Finally got on the ice with my brother  1/9/14. My first fish (Crappie ) ,took a 1/4 oz. Hus spoon /Gulp Maggot .Greg did good on his chenille ties . I caught on 4 rods. The Tandem, Marmooska /Genz worm worked good .My marabou bloodworm caught a few . Jigging Rap/Perch eye ,Small jig with spinner bait rubber also caught .chartreuse Crappie nipples turned the fish on . 
Our tally, using various jigging rods and Lures tipped with Berkeley Crappie nibbles, Gulp maggots ,Perch Eye : 3 Crappie,2Pseeds,1 BG,1Bass,1 White Perch ,about 6 or 7 Yellow Perch The Crappie were only in 9-7 fow around  fallen tree branches from a tree that hung high above the water. We only caught one fish in 20" all the others were 10-8fow. Early ice on my home lake I usually do best 8-12 feet and come mid ice a bit deeper, say 10-25fow.

Great details, John Love it

Glad you got some

Thanks Mc Scruff .Just the remedy for a case of serious Cabin Fever. The tree branch connection is a winner!

Excellent!

Alright John glad you made it out, and good luck to you sir.

Jim and Dick what are your ice conditions ? Get out yet? Hope to hit Shepherds lake next ,tip ups and Jigging rods in hand .Pickerel Bass Crappie and Gills hopefully but the lake stumps me through the ice!

Nice, John. I thought I was going to get out tomorrow, but there's a flood warning. We're supposed to get a half inch of rain.

Bruce

Patience is tough ,I now Bruce ! Hang in pal and be safe!

John haven't got out yet. I'll check it out when I can. Been wanting ice so bad finally got it and messed up my back. Xrays today MRI to follow hopefully real soon. Go out and get then for the both of us John.

I finally got on some safe ice today at a solid 5 inches, but it will decrease quickly as we have big rain and near 60 degrees for the weekend...another typical up-and-down winter in the Mason Dixon area.

But...I caught a couple of fish! Pictures comin'!

Went on local ice today and had 5 inches of good clear ice, but it will rapidly diminish with the incoming warm rain and temperatures. Still...was happy to catch a few bass and only one bluegill.

The two biggest bass came back to back out of the same hole in 4 ft of water. They hit a 1/8 oz gold Kastmaster tipped with maggots. They fought hard on the micro stuff and I had to gently play them out. The one gill took a perch pattern Jigging Rap with maggots on the center treble hooks...also at 4 ft. Missed several other light strikes, but the bass hit pretty good on the spoons. Fished 3 hours for a few fish, nothing the last 90 minutes on the ice.

Still...I got my ice fishing fix! Yaaayyyy!

Went on local ice today and had 5 inches of good clear ice, but it will rapidly diminish with the incoming warm rain and temperatures. Still...was happy to catch a few bass and only one bluegill.

Good deal on the ice fix - looks like you had fun. Interesting - the maggot tipping on Kastmasters. Did you replace the trebles with single hooks, or just pile on three grubs?

Personally, sir, I'm ready for the rain to stop. I endure it, because I must.

Dave...I piled them each on the smaller trebles. The small Kastmaster has been a long time fav for bigger bluegills in my region when we do get good ice conditions. But they don't really hold as well as the single. When I am spooning yellow perch or crappies, I always use the single. But for gills, I hook more on the smaller trebls on the KM than a larger single.

You know, I have never caught anything on a Kastmaster.

I was flinging them alot when I had my kayak. I kept one rod fitted with one most all the time. I caught a few perch on some small ice spoons, and I nailed a really nice pickerel on an L-J 'Krocodile.'

But the Kastmaster has remained a mystery. For what its worth, I went for a looong time never catching anything on a Beetle Spin. Then one day, BAMM! The fish started to come on it.

So, I'll get back to those KM's one day. Keep at it, keep at it, keep at it...

That away Jim !Love the Acme spoons .Kastmaster , Lil Cleo, are my favs. Same conditions up here 6' of ice is gonna be demolished by a downpour ifthe weather reports correct that is .I was hoping for an expedition to the ice on Sunday .

I hope that good base of clear ice remains, even if it gets thinner. Maybe another arctic snap can put enough on it to get back out a few more times.

Herman Bros, Condello and Livingston are catching on the ice!! I'm jealous!

Cold snap this week in the Mason Dixon area John! I am hoping to get on the ice by the week end! How about you?

Hoping for Thursday and Saturday Jim .Good luck if you go out!

John...had a great day today despite being a little under dressed for the wind chill. Caught 13 bass thru the ice, a new personal best for quantity thru the ice, and 12 came out of one hole! That's crazy stuff! Again...gold 1/8 oz KastMaster tipped with maggots. Three to 4.5 feet of water, about 6 to 12 inches off the bottom. I kept 4 smaller bass and a nice gill for the pan. Had 10 fish between 16 and 20 inches...great fun on the micro ice fishing rods with 2 and 4 pound test!

Plus, the day before, I got a 22 incher, another 'ice' PR during a brief 30 minute effort while the grand kids were napping. Cold weather coming, I think we will have good ice for a few weeks yet. 6-7 inches now.

Here are a few highlights from the past 2 days...

I hope to get on the gills, as this is one of my best bluegill lakes, but the bass have stolen the show! Good luck and keep posting those ice catches!

What a day, Jim. Good for you. You don't get many of those. Enjoy!

