PPHA Forums
General Outdoors => <*}}}>< Fishing => Topic started by: bigben on January 17, 2011, 08:45:08 AM
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anyone get out on the hardwater? I am thinkin bout heading out on sunday somewhere to drill a few holes and try for some feesh. anyone interested in the cumberland york adams area of a get together at michaux state forest
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Just got back from a weekend fishing trip.Started out at Erie fishing for perch.Brutal conditions on Saturday with 35 mph winds and blinding snow.3 1/2 inches of ice and tons of bait fish.You could see the shad swimming in the holes.Made for slow fishing but still caught a few nice perch.They had a boat on the bay in the afternoon busting up the ice to make way for an incoming freighter so we headed south to Lake Arthur for Sunday morning.Lots of bluegill and perch caught but mostly on the small side.
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thats a long haul just for perch. ever fish marburg? I can tell ya I have always fished ice for trout. never fished for panfish on the ice. it seems like it would be more action then trout. any info or advice would be appreciated. and I am game to head anywhere and fish that is within reasonable distance from carlisle.
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I have not ice fished Marburg but would like to try sometime.I fish it alot in the summer.Not sure what the conditions are down there.
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IDK where to look for conditions down there. I wonder if a local bait shop down there would have reports?
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might be far for you but you can always fish at my place. we fished there today and had a great time. caught over 120 between the 3 of us. if you ever want to travel up this way let me know. ice is anywhere from 8 to 10 inches.
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for ice conditions the best spot to check is iceshanty.com
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if i could get a free weekend, what members would be intrested in a ice fishing day at our cabin. we are in wyoming co. about 15 minutes away from tunkhannock.
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I have purchased all of this ice fishing equipment over the years on Clearance but never really gave it a REALISTIC try...Tried when I was a kid at one of the local reservoirs in NEPA. However we truly didn't know what we were doing..
If you all want to know about Marburg..There is a baitshop that is about 5 minutes away from park. It's open Sundays mornings too early. I know I have talked to a few fisherperson down here and they told me to fish Marburg where the canoe cove is or park where the small bridges go over the park...Main road going into the park from Hanover.. the name of the bait shop is B & B Lures. Let see what did they catch there..Pan Fish, Northerns and some Walleye...
http://www.manta.com/c/mm0866b/b-b-lures
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Sounds like a great time Scott, but I want to be honest theres only 3 things that ever happened to me while ice fishing...getting cold, hungry, and usually 3 sheets to the wind to whichever tasty beverage I brought along in the sled...i've only got on perch and trout a few times in tioga county, and while that was fun...I just don't get too excited about it...probably because I haven't caught anything with size...and the stuff I enjoy the most is at the exact opposite of the spectrum...hot nights, big bait, in a boat...chasing monsters...tip ups are def the way I prefered it...like trapping for fish, and you can bs with your friends untill you see a flag...I bought all the jigging equipment, and that was obviously a waste haha...anyone want to buy 2 jigging rods, some jigs, ice remover, and a rod stand? I honestly would do it everynow and again, maybe with some of leglifter's wine...but sorry I couldn't make a trip out of it...I hope you guys have fun though! When you get the gaff out, don't horse'm!!!
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couple of different ways to fish them, we move until we find them we don't even take tip ups on the ice. we fish just for panfish and usually catch a lot of nice ones, a lot of fun on light tackle. you can also set up tip ups for bass and pick if that is your game. we have have some really big bass and pickerel in the lake. biggest bass i saw was 10 3/4.
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scott asks-
what members would be intrested in a ice fishing day
Im interested.
Never did it. Like to give it a shot.
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I would be game but thats a long haul. maybe I can run up to herns and catch a ride the rest of the way up? I got rods and tipups hern. your more then welcome to use em.
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Put BB and Hern side by side and that ice better be thick!!! :o
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Never been ice fishing. So some guys out on the ice last saturday on Ontonlaunee.
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swarter...how close are you to the skuke river?
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Depends on what part of the Skuke you talking about.
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ok, looking at the schedules I came up with a weekend i can get out. Feb 12th or 13th, either one would be a good day. So far I think two said they would like to try it. So if you still want to try let me know. I have enough equipment for a couple of people, all you would need would be good boots and warm clothes.
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I'll mark it on the calander scott. if I can make it I will be up.
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swarter...where all the fish are of course ;D
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Critter- I live in Souderton along the border of Montco and Bucks. So, I'm fairly close to the river.
