanging down too much. When you shorten the package up, you're more apt to get the hook in the fish's mouth better, instead of just the tail."
As for how he works it: "I love swimming plastics. I try to be a happy little minnow swimming around down there, not in a straight line. I'm usually fishing outside or sitting on my snow machine, and I work the full hole, side to side, front to back, and the whole water column. I try to mimic what a minnow or tadpole would do down there. I work it as much left and right in the hole as up and down."
So how about when the bite is tough?
When fish are reluctant to take much of anything, Vladyka uses a shorter rod with a spring-bobber on it. A lightweight jig is matched with his namesake plastic, the Jamei, featuring thin twin tails (that he angles upward most of the time) and a thicker body adorned with tentacles.
"That's my go-to finessing bait," he says. "If you can hold the jig almost completely still but keep the tails moving, that's finessing in my book. That doesn't mean I don't move it around, because I do. I always tell my clients, 'be the bait' so they think about what it's doing down there.
"How the fish responds on my flasher dictates what I do. If you slow down, but don't stop, that might be just the right speed to keep the fish interested. I try to slow it down but keep it moving enough so that the fish reacts and tries to get it before it gets too far away.
"If the fish just sit there and won't do much, I try to barely move it, just enough so the jig doesn't spin. I want those hairs barely moving. Then I count on the fish putting it in their mouth to see what it is. A lot of times, they take it the first time and just hold it there, but the hook isn't in their mouth. If it feels real to them, and smells real, there's a good chance, when they take it the second time, they get it all the way in their mouth."
Modern supple plastics have a huge advantage in this regard, says Vladyka, but it also means they're often not as durable. "Fish will tear them up," he says, "but I think that's a good tradeoff for catching them."
Indeed, says Genz, he has witnessed Jamie's plastics system catch all types and sizes of fish, from panfish to bass, pike and walleyes.
"When you get it all right," says Genz, "the right cadence, the right plastic, you discover the hook is way down in the fish's mouth, where you need a disgorger to get it out. They're eating the bait."
In all ice fishing, you get upward and downward, but you mostly wish for outward. But the outward appearance of your bait, now that can be extremely realistic. And when it's backed up by realistic feel, then you got something. Like a fish on the end of your line.
Note: Dave Genz, known as Mr. Ice Fishing, was the primary driver of the modern ice fishing revolution. He has been enshrined in the National Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame and Minnesota Fishing Hall of Fame for his contributions to the sport. For more fishing tips and to order his new info-packed book, Ice Revolution, go to www.davegenz.com
Electronic Device Advice on the Ice
Dave Genz talks electronics for modern ice fishing
Since the days that Dave Genz tinkered with using early flashers in the same hole he was fishing out of, there have been many years of electronic revolution and evolution. So where does that leave us, as ice anglers? We sat down with Genz, on a rare break from his "fish pretty much every day all winter" program, and asked how he uses the latest electronic devices to help him find and catch fish through the ice.
He spends more time out there than anybody. He travels farther than anybody. He has a technical and creative mind. We hope you pick up some ideas by studying his system.
Q: There have been a lot of advancements in electronic equipment since you started modernizing the sport. As a practical matter, what is the state of the art, in your mind, when it comes to ice fishing electronics?
Genz: I use a GPS all the time, with the map chips. I have a quality lake map in there if it's available for the lake I'm on at the moment. That's what lets me find the places I want to drill holes and start looking (for fish).
I seldom use a handheld GPS, because I find I struggle to look at a small screen and locate where I am and see the big picture. So I like a larger screen, maybe 5 inches or so. I would even take a larger one, but it gets impractical to carry it around.
I mount my GPS on the dash of my snowmobile. Then I can navigate easily while I'm driving across the lake.
On the dash, I actually have three devices mounted - the GPS, a Vexilar (flasher), and a (underwater) camera. One of my favorite positions for fishing is sitting on the seat of the snowmobile, and wearing Ice Armor lets me sit there (outside) on most days. The auger is on a rack on the front, and Fish Traps are mounted on racks on the front and back. It truly is my winter bass boat, the latest version of what I had in mind even in the early days.
I keep another Vexilar, rigged in a Genz Box, so I can hole hop or use it inside of a fish house. That's my system.
Q: How do you use the GPS? How do you decide where to drill holes? How do you then look over spots, so you know whether to stay or keep moving?
