Posts tagged 'winter fishing'

Here are a few tips and techniques to make open water angling both enjoyable. And safe.

Once the cold weather strikes – and angling action goes from horizontal to vertical – many western fishers pack up their gear, put up their feet, hunker down and dream about the clear streams, prolific fly hatches and the darling buds of May. Can’t blame them. Ice angling requires an existential personality to cast your fate down an eight-inch hole. What will be will be. Zipping yourself inside a black-out ice fishing tent, to the non-believer, makes the ethos of ice-angling even more unfathomable. Personally I love it. But there are others, I suspect who would much rather watch ice freeze then spend an afternoon on a wind swept lake waiting and hoping for something, anything, to swim past their bait. But it doesn’t have to be “go vertical or go hibernate”. Even in the heart of the winter deep freeze there are angling niches and fishing opportunities where you can wet a line and have an excellent chance of catching fish.

Here are four ways to beat a retreat to the winter time blues.

Live bait, light lines, and choice fishing locations are probably the three biggest factors you or I can manipulate to get more trout to bite.  Utilizing the advantages of all three will double, or triple your catch rate

If ever there's a time to get on the ice for some great fishing, this has to be it. The burbot event, as I like to call it, is starting. I was at South Buck, a newly discovered favorite lake catching all kinds of pike by day and walleye by night. The fish were biting strong right into the night and then . I had hooked a heavy, heavy fish that didn't run, but pulled real hard. Burbot have a habit of doing that.

Right now things are going on in the underwater world that is inevitable. Adult walleye and pike are starting to think of preparing for the spawn. While the actual spawn will not happen until early spring, make no mistake that this is now entering their minds.

Perhaps the most sought after winter fish, the lake whitefish , has it 's own unique appeal due to it 's totally different character. Whites don 't fight like a rainbow, they don 't smack big baits like a pike, they bite in slow motion and rather daintily, if that 's even a word. Delicate most appropriately describes their actions, as well as, their snow white flesh.

Brook trout come with their challenges and one of the biggest challenges is being able to not, that's right, not catch the little ones. When the larger, mature brookies move shallow to spawn they bring with them a whole host of little ones, eager as punch to partake in the feast.

Gearing up for winter fishing means two things. The first and most important consideration is you. Dress to be warm, dry and comfortable.  The second consideration is tackle.