I ran into a guy while pheasant hunting in the Aberdeen area this fall, who told me that he and most of his friends spend more time ice fishing than they do during the open water season. That’s only mildly surprising for a couple of good reasons: (1) ice fishing in the new waters of eastern South Dakota have been terrific for more than a decade, and (2) we’ve never enjoyed the use of better equipment. The end result is that over the past 10 to 15 years, more people have become winter anglers than in all the years prior.
Consider the opportunities. The decade of high water did nothing but improve fishing in all of the new lakes in both Dakotas, as well as trigger better spawns of all species in existing fisheries.
Equipment choices have never been better. Slightly more than a decade ago, most winter fishermen were using a primitive stick with a sharpened nail at one end, heavy line and a bobber as big as a tennis ball. By contrast, most today are using short graphite rods whose makers have incorporated 6-foot rod technology into shorter rods of 24 to 30 inches long, perfect for use in the confines of a modern ice-fishing shanty.
Modern winter anglers are drilling holes quicker than ever with lightweight augers that bore through thick ice in mere seconds, and they fish in comfort in unique one and two-man portable shelters. Finally, the ice angler of today isn’t fishing blindly. He has sonar to guide him, and here’s something even most good ice anglers haven’t realized. Sonars work better when ice fishing than on open water. That’s because the sonar doesn’t move, though fish do, and the end result is that when they move into your area, there’s no guess work. If they show on the sonar, the fish are below you.
THE RODS
For panfish, I like a short rod, something on the order of 24 inches. It should have a stiff butt but the final few inches should bend easily. That rod tip becomes your “bobber” and will telegraph any strike you don’t feel, yet the stiff butt gives you the sensitivity you need to feel light bites, while providing the backbone required for a good hook set in deeper water. For walleyes and other larger fish, a 30-inch rod that has a slower tip seems about right.
LINES
If I’m after panfish, 1 and 2 pound monofilament works nicely, and I particularly like 2 pound mono. Some advise 4 or 6 pound test, but in very cold weather, it tends to stiffen and fish miserably with tiny lures. The fine line isn’t required to make it invisible to the fish; after all, if fish knew what fishing line was, we’d never catch them and gill nets wouldn’t work. What the light line does so well is enable you to fish very tiny lures well.
However, for deep water perch, I prefer Fireline 4-1. I’m usually using slightly heavier lures when I fish perch and they fish well on this no-stretch line. It’s biggest advantage is that the no-stretch feature makes it easy to detect very light bites. For most walleye fishing, I stick with 8 or 10 pound monofilament because I’m using larger and heavier lures.
If you’re in doubt about the proper size line to use, try this for a guide. Let the lure fall to the depth you’re fishing, and if you see a kink in the line, it’s too heavy.
REELS
Any open faced spinning reel that offers adequate line capacity will work well, though for larger fish; walleyes, pike or chinook salmon or trout, a good drag system is important. Either that or learn to backreel. Frankly, with fish that move as fast as a chinook salmon, I don't think you can backreel fast enough. I also frequently use a baitcasting reel when fishing for chinooks, largely because a quality baitcasting reel comes with a reliable, and high quality drag system.
SHELTERS
We’ve come a long ways from the days of “the ice fishing shack,” which was often a collection of discarded boards and materials, and just as often, a project among several guys who like to fish and drink together. If it was placed in the right spot, you could hope for a few days of decent fishing each year, but after the ice thickened and fish moved to different locations, the owners of “the shack” did more drinking and card playing than fishing. That didn’t suit a friend of mine who’d rather catch fish.
And so it was that Dave Genz led the way with the development of the Fish Trap, which has been modified (and copied) many times over the years. The current version is sleek and has so many niceties that it’s easy to forget that it’s a portable fishing shelter. Golly, you can even light it up for night fishing.
But most important, it allows the ice fisherman to stay mobile, to be able to move to follow the bite and stay warm while doing so. And because there isn’t a lot of space to heat, on most days, the sun will give you all you need. On the others, a propane lantern or heater will work nicely.
Larger shelters are available and can fish as many as six people. And new ones such as the Zack-Shack, made by old friends of mine, the Zachmeier family from Mandan, give you true luxury without sacrificing mobility, as long as the ice is thick enough to support a vehicle or ATV. These offer the bonus of serving as a summertime storage unit, and can even double as a deer camp headquarters.
As for portable heaters, there are none on the market I’d choose to endorse. Coleman made the famous Focus heaters a few years back and I consider myself fortunate in that I own four. I wouldn’t part with any of them for any price.
AUGERS
My first ice fishing effort could well have been my last. My brothers Tom and Bob joined me at the mouth of Square Butte Creek north of Mandan. It had to have been darned near 50 years ago. Spud bars were in vogue in those days, though some primitive hand augers were beginning to end up in well-stocked hardware stores, but all we had was an axe. We managed to get three rough holes of varying diameters and shapes cut, but it was no easy task. That we were able to do so without cutting off a foot was amazing in itself. It nearly cured me of ice fishing too because the supreme insult was that after all of that work, we didn’t catch any fish.
Today, a power auger is the only way to go. The two major makers are Jiffy and Strikemaster, and since they both use the same engines, you can’t compare them on that basis. The only difference is in the cutting blades and I think Strikemaster wins this test. Their cutting blades are so efficient you’ll find the 2 hp model more than powerful enough and that eliminates a lot of weight.
SONAR
Nothing has revolutionized ice fishing more than the adaptation of sonar. A sonar opens a new world for those who have grown accustomed to watching a bobber float around in a 7-inch hole. It tells you if you’re fishing fish, and if you’re not, why fish there?
