The more lines the better when ice fishing.

When it comes to ice fishing, some anglers like to use less lines with more concentration on each and some anglers have ridiculous amounts of lines in the ice. Is one method better than the other? My way of thinking is somewhere in between. I don't think that a couple of lines in the water is going to be very productive, but too many and you can't pay good enough attention to them all. I've seen guys with 25 lines in the water at once! That's just nuts. If a school comes along and starts hitting lines all around you, you won't know what to go after fist and will definitely miss something, maybe a big one! I think anything between 6 and 12 holes is ample, not to little and not too much as to cause confusion. These numbers only represent one person fishing. If there's more, of course then you can multiply that number by how many people or whatever you think your friends can handle, how cold it is, how active the bite is, etc. It also depends on the situation. I've seen people pull up on after another from one hole all day long without the bite ever slowing down. It all depends on how the fish are schooling under that blanket of ice.

The dangers of braided line.

O.K. This may seem like a stupid topic, but not for people new to using braided line. This stuff is as deadly as it is strong. We all know that any fishing line can cut you, but not like braid can! Braided line is not smooth like mono or fluorocarbon, it's many thin lines braided together and as such it can make a much more painful, deeper and rough cut than any other line and it takes longer to heal too. So, when your snagged and want to get loose rather than cut the line and lose your lure, wrap your line around something like a stick, pipe, oar or a long, smooth rock and then pull on the object instead of the line, you will stand the same 50/50 chance of getting your lure back as if you wrapped it around your hand or arm, without the pain of a braid cut. Trust me, I only had to cut myself once on the finger to learn just how dangerous this line can be. Think about this for a second, tackle companies claim that braid is stronger than steel of the same diameter. What they should put on the package in addition to this is "and it can cut flesh worse than steel of the same diameter"
Have fun out there, and be careful!

Have you ever used a drop shot?

Are you like me, limited or little success jigging? Well, then think of the drop shot rig as "jigging for dummies" It's a very simple rig. All you do is put a jig on a clasp and on that same clasp, put a piece of line about 12" tied in a loop at one end and a bell sinker at the other end. Put the loop end onto you clasp with the jig so that you have a rig that looks like the jig is suspended in the middle and the weight at the bottom. Once you've cast this rig, you reel up the slack till you feel the weight and have a tight line, then just jig the rod a little. The advantage of this rig is that hook sets are easy because you won't feel fish nibbling or playing with it, they have to take the bait and pull on it to get the weight off the bottom, that's when you'll feel it and the hook will likely already be set. The only thing you have to be careful of with this rig is not to use too heavy a sinker, especially if your fishing smaller species as the fish may not be able to pull the weight off the bottom and will leave it, if it can, and you'll miss the bite. Like any weight, fish it according to local species. This lure is great for catching suspended fish and the advantage of the looped end on the line is for easy lure and weight changes. I usually carry a couple of pre-rigged drop shots and just switch them out as needed.

This is too funny!

So, my previous blog post about light frame ice huts and the advantages of using them (one being that they are easy to retrieve with a snow mobile or ATV) and what happens right on the lake near my house? An SUV (large, like an Expedition) goes through the ice. Nobody was hurt, but that SUV is finished now. It's been sitting in the lake for about a week and they finally fished it out yesterday with a tow truck. What moron takes a huge SUV out onto a lake that, not even 2 weeks ago had a 5 day very warm and wet spell? I hope it was brand new and not even paid off yet, it would serve him right. I guess it takes all kinds of stupidity to make the world go around.

The classic and fantastic Lindy rig!