Genz: One of the big things is to find depressions in flats. Sometimes it's only a couple feet deeper than what's around it, or maybe it's 5 feet deeper. On those huge flats, those are the key areas. This is where those new maps, with the 1-foot or 5-foot contours, really shine.
In a bay or on any big flat, I want to know where the deepest parts are. That's where I'm going to drill some holes. And it helps me find the weedbeds, so I can find the green weeds. Just finding weeds from the summer isn't enough, because they might all be brown and down.
Q: So you find the depth you want to check. How do you discover those other things, such as the state of the weeds?
Genz: You have to drill holes. It still comes down to drilling holes. I use the camera to look for weeds, and see what shape they're in.
Q: And you look for fish with the camera?
Genz: Not usually. If I see fish on the camera I don't look away, but the flasher is still the best tool for catching fish through the ice. When you're fishing multiple holes, it's so much faster to go hole to hole and drop the (flasher) transducer down there and read instantly everything that's down there.
Q: You've also said that, even when you're using a camera that you like the flasher to be running at the same time, largely because it sees farther out to the side. You've called it the early warning signal. When you see fish show up on the flasher, then you shift your gaze to the camera screen to watch the fish arrive at the bait, so you can study its reaction to the presentation. Do you like using the flasher when searching for fish because it sees farther out to the side than a camera typically does?
Genz: That's part of it, but again it comes down to speed. When you have a whole lake to check out, you don't get it done if you take time to lower the camera down every hole. I also adjust the Vexilar depending on what I'm doing.
Q: What do you mean?
Genz: I love the new 9-degree transducer. It's naturally a narrow beam transducer, but it's designed so that when you turn up the gain, you're reading the lobes of the cone angle. (The sonar signal) is not just a straight upside down cone. When you turn it up, you can read those lobes, so it lets you see farther out to the side, even though it's a narrow beam transducer.
When I'm in search mode, I turn the gain up, so I can see a wider area (in practical terms, this means you have the potential to see more fish, out farther to the side). When I'm in fishing mode I turn the gain down, to decrease the amount of side coverage. Then you know fish are close by you when they show up on the display.
Q: So you use the camera quite a bit, to see what's down there with your own two eyes, but you tend not to use it when you're in high speed search mode. Is that accurate?
Genz: The flasher is by far the number one tool. If I could only have one, it would definitely be my Vexilar. The GPS is amazing technology, too. It cuts down the amount of time it takes to locate fish. Then the Vexilar cuts down the time it takes to catch fish, and probably makes the difference between catching the fish and not catching it.
Q: What about the idea of using a camera and flasher together? Do you still do that?
Genz: Yes, and it's fun to do. Another thing that does is helps you learn to read your flasher. You watch the jig on the flasher and camera together, and you realize you can see the worms squirming on your hook. You wonder why the line of your jig is fluttering (on the flasher), you look at the camera screen and see the worms are moving down there, and realize you can actually see that on the Vexilar.
You see fish come in on the flasher and then watch them on the camera, and go back and forth between the two and you really get a sense for what it means to understand the mood of the fish by watching it on the flasher. I've always called the Vexilar my mood indicator, because I could tell what kind of reaction I was getting from the fish, depending on how I'm jigging it. That's still the same, and it's one of the most important skills you can have.
Note: Dave Genz, known as Mr. Ice Fishing, was the primary driver
of the modern ice fishing revolution. He has been enshrined in the National
Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame and Minnesota Fishing Hall of Fame for his
contributions to the sport. For more fishing tips and to order his new
info-packed book, Ice Revolution, go to www.davegenz.com
Soft as a Baby Insect's Bottom
Plastics in modern ice fishing, Part 1
Some of what you're about to hear, if you have followed Dave Genz and his ice fishing beliefs, might not sound like the father of modern ice fishing. He's finding a soft spot in his heart for soft plastics.
This from a guy who has come right out and said, "I'm a live bait fisherman."
Genz's belief system comes from what he sees and catches while out there on the ice - almost every day, all winter long, on an annual tour that stretches east and west, from the southern fringes of the Ice Belt to the True North. You can't blame somebody for developing confidence in fresh maggots barely pierced through the fat end so clear juices stream from them and they wiggle on the hook. Fish readily eat such things, and they haven't stopped eating them just because Genz believes more strongly in soft plastics.
