I am still new to ice fishing. I have been out here all morning and no bites. I am seeing fish all over the graph, and I have used everything in my tackle box. I noticed that from the ice down to almost 20 feet there are small bugs of some sort swimming around. They remind me of sea monkeys. What are they and with this abundance of bugs could this be why I am not getting bites?
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[cool][#0000FF]Probably daphnia...zooplankton. Deer Creek is full of them and that is what the trout subsist on mostly. It is also what makes their flesh so red and rich. Some of the best eating trout in Utah.
If that is what they are focusing on they can fill up in a hurry when they find a dense mass of them. Not unusual to catch trout with their innards full of what looks like green slime.
Most of the fish you see on sonar, above the bottom, are likely to be trout. Hard to see the perch sometimes because they can hug the bottom so close they do not show up on sonar.
However, even when the trout are not feeding on anything but zooplankton you can sometimes stimulate a "reaction bite" with the right jigs, bait and presentation. Might take some changing up and experimentation. That's fishing.
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Thank you for the thorough and speedy response. My luck just changed.
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[#0000FF]Congratulations. Wish my luck could be changed that easily sometimes.
I'm sure you will enjoy your new dinner guests.
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