Indiana Ice Fishing
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You will need an auger, either a hand cranking auger or a power auger.
A power auger will really come in handy when you are going through
more than ten inches of ice and in search and destroy mode. You will
also need an ice skimmer. Something to keep the ice out of your hole.
You will need some kind of rod and reel for ice fishing. You can use
your regular rod and reel, but these get to be a bit too long if you are
fishing in a shanty. Some nice tip ups are nice if you are going to be
fishing for something other than panfish. You will need some ice jigs
as well. That is pretty much all you will really need to get out on the
ice.
Some optional equipment would be a shanty of some sort. Creepers
for your boots are nice to have as well. A couple of spikes to help pull
yourself out of the water if you should go through. A pull behind sled
is listed here as optional, but I wouldn't ice fish without one. A pail to
sit on with a couple of rod holders and room for some gear is also a
nice optional piece of equipment to have. More optional equipment is a
spring bobber of some sort. This will help detect the soft bites of
panfish.
A helpful tip when ice fishing with a bobber is to coat it with some
vaseline to keep ice from forming on the bobber. You can also put
some on the eyes of the rod to keep ice from forming on those as
well. This also works well for when you are fishing open water early in
the year.
A water spout is another nice thing to have and it is also our next tip.
Take a metal coffee can and some copper tubing. This should be like
1/4 inch in size. Have a small hole in the side of the can by the
bottom. And inch or two of the tubing should stick out that hole.
Inside the can, the tubing should coil upwards. About 8-10 coils until
it reaches the top of the can. Then a two foot section should come
out over the top of the can and the end of the tubing should point
downwards. The coils should be almost as big around as the can is
since you will be putting charcoal in the middle of the coil. When you
bury the can part way next to the hole you are fishing in, the hot coals
of the charcoal will melt the ice into water and the coil will draw the
water upwards as the water warms. It will then stream out and into
your ice fishing hole. This warm water will keep your hole from closing
up when you are fishing.
Another version of that is to countersink a hole next to the hole you
are fishing in. Chisel a trench from that partial hole to the hole you are
fishing out of. In the partial hole, put a coffee can and charcoal. This
will keep the water on the top of your ice fishing hole from freezing up.
One thing I didn't mention as equipment needed earlier was an ice
chisel. So many times I have heard of anglers losing a nice fish
because a hook stuck in the side of the ice hole and the fish pulled
free. With an ice chisel, you can carve off the bottom rim of your ice
hole so it is more beveled. This will prevent you from possible losing
that super nice fish. I know of one walleye angler that uses Rapala
Jigging Shad Raps and cuts the front and rear hooks off just for that
reason. If he was to just use an ice chisel, he could eliminate that
problem all together.
Since this really hasn't left us a lot of space to do a concise section on
this page of all the different species to ice fish for and how to go about
it, we will be adding in some separate articles on different pages for
the different species. Hope you all have found some ideas in here that
will help you catch some more fish, or make things easier on you while
doing so.
A power auger will really come in handy when you are going through
more than ten inches of ice and in search and destroy mode. You will
also need an ice skimmer. Something to keep the ice out of your hole.
You will need some kind of rod and reel for ice fishing. You can use
your regular rod and reel, but these get to be a bit too long if you are
fishing in a shanty. Some nice tip ups are nice if you are going to be
fishing for something other than panfish. You will need some ice jigs
as well. That is pretty much all you will really need to get out on the
ice.
Some optional equipment would be a shanty of some sort. Creepers
for your boots are nice to have as well. A couple of spikes to help pull
yourself out of the water if you should go through. A pull behind sled
is listed here as optional, but I wouldn't ice fish without one. A pail to
sit on with a couple of rod holders and room for some gear is also a
nice optional piece of equipment to have. More optional equipment is a
spring bobber of some sort. This will help detect the soft bites of
panfish.
A helpful tip when ice fishing with a bobber is to coat it with some
vaseline to keep ice from forming on the bobber. You can also put
some on the eyes of the rod to keep ice from forming on those as
well. This also works well for when you are fishing open water early in
the year.
A water spout is another nice thing to have and it is also our next tip.
Take a metal coffee can and some copper tubing. This should be like
1/4 inch in size. Have a small hole in the side of the can by the
bottom. And inch or two of the tubing should stick out that hole.
Inside the can, the tubing should coil upwards. About 8-10 coils until
it reaches the top of the can. Then a two foot section should come
out over the top of the can and the end of the tubing should point
downwards. The coils should be almost as big around as the can is
since you will be putting charcoal in the middle of the coil. When you
bury the can part way next to the hole you are fishing in, the hot coals
of the charcoal will melt the ice into water and the coil will draw the
water upwards as the water warms. It will then stream out and into
your ice fishing hole. This warm water will keep your hole from closing
up when you are fishing.
Another version of that is to countersink a hole next to the hole you
are fishing in. Chisel a trench from that partial hole to the hole you are
fishing out of. In the partial hole, put a coffee can and charcoal. This
will keep the water on the top of your ice fishing hole from freezing up.
One thing I didn't mention as equipment needed earlier was an ice
chisel. So many times I have heard of anglers losing a nice fish
because a hook stuck in the side of the ice hole and the fish pulled
free. With an ice chisel, you can carve off the bottom rim of your ice
hole so it is more beveled. This will prevent you from possible losing
that super nice fish. I know of one walleye angler that uses Rapala
Jigging Shad Raps and cuts the front and rear hooks off just for that
reason. If he was to just use an ice chisel, he could eliminate that
problem all together.
Since this really hasn't left us a lot of space to do a concise section on
this page of all the different species to ice fish for and how to go about
it, we will be adding in some separate articles on different pages for
the different species. Hope you all have found some ideas in here that
will help you catch some more fish, or make things easier on you while
doing so.
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