I’ve used a sonar for at least 15 years and remember the first day I used one. We rigged an old Lawrance 2330 with a transducer on a stick and powered it with a motorcycle battery. I was astonished to see my “ice fly” on the sonar screen as it sunk toward the bottom. Not much happened at first, but by mid afternoon, I began to see red flashes appear about half-way between the top and the bottom. We were in fifteeen feet and I thought the red marks to be some mysterious interference. Just for the hell of it, I raised my tiny jig to coincide with the marks…and promptly caught a nice bluegill.
Ice fishing changed forever for me on that day, and I learned that much of what I thought I knew about ice fishing was wrong. I’d believed that all fish hung out near the bottom, thus we’d fish our baits within a few inches of the bottom. Sonar taught me that some species do hug the bottom, especially perch and walleyes, though they are frequently as much as a few feet off the bottom and sometimes suspend at mid-depth. I learned that crappies suspend much of the time and that northern pike and most trout and salmonids roam at various depths whenever they want to. Most of all, I learned that if I wanted to catch fish, I’d have to fish where they lived and the sonar made it easy to find them.
And I will say this unequivocally. Vexilar’s FL-18, the choice of most winter anglers, is clearly in a class by itself. It’s signals are bright and easy to run in the brightest sunlight, even if you’re wearing sunglasses. It has a unique split screen operation which allows you to monitor all levels from top to bottom, but also the bottom six feet on the other side of the screen. That makes it especially adaptable for perch and walleye fishing, or any fish that tends to hug the bottom.
The multi-color flashes also tell you when the fish are immediately below you. As the fish enter the sonar signal, they show up as a weak green, and then as they move toward the area directly below you, they’ll progressively turn from green, to yellow, to bright red. Lift your jig (you can see it too) to a point just above the fish and watch as the two signals converge. About that time, you’ll feel a tug, and it’s just a matter of setting the hook. It’s almost like playing a video game.
LURES
Unlike most summer fishermen, those who fish during the winter months don’t need a big, hip-roofed tackle box full of lures. In fact, most of what you should have can easily fit into a 6 x 4 inch plastic box.
I’d make darned sure I had Genz Worms and Fat Boys in a choice of sizes and colors. These Dave Genz-designed ice fishing lures are great for all panfish and are designed to be tipped with maggots or wax worms.
“I wanted small lures that fish heavy,” Dave told me.
These do, and their design makes it easy to see them on the sonar.
He also developed a unique presentation with these tiny lures that really works well. He calls it “pounding.” He merely rapidly raises and lowers his rod tip in the same motion you’d use when pounding a nail with a hammer, but the up and down portion of the correct stroke only travels from a half to a full inch or so. There’s something about that kind of “pounding” action that attracts perch, bluegills and crappies.
However, you’ll often find that the day or so following a cold front, the fish reject such aggressive movements. In fact, if you see them drop out of the picture or swim out of the transducer signal whenever you move the bait, there’s a probability that what you spooked them. Slow down if that’s the case.
Another great fish finder and catcher is a small Kastmaster spoon with the treble hook removed. Tie a 4-inch piece of mono to the split ring that once held the treble hook, then tie on a very small hook, say something around size 16, and bait it with a few maggots. The separation from the flashy Kastmaster will often hook those finicky biters.
And I always have a few other Kastmasters in silver and blue because when tipped with a minnow head, they become a top perch, walleye or largemouth bass lure.
The “Chubby Darter” by Salmo was developed by John Simpson who grew up ice fishing in and around Madison, SD. John now works for In Fisherman as an Editor. This lure vibrates hard and erratically, and when fished with a minnow head on the front treble, really knocks the socks off aggressive walleyes.
I frequently tie on another classic ice fishing lure, the Swedish Pimple. It seems to work best when the perch and walleyes are a bit fussy. It doesn’t have the erratic action of a Kastmaster, but sometimes subtle works better. I always bait it with a minnow head or at least three maggots.
Any of the metal flash spoons work well on largemouth bass as does the Chubby Darter, and don’t be surprised if the smaller lures intended for panfish also catch a lot of largemouths.
OTHER ICE FISHING ACCESSORIES
Though I’ve taken a number of 25 pound-plus northern pike in open water, I’ve never caught a big one through the ice, probably because I’ve never spent much time fishing for them. However, a few years ago, while on a perch fishing trip with the famous Perch Patrol at Devils Lake, we saved an otherwise slow day by fishing pike with tip ups. Talk about fun. We had an entire bay covered with tip-ups, each set at different depths, and all using smelt for bait. When the pike went on the bite, all we did was run from one to another.
There are a number of good tip-ups on the market but the best I’ve used is one that’s been around for a long time. Made of hardwood, the Beaver Dam tipups offered durability and high quality. The company was recently purchased and now known as the Arctic Fisherman.
Tip ups are perfect for fishing big northern pike. Use as many as the law allows and bait them using smelt on Quick Strike rigs.
GOOD BETS FOR ICE FISHING ACTION
It seems that every year we have new perch hotspots. Still, there are some fairly reliable places, nearly always big lakes, that offer terrific perch action on an almost annual basis. In North Dakota, Lake Darling near Minot and Devils Lake can usually be counted on for good fishing. In South Dakota, try Waubay and Bitter lakes, though you should always be on the lookout for one of the “new” lakes formed in the 90’s when heavy runoff turned many former duck sloughs into larger natural lakes. There are still many that haven’t been fished.
For walleyes, Devils Lake would top my list, though Roy and Enemy Swim Lakes in South Dakota can produce some very big fish. So, for that matter, can Oahe and Sakakawea.
Devils Lake is perhaps the most productive northern pike lake, but for real lunkers, turn to Sak and Oahe. Both latter impoundments have a long history of producing many 25 pound fish annually. The water might be low this winter, but the fishing will be excellent in both bodies of water. And there are literally dozens of shallow prairie lakes in both states that offer bumper pike populations.
