I went up to Brant Lake again over the weekend to do some more ice fishing, and to try to catch another Brown Trout like the week before. That didn’t happen, although I did have a good time.
This time I went with my father and a couple of his friends, one of whom owns a small camp in the nearby town of Graphite. This marks the second year that we’ve all stayed at ‘ice-fishing camp’ for Presidents Day weekend. I hope to make it three next year.
I took that photo after I set my tip-ups up on Sunday morning. I’ve noticed that ice fishermen usually set their equipment up in one of two ways. 1.) In a line heading away from the shanty or wherever they’re storing the rest of the gear for the day. 2.) In a circle, or group ‘claiming’ a portion of the ice.
I almost always use the method where I cut five holes in a line, and work my way out away from my gear. For some reason I think that I cover more water when I set my gear in a line, providing a better chance of coming across some fish. When setting up in a cluster or circle, I feel like I’m putting a smaller limit on where I’ll catch fish. This of course comes with the chance that I might catch more fish if a school happens to swim directly underneath my tip-ups.
I also like to have one or two of my tip-ups a good distance away from where I’ll be standing/sitting most of the day. I usually set a couple of my tip-ups a few feet under the ice for trout, and I would rather not be shuffling past those holes all morning.
How do you set your tip-ups up?
I’ve also started to get the hang of jigging, and that’s what I spend most of my down-time on the ice doing. This last Sunday I caught 6 or 7 Perch on my jig stick, but they were all too small to keep. Believe me, they were tiny. I like to move around from hole to hole while jigging, usually spending 20-30 minutes at each unless I’m catching fish. In which case I’ll stay at the same hole until they stop biting (duh).
Lately I’ve been using a small Swedish Pimple (white) with a couple grubs hanging off the treble hook. I would like to expand my box of jigs a little, but don’t really know what to look for. I’ve seen some jigging Rapalas that look like small Perch that might work. When not using grubs, I have had a little luck with Perch eyes, and occasionally a portion of one of my bait fish (either the tail or the head).
What kind of jigging set-ups do you guys (and girls) use? I am generally jigging for Perch, until there is enough ice on Lake George to try to jig up a Laker anyway (next winter maybe).
We ended up catching 12 Perch on Saturday as well a Large Mouth Bass (yay), and only three on Sunday. We did get to the lake a little later than normal on Sunday, and the spot we usually fish was already claimed, so we had to move on to the nearest open ice. This could have had a lot to do with our ‘luck’.
The weather was great, bright sunshine both days until about 2:00pm when we loaded up our equipment and got off the ice. I’m guessing there was still about 10-11 inches of ice on the lake last weekend. I saw two Jeeps drive from the south, past us to the north end of the lake across the ice, so there must be plenty.
I have some work to do on my own Jeep this Saturday, which I hope to get out of the way early so that I can head up to the Great Sacandaga Lake to try to catch some Walleye on Saturday afternoon. I’ll be sure to let you know how that goes.
Have any of you been fishing the Sacandaga this year? How has it been?
Oh I remember that lake very well have not lived up there in years but we had our one room camp and turned it into a home should say my granddad Hoppy did and with alot of help from his wife Eva Hopkins. I have picture some where of he and i and dog on ice.. Oh my Mother was so mad he took me out there…LOL