No, the evolution of Dave's take on plastics says more about his open mind, inquisitive nature, and the development of materials and processes being used to make the latest, more realistic fakes.
Here's the story of how all this came about.
Actually, it was the combination of Genz's wide travels and time spent observing good anglers using the latest plastics that popped his eyes open to the possibilities. In addition to his own fishing, Dave attends a lot of top-shelf ice fishing competitions, often as the weigh-in emcee. Rather than sit in the trailer all day, he tools around on his snowmobile and studies the anglers. He knows them and they know him, and there is a continuous conversation going on.
"Spending the last 20 years around these tournament fishermen," says Genz, "is what made me realize that during these tournaments, you usually don't have the luxury of moving 10 feet away and drilling a new hole to look for biters. It gets crowded out there on the good spots.
"When these guys are restricted to staying in one place and trying to get those fish to bite, a lot of them put down a piece of plastic. These are the same fish that didn't bite the lure they had down there, that was baited with live bait.
"Color becomes much more important (when using plastics and trying to tempt the same fish), along with the speed of your movements, and the shape of the plastic. You might drop something down and bang, you catch one. Then it slows back down and you have to continue to go through your arsenal."
All the old rules still apply, such as hoping you can get over a good hole, the edges of the best cover, the place fish most want to be at the moment. And waiting for the magic hour when light levels drop and the sun hits the tops of the trees. But, it's hard to ignore when good fishermen pluck reluctant fish using this plastics approach, right in the middle of the day. They try things and find what works, because they don't have the luxury of waiting for the sunset. Weigh-in is completed long before sunset.
While it's true that the modern ice fishing revolution began and was driven from the center of the country, the East Coast, in many respects, has been the incubator for much recent soft plastic innovation. One guy Genz regularly comes across on his trips to the eastern states (and at other tourney venues) is Scott Brauer, an industrial arts teacher from New York with a passion for ice fishing. Brauer fishes in competitions, and his Maki soft plastic baits are used by a large percentage of tournament anglers. "Talking to Scott is what clued me in to how far the materials had come," said Genz. "I spent time learning from him, and saw how they were able to take the latest materials and infuse colors, even glow colors, and turn them into shapes that behave more like real things in the water."
Indeed, the movement of today's plastics is a big part of their appeal. Seeming to react to essentially no movement on your part, they undulate in the water almost like marabou. They can be shifted around by subtle underwater currents. As long as the jig they're connected to is lightweight and well balanced, the plastics can react and flow even when fish softly blow on them or half-heartedly suck at them. This is a big deal, something we'll talk more about next time.
The performance characteristics of modern soft plastics are made possible by how soft and supple the materials are and the sophisticated processes used to create intricate shapes. And that same factor, softness, accounts for fish holding onto them after giving them the initial sampling test. A fish's life is a continuous cycle of choosing what to eat and what to reject, from among all the stuff that's crawling and swimming around down there. The latest plastics are impressive when it comes to representing what fish are currently feeding on, then passing that crucial touch test. Which brings us to another East Coast angler, Jamie Vladyka. Genz credits Vladyka for helping him view the use of plastics for ice fishing as a different matter than using those same baits in open water.
"The light bulb (about how and when to use plastics) went on with me last year," remembers Genz, talking winter 2012-13, "when I was out there with Jamie. I had always worked hard to thread plastics on perfectly straight, so they hung outward, horizontally (parallel to the hook shank). But we learned that from fishing them in the summer, when we cast it out and wind it back in. That's how plastics look best when you're fishing that way.
"In the winter, you drop it straight down the hole, so the movement is more up and down than across. The only 'across' we get is by the size of the hole. Jamie got me hooking the plastics so they're tails up or tails down, so when you work it, it looks more like it's swimming or kicking up or down. It's more realistic than having it swim around in circles down there. It was Jamie who put that thought in my head."
Really interesting stuff, and enough to get your head swimming around in circles. Next time, we'll bring Jamie into the conversation and get his detailed take on how he presents plastics.
Note: Dave Genz, known as Mr. Ice Fishing, was the primary driver of the modern ice fishing revolution. He has been enshrined in the National Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame and Minnesota Fishing Hall of Fame for his contributions to the sport. For more fishing tips and to order his new info-packed book, Ice Revolution, go to www.davegenz.com.