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last friday I got invited to a farm pond to fish with the fella I fished for catfish back in october. we hammered em. from 1:30 till dark we caught about 50 gillz between the three of us and I had a blast. the company made it a memorable trip as well. sat morn me and my father went to laurel lake and didn't do so hot. we fished for three hours and only had two hits. we talked to some more guys and they had about the same luck. we left at noon and did some stuff around the house. I ended up heading to gander mountain to buy my own auger and then swung back around the lake to see how some others were doing in the afternoon hours. the bite was not really active. sunday morn I hit a local farm pond and didn't get a hit. some kids through some big blue catfish in it this summer and I have pretty much wrote the pond off now. even in late summer there wasn't as many sunnies there and I attribute it to the blue catfish. sunday afternoon I went back to laurel and tried some submerged trees for some perch and pickerel and nothing still. tried one little ore hole close by and had a good conversation with another fisherman there. I got stripped a few times but I wasn't paying attention enough to the rods. monday night I went to the PA fish and boat commission and they had a seminar on ice fishing there. learned a bunch of what I was doing wrong. then yesterday I hit another pond that I always did good at in summer on gillz. I dropped a mealworm tipped jig down one hole and used a kastmaster jiggin it in another and caught a bass. I got there late and really could only fish a half hour but had a good time enjoying the warmup we had yesterday.
friday I am thinkin i will either be hitting pinchot or a spot down towards goosehunter. two small ponds owned by valley quarrys. sunday I am hitting pinchot early morning and depending on the bite I might stay all day.
the second weekend in feb I will actually be up at george b stevenson with a family friend and my father. so I am out for that weekend scott. thanks for the offer though.
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no problem ben, icefishing is very addicting. if you have any question just ask and if you every want to take a road trip let me know. we could work out where you stay at the cabin.
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yeah it is. I wanna try dads fishin buddy fish finder and see if that can help me narrow down where the fish are in the small ponds I am fishin. there is a old flasher on a junk boat we have but I do not think the transducer is any good. I gotta look into it further but I know that when I have caught panfish I had to concentrate so hard on the line to see if there was a bite. I mean really concentrate. almost to the point of it not being fun.
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some of the local sportsperson clubs allow ice fishing at your own risk on club ponds..Just an option to consider if you belong to a club that has a pond...Some however will not allow you to take bass..
Now what I think would be neat would be to catch a mess of Yellow Perch and make some good fish chowder.. However gills would work too...
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I was on a local fish and game pond yesterday. I know there is tons of gills in there and I know the bottom pretty well. deepest part is only 4.5ft or so. I was catchin some bigguns this summer but normally threw em back because I was mainly fishin for bait for catfish. anything over 4" I threw back. I did catch some 7-8" this summer. I am lookin for em now to do the pan fry treatment on em. ;D
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best time to keep them to cook, the filets are firm and to me they taste better. If you are fishing for panfish I would take a Hali jig in Chartreuse and tip it with three or four maggots. now remember a panfish will not feed down and most of the time bluegills and calico's are 1ft off the bottom anyway. but in 4.5 ft of water you might catch them just under the ice, but i would start about 1 1/2 ft to 2 ft off the bottom and work my way up. this is where a vexilar is worth its weight in gold.
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unfortunately I don't have the $ for a unit to only use it for a month and a half. :(
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yeah, they are pricy but if you watch the end of year clearance sales you can get one for 1/2 price. i have had mine for 5 or 6 years now and if i forgot it at home i would go back and get it before i fished without it. the other day forrest was acting up so i told him he was grounded and his punishment was " i was going to take his vexilar off him for the next trip" i thought he was going to cry.
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if there was a way to mount the vexilar transducer on a boat so we could use it during the summer I would most likely buy one. but can't justify it for ice fishing only. of course I can see where it will be beneficial when panfish are hitting lightly. I do know of a small pond that is deep that holds crappie and big gills. I was about 10ft from the bank and it was 20ft deep. it is a old ore hole that filled up with water. kinda skeert going in there by myself though. :-\
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The ice fishing for trout has been slow but the stock truck makes its rounds in a couple of weeks.For panfish in this area lighter is better, 2 pound line or lighter,micro jigs and wax worms.I have used spikes mealworms and even dug some grubs out of the wood pile.As far as commercial bait I would go with wax worms but they sure loved those grubs out of the wood pile.It varies for different bodies of water though.On lake Erie they wouldn't look at anything other than a jigging spoon tipped with a minnow or grub.