This rig was invented by legend Pro Angler, Al Lindy and is one of the BEST rigs around, but maybe does not get enough attention because it is a 50 year old rig. I just discovered it this summer and it is such a good rig that Lindy Tackle has invented the Lindy Snag Free Sinker to compliment this rig, but a walking sinker works just fine. You can get about 30 walking sinkers to the price of one Lindy sinker and have them in different weights too! $8 for 1 sinker is NUTS!
Anyway, the reason this rig is so great is this, the Lindy rig is unique in that is does not send any negative cues/signals to the fish to drop the bait when the fish is "playing with it's food" much like Walleye and sometimes Bass do. The rig does not signal the angler to set the hook until the fish has committed to the bait, swallows it and changes direction. This makes a hook set on this rig much easier than normal rigs because you don't set too early and yank the hook out of the fish's mouth. Hook sets are more reliable and deeper because the fish has to swallow the bait before the rig reacts. This technique/rig is especially good for trolling for Walleye as they are known for chasing a bait down and playing with it for long periods before finally committing to it. Google the Lindy rig for how to rig it and some cool variations of this excellent rig! If your fishing finicky or picky fish then this is your rig.

Creating the perfect portable ice hut.

Big companies make portable plastic ice huts for hundreds of dollars and they really don't seem worth it to me. What I've been seeing more and more of is homemade light frame ice huts that can be dragged onto the ice on snow machines and ATVs. This is a very cool alternative to a full fledged ice hut that needs a truck or car to take it onto the ice, posing more risk to eager ice fisherman who take their ice huts out onto what seems like fine ice, only to hit a warm and wet spell and lose their ice hut or risk going onto soft ice with a vehicle to retrieve said ice hut before it sinks. With an alternative like this, you can still stay sheltered from the elements and easily remove the hut, should such a scenario arise, like this year where I live. Luckily, the cold weather returned before people started losing their huts, but with a lighter hut, you could go out to retrieve it with a small light vehicle like a snow machine or ATV and get your hut off the ice before you lose it, with far less risk than a full hut and a truck. If you want to, you could also move it to different locations much easier than a full hut. Something to think about.

Slow Death Hooks what they are and what they can do.

I get this question from my fishing buddies sometimes, what are Slow Death hooks, or what is this weird hook? It's simple, they are hooks who's shafts have been bent on purpose in a zig-zag. Why? Because hooks bent like these impart a certain action to worms put on them and this action is irresistible to Walleye and just about any other fish that glances it going by. The hook does most of the work for you, but there are some things you need to know about technique too. First off, these hooks NEED a spinner in front of them, for the proper spinning action. Second is baiting, you thread the worm on head first down the shaft of the hook and trail it off from the shaft, BUT you don't leave the whole rest of the worm hanging off, just about a quarter inch hanging off the shaft, this is to make sure the spinning action is perfect. Leave the whole worm on and it screws up the weight and action. This spinning worm is the key to the success of the rig, otherwise it's just a worm on a hook. The spinning worm for some reason, looks distressed enough to fish and they can't help but chase it down and take it. How successful is it? It was patented by Mustad because fisherman from the East Coast of the U.S. were cleaning up at Walleye tournaments all over the country and it turns out their secret were these funky bent hooks! They're ugly, stupid looking, crazy hooks and, yes, they do work!

What is the best knot?

Let's face it, if you know anything about fishing line and knots, you know that the knot is the weakest part of the your setup/rig. Why is this? With each loop and tie your creating bends such in the line, effectively weakening it, but you gotta tie your stuff on there right? So, in return we as society have come up with many different knots to tie with. The question now becomes, which knot is the best knot for securing something with the least amount of bends and such, which weaken the line. The answer, without a doubt, is the Palomar Knot. The reason is simple, it is the strongest knot in the world! The Palomar retains 95% of the line's original strength. That's about as good as it gets. Does it slip? No. You can use a Palomar Knot on any type of line (yes, even slippery monos/flourocarbons or specially coated braids) the Palomar will not slip and unravel itself. I have snapped 30lb braid in the middle of the line on a snag, but not the knot. Ever since I started tying Palomars I have never had a lure lost to unraveled or snapped knots. What does that tell you? This is one strong knot! So here is a link to an awesome animation of how to tie these things.

http://www.netknots.com/html/palomar_knot.html