ice fishin.

[Critterslayer51]

swarter...how close are you to the skuke river?

[swarter2]

Depends on what part of the Skuke you talking about.

[scott]

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. 

[bigben]

I'll mark it on the calander scott.  if I can make it I will be up.

[Critterslayer51]

swarter...where all the fish are of course 

[swarter2]

Critter- I live in Souderton along the border of Montco and Bucks.  So, I'm fairly close to the river.

[bigben]

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.

[scott]

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. 

[bigben]

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.

[uncle buck]

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...

[bigben]

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. 

[scott]

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.   

[bigben]

unfortunately I don't have the $ for a unit to only use it for a month and a half.   

[scott]

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. 

[bigben]

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.