Your mission, should you choose to accept...

[kinderdoggin]

.... teach me how to catch a fish in a frozen lake near Quesnel. Here's what I have tried so far, at the advice of people in the area who have been catching a lot of fish:

Bait: Worms, maggots, corn, bacon, and powerbait. I have varied the size of each of these.

Hook: plain hook, various jigs of various sizes and colors, and more recently, a small baited jig preceeded with a silver flasher about a foot up the line. This is the rig that my 'almost' catch was on.

Technique: jig, not jig. Nap, drink hot chocolate, pray for fish.

Time of day: varied from early morning to early evening.

Locations: Hush lake, Chubb Lake, Dragon Lake, Ten Mile Lake, and Bellows Lake.

Success? None - a couple of bites at Hush and Dragon Lakes. A nibble or two at Ten Mile. But nothing in the frying pan!

Ideas? Suggestions? Why are these western fish avoiding me? I used to be the queen of icefishing back in my Saskatchewan days. Do they know that I have a beer batter planned or are they just not interested in what I'm offerring? My hubby has caught a few using the above suggestions, but nothing to write home about. I keep hearing about people catching their limits, and here I am with nada - help!

[brotherjack]

The most effective technique I've ever found, is to look for old frozen over holes other people have been fishing at in days past that show signs of having once had (or still having) fish-guts in the snow beside them. Drill fresh hole in that vicinity, and then sit down and fish.

Works for me. :) (or should I say, it has worked all three times I've ever been ice fishing. Came home with at least one trout for every trip out).

[Sitkaspruce]

Go to your local store, buy some cooked shrimp. Get some culytailed jigs in neon green, white or Chartruess, usually with a #6 or 8 hook and 3/8 oz jig head. We use the jigs from Foxy Jigs with the diving head.


This was the stand by for all the years we fished around Fort St James.

Good luck, there is some good fisherman on here that will steer you in the right direction.

Cheers

SS

[PGK]

Everything down there has been slow this winter.....dragon especially.....you're in the ballpark, keep trying

[Manglinmike]

if the snow is deep and covering the ice you could try shallower water that has more oxygen in it

[PGK]

if the snow is deep and covering the ice you could try shallower water that has more oxygen in it

Err, you have that backwards. The deeper water is holding more of the oxygen right now...as the plants have been using up the O2 all winter...the fish are typically suspended over deeper water right now..

[M.Dean]

OK, normally I won't share secrets, but dam you seem like a nice guy so here go's! Use your "Almost" set up, single hook, a super top quality hook, not some cheap ones, tie the hook on the line, trim or burn the line real close to the hook, I tie in a small single flasher about 2 feet up from that, cut the line and tie it in, use small swivels, now, before you do all this, go to a pet food store and buy some krill, there small little shrimp looking things, use the ones with eye's, there the best, carefully hook up 2 on the hook, go through the back so they hang from the hook. Lower your line down the hole until it hits the bottom, now, bring the line up about 3 ft to start with,jig your line up and down a bit, 6 to 8 inches at a time, let it settle, and do it again, no bites, bring it up a bit more, keep playing with your depth, use a small red and white bobber on you line also, watch it real careful, if it even moves a bit give it a bit of a tug, wait a second, jig it up and down a bit then recheck your bait. What also works around her is a wedding ring troll, small one baited with krill also, take some photo's if you catch a few, M. Dean

[JRG94]

ever tried tzenzaicut lake (fish lake) southwest of quesnel?
fishing is unbeleivable fishing in the fall, trolling with a pink panther martin spinner
would be worth a try in my mind

[Dannybuoy]

sounds like you almost have it .... I would shorten the leader to 6 -7 inch and I have had the best luck with a meal worm (giant one) and one of those powerbait pink maggots . The perch colored fst or the gold/silver williams wobbler (4-6") is what i used for a "flasher"
Good Luck !

[kinderdoggin]

Thanks for the tips guys... this gives me hope (and a good excuse to get some more bait and tackle).

We've been fishing a lot of shallower water, in areas that showed evidence of success (blood on snow near used holes).... but perhaps a meander out to deeper water at this time in the year would help. Any particular time of day that I should try to up my odds?

[Dannybuoy]

I dont know if time of day is real important other than "when the bite is on" , check the fish feeding time calendar ?
If you were getting some bites you were doing something right ... so maybe change up your hooks ... I use the gamakatsu's with a bit of a twist in them for a good hook set when I get a bite ... also not too big of a hook #8

[huntwriter]

This little statistic might help you a bit.

I put it together after our Ice Fishing Derby in January at Mammette Lake.

Overall fish caught:
36 that were registered at the check station plus 25 that were returned to the water because they did not match the minimum weight/size recommended.

Fish activity:
Slow compared to other years.

Times of fish activity:
Most fish were caught between 9 am and 10 am then it slowed right down and picked up again at around 12 am to 1 pm. Fishing derby ended at 2 pm and I have no data after 2 pm.

Shallow water v. deep water:
Over 65% of the fish were caught I deeper water. Makes sense to me, as another poster has said, deeper water provides more oxygen in the winter when the lakes are frozen over then shallow water.


Lures and baits:
The most successful lure / baits were pink colored shrimp followed by dew worms followed by maggots, followed by corn, followed by silver spoons followed by wedding bands.

Most successful fishing tactic:
Bouncing of the ground and then slowly jigging at different depth (as described in this thread by M.Dean) Trout would hit the bait/lure at the end of the gigging motion or on the downward move. Coarse fish predominantly hit the bait/lure when bounced of the ground.

As an interesting side note:
When I asked the successful anglers if they had fished that lake before over 70% said that they fish the lake regularly and are familiar with the underwater structure. Knowing the underwater structure is important because it tells you where the fish hang out. Fish, just like land animals use structure to their advantage when moving around or resting.

When I fish a lake that I have never scanned before I fish it all day from dawn to dusk. Usually I start off with locations where other fishers have drilled holes and show sign of fishing success. Usually I fish for about ten minutes at different depth then change the lure/bait to something else and repeat until I find a combination that works or I move on to the next location. I keep exploring until I find a location and lure/bait combination that works. I keep moving all day long and make notes in my notebook about my findings. Successful locations are logged into my GPS to return to on another day or week.

Hope this helps you out and good luck.

[who_krs]

another tip
sometimes the fish will only bite softly so if your not paying attention the fish will have already spit the hook before you even see your bobber moving.
the one thing that has greatly improved my success rate since I started ice fishing has been to lay down on the ice (it's nice to have a sled or something to lie down on instead of snow/ice) cover yourself and the hole with a blanket and watch to see what is happening.
early morning has always been the best for me (within the first hour of the sun comming up until about noonish.
while you are watching down the hole you can see if there are fish in the area or what your hook is doing or if the fish are comming around but just not interested in taking your bait.
once they put it in their mouth, hookem'

hope this helps

P.S.
not sure if you know this already or not so I'll say it anyways
jig hooks are supposed to hang horizontal not vertical
that way they a different kind of pivoting motion