Ice fishing Dilema

[tomegun]

[#000080][size 2]Ice fishing pressure does not mean people are catching fish. The more people on the ice tend to make the fish harder to catch. Not all parts of the lake get fished with the same intensity, example- at Strawberry the places we see with a ton of people represent only ten percent of the lake. And, if you are watching what the people are doing the majority of the people are goofing off playing, eating, or napping. So, numbers wise fish aren't being caught. Also, we only see high number of people on saturdays and holidays. Scofield is the same way. You may see a thousand people along the eastside of the lake, yet the rest is uncovered.[/size][/#000080]

[#000080][size 2] The ice fishing "take" is not equal to open water season. Transition periods can leave the waters almost unfishable for a unspecfic periods of time. 70% of all anglers put away their fishing gear before Halloween(thank you, more catching for me). And alot of fisherfolks don't breakout their gear until after mothers day. So, back to Strawberry and Scofield-fishing dies out from nov 1st to may 15th. This is almost 6 months of slow or inactivety. Compare this to the other six months, its not very close. One week of open water can(depending on weather conditions)be equal to a month or more(weather again, people hate cold under 32 degrees) of ice fishing season.[/size][/#000080]

[#000080][size 2]It would be nice if we could actually take some fish home again in the winter.[/size][/#000080]
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[polokid]

I agree, the more people the worse the fishing!!! I have found if you can get at least 500 yards from the "chaos" fishing picks up on the ice.
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[icefool]

The one thing I like about icefishing is you can go anywhere on the lake you want, if you don't mind walking. We usually go way away from the crowds and do pretty good. My favorite place to icefish is Echo and Lost creek.Hopefully they won't have the gates locked at lost creek this year so we can get up in there without haveing to pull our shantys and sleds up that hill.
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[hedgesd]

If the average fishermen can catch a couple fish then a good ice fishermen can catch a couple dozen or more. I don't really mind the crowds, it's the people that crowd me after I'm slamming fish. I guess they think I've got the only good fishing spot in the lake. I usually end up moving to a new spot and keep on catching. I made the mistake last year of showing a kid, that didn't catch anything all day, the tricks and gear to catching them. The next weekend I was up there, everybody had the same crap on and doing my technique. It's not like its anything special but it sucked after that. It doesn't matter to me that the kid told everybody how to catch them but that he wanted to know what I was using after he ruined the first one. Either way I get a kick out of fishing in crowds so I can scream fish on, over and over.
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[frogfish]

That's why I like icefishing at night. If my technique works its easier to keep a lid on it.
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[icefool]

I also like icefishing at night. There are no crowds, so it is very quiet and peaceful.
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