bass..

[PunkBass]

Anyone have any luck pulling some bass out of the ice? I've never had the best of luck[]
So if so, I'd like to hear some stories.
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[davetclown]

I do quite well pulling bass up from under the ice targeting gills, perch, and crappie, tho' I dont have the pleasure of targeting the bass vary often, seldom do we get ice in december in south east michigan any more. our season ends on the last day of december.

when targeting bass though the ice I will use larger minnows and a size #6 or #4 arberdeen wire hook. enough weight to hold the line down and about a 6 inch to a foot leed so the minnow can swim around with out pulling the sinker around as well. this is important.

I wont use line larger than 4 pound test for bass. and quite often use 4 pound for crappie and jumbo perch. just smaller terminal tackle. size #8 and #6 for crappie and nothing bigger than a size #8 for jumbo perch. some times I will use jigs for crappie and perch. these too will produce bass even tho' they are not being targeted.

I often pull in bass on two pound test line though the ice while jigging for gills with number #8 size hook jigs.

the jigs in the attachment below is what I use on the gills, sorry you cant see the colors, the flash kind of drowned them out.
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[PunkBass]

in the summer i always catch so many bass on this lake and that's pretty much all i catch, but when it comes winter it seems as if there is nothing i can do about it. but as soon as the ice gets a little thicker i will be trying some more to see what i can do.
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[davetclown]

just remember to drop all the way down to the bottom and come back up off the bottom about a foot or two...

and no you cant just drill a hole any where, but if you find the pan fish bass will pass though there along with pike perch and crappie, not to mention them rock bass.

there are also a number of jig heads you can use and tip them off with a minow tail and jig from near bottom up to about 3 feet off, then let it drop again, repeat till you hook in to one, when you get the presentation down you will run in to more bass more often.
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[PunkBass]

that's one thing i have to really work on with ice fishing is patients and presentation. it's always been hard for me because ya know i want to get into the fish right away.
it's a lot different for me when fishing in open water, there i seem to have more patients. but im slowely getting out ice fishing more and more.

what do you think would be a good depth?
i dont know about this idea, but there is this bridge and in the summer i pulled so many bass out from under it and the water max there was probobly about 8 feet and its back kind of in a bay and then out in the bigger part of the lake it gets up to 60.

there is a section where the water is about 20 to 40 and there is some structure there. old trees and some brush. i ice fished there last winter with not much luck at all, except the water in the winter seems to be a lot more clear and we could see a ways down. also in the summer there, the bass fishing in the deeper water has been tuff there by those trees ect.
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[davetclown]

I fished lake st clair where we were fishing in 2 feet of water for perch crappie and gills, I have fished canals that suport 3-5 feet of water under the ice with only a couple feet from the ice to the decaying weeds. I fished lakes where the fish on some days will be at 8 foot depth and others at 25 feet deep and others any where in between.

if you find the area where you get a hit by a gill then you are not far off. blue gills and black bass (large mouthand smallmouth) are in the same family of pan fish. so where you find one the other is not far off. you will just have to look around.

I tend to drill 3-5 holes on any given day to work my two lines out of. One set with a minnow rig and the other with a jig in hand.

"Dont forget to wiggle your jig"[]
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