The vexilar is a great tool that teaches you how to fish.You can watch your bait and see how the fish react to your bait.I've had one for 20 some years and it works great.They make transducers that you can mount to your boat or shoot thru an aluminum hull.The youngsters sure like watching the vexilar.
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I am really hoping that this lowrance flasher is in good shape that we have. I want to go down and dig around tonight to see if I can use it. I seen another person using a vex on the ice at laurel and yes it would be nice to see where fish are and how they react to my bait.
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well the lowrance flasher looks and appears to work. I need to do some cleaning out inside and then time to fish. ;D
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when we were fishing this past weekend i we were fishing in 6ft of water but i was catching most of my fish 1 foot under the ice. love the vex, would have never know they were there without it.
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Scott, I can be there on the 12th.
I need details, where, when and directions. PM the details me.
BigBen, you ride'n with me?
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Hern I will be up at george b stevenson resivior that weekend fishing. I figured you had something else going on that weekend that you couldn't go. I might be able to squeak out and drive over but doubt it.
scott do you have a lil better address to get directions for?
I did get out on sunday afternoon at my local fish and game ponds. fished the small pond for a bit and caught a few dink bass but not much action. jumped over to the bigger pond and drilled a few holes. found the deepest one and started jiggin with a kastmaster and a dropper jig about 3" below tipped with a mealworm. got the flasher out and messed with it and kept upin the sensitivity on it till I could see the jig. I was about a foot off the bottom when I seen the gap between my lure and bottom dissapear and felt a jerk on the ultralight. caught three bass and three decent sized gills then I had to go. but tickled pink that it works and works good enough to see my jig. I was fishing 6fow but they were more active around 4ft down.
gonna make one of these with a 7gallon bucket and the flasher unit.
(http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRSmkb5bhQuahbFWfoFZkgrXjoOxXZVdqfS3u2lf5gluWCurV5h&t=1)
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Scott, I can be there on the 12th.
I need details, where, when and directions. PM the details me.
BigBen, you ride'n with me?
i would say the best bet would be if you guys want to meet somewhere by my house and then i will drive from there. it takes me about an hour to get to the cabin. my house is very close to rte 11 and fairly close to 81.
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almost forgot last fridays catch. ;D
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I think thats the same day as the fur sale in Tunkhannock....
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cabin is about 15 minutes away from Tunkhannock.
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Ben the PGL at Franklintown, York, County and the PGL near Roundtop have also nice ponds on them.. I have caught some nice bass from both of these ponds.. The one near Round Top is called Pickerel Pond..Just in case your looking for smaller ponds to fish on...
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problem with most pgl ponds is others are hitting them already or they are in propogation areas and you cannot fish them right now. to tell ya the truth I am pretty happy with the results I had sunday at the local fish and game ponds. 10mins and I can be fishing. plus I know I will catch fish at those ponds. I do want to hit pinchot on sat morn but not sure what this weather will do to the ice conditions.
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Also you could probably drill into the same holes on the club ponds you used before that you caught fish out of???
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I could but for some reason my auger don't like doing that. I can drill a new hole right beside the old hole twice as quick for some reason. I guess because the stuff in the hole is good hard ice that never thawed and refroze.
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I think the only thing that I don't own now for ice fishing would be the flasher of course and one of those containers that you place all of your stuff in and pull it out to your spot..I'm hoping that after (fox) predator season closes that maybe the ice is still safe and I might give ice fishing a try. Um few weeks back Dicks had that Ice container or hauler for $45.00. Maybe they will go down $$$$ soon?
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Scott & BigBen, sorry I haven't looked at this post in a while. Am always a day late or dollar short.
Am booked the last weekend in February, am opened other weekends. Let me know if another hard water date is set (I'll give the Coyotes a rest). .
On another note...
Our son is stationed in Minot, N.D.
He loves to ice fish. Last weekend his friend had a fish take all the line off the spool and gone. Here his friend forgot to tie end of line to spool...LOL.
Son & friends are fishing this weekend and he told his one friend to be sure to have line tied off...LOL.
Yesterday temps in Minot... low -46 high -7 windchill -23
This weekend temps in Minot.... high near +30 (nice temps to be fish'n)
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ice is thawed and doubt it will get froze hard again to get back out. it was fun while it lasted. we did catch some trout up at george b stevenson the other weekend. drilling with a hand auger through 18" of ice wasn't fun. now that the susky is free of ice I might be hitting it this weekend. we'll see.