You've been doing great Jim !!  Unbelievably  scores of Big Bass. Still looking for my first ice Pickerel ,maybe Shepherds lake this week I'll get one .

 Decent score on Vernon Valley lake .Brother and I each got about a dozen Fish . I jigged up  a small Bass and one Pseed ,the rest were Gills and mostly female. Brother Greg caught a few seeds and the rest Gills and again mostly females . Hand tied beaded nymphs tipped with mealies worked good for me . The bass hit a brown Beaded nymph tie in above a 16th ounce bell sinker "pounding weight ".The hot jig for me which produced all but three fish  was a purple micro jig with waxworm .

Thanks Bruce and John! I hope to get out somewhere this week as cold weather remains. Have a few PA lakes that yield numbers of eating sized panfish, but it's gonna' be hard to turn from those bass if they continue to bite. Might ride that horse a while longer yet.

Personal best ice Crappie today 13.5" Hope to break that real soon . Dink Perch and Gills on staright line combo  till the Crappie showed up .Four Crappie in Nungesser spoon tipped with shiner heads and tails.8fow .

Here are the reports  of the four trips on the ice so far this year : Finally got on the ice with my brother 1/9/14. My first fish (Crappie ) ,took a 1/4 oz. Hus spoon /Gulp Maggot .Greg did good on his chenille ties . I caught on 4 rods. The Tandem, Marmooska /Genz worm worked good .My marabou bloodworm caught a few . Jigging Rap/Perch eye ,Small jig with spinner bait rubber also caught .chartreuse Crappie nibbles turned the fish on .
Our tally, using various jigging rods and Lures tipped with Berkeley Crappie nibbles, Gulp maggots ,Perch Eye : 3 Crappie,2Pseeds,1 BG,1Bass,1 White Perch ,about 6 or 7 Yellow Perch The Crappie were only in 9-7 fow around fallen tree branches from a tree that hung high above the water. We only caught one fish in 20" all the others were 10-8fow. Early ice on my home lake I usually do best 8-12 feet and come mid ice a bit deeper, say 10-25fow.Light biters except for the Bass and the Larger Pseed.
2nd )went alone two perch cupsaw .fished two hrs. 3rd)Vernon Valley Lake .Lot of guys out catching Bass and Pickerel on tipups .The Gills about 20 between me and my brother loved the mealworms and waxies on the beaded nymphs we tied and used .Also got a Pseed and a Bass on the brown beaded nymph ,grey tail feather/ mealie. Also the micro jig tipped with waxies was my most productive lure .The straightline combo was happening toward the end for me .fished 12:30-4:00 .Wet snow!!
4th ) 1/29/14 Fished 1:30-5 pm Low 20 degrees .a few inches of snow on Cupsaw lake .Started out over 11fow and through about four holes caught plenty of dink Perch and Gills .The fish were hitting 9'-7' area.Moved into 8' and got a few small Perch and Gills but an inch or two bigger thatn what I was catching before .Straight line combo 3# test small feather jig ,and Marmooska tipped with waxies were the ticket ,same lure with mealies or spikes caught some too . The Crappie ,four from 11- 13.5 "s ,hit between 3:45-5pm when I banged it up .Dead shiner heads or tails on Nungesser spoon .Lost a spoon on a hook set on the 4lb leader .Stayed with 6# test and caught 4 on the Eagle claw rod . Pain fishin' the 2#test in the wind on the spring bobber rod ,I stopped using it .

In the past my favorite ice bait, for Perch and Gills  has been the mealie  but this year so far , it's the waxie . http://voices.yahoo.com/ice-fishing-wax-worms-10715439.html  Minnow heads and Tails on a spoon for Crappie and Larger Perch and a Perch eye on a spoon can't be beat at times however .

Still can't seem to cash in on any amount of panfish, although I am trying my best to target them. My totals for 6 trips on the ice are as follows...

Bluegills...6 total, biggest at 10.5 inches, all over nine.

Yellow Perch...9 total, five from 11 to 12 inches.

Bass...25 total, biggest at 22 inches, 15 between 17 and 22 inches.

The bass tally is a huge surprise to me, especially the bigger fish with many 18 inch plus fish. I am catching most of them from one of my best bluegill ponds. With 10 inches of ice right now, I am pretty sure I'll be on the ice safely til almost March. Perch and crappie are picking up at some southern PA lakes.

Almost everything I caught was on the 1/12 or 1/8 oz gold Kastmaster spoons tipped with maggots. Caught a few fish on the smaller perch patterned Rapala Jigging Rap with maggots on the center trebles. Bass and gills 3 to 5 feet deep, 1 foot off bottom and perch in 6 to 10 ft, one foot off bottom.

Some of the better fish from this ice season...

Bluegill on the Rap, above.

Nice perch on the Kastmaster.

Personal best 'ice bass', above, went 22 inches. Still swiming!

Thanks for the report Jim and great job ,especially the Bass! I'll post some accounts of my results later . It's been a decent Crappie catching year for me but Perch ,Gills and Bass have been small .

So far I've been on the ice four times now .6 species caught :Gills, Pseeds, White Perch ,Yellow Perch, Crappie and Bass . Details of effective lures ,catches and pics  at: http://bigbluegill.com/photo/albums/hardwater-2014

Best catches were caught on spoons/dead shiner head or tail.

Better fish so far 2014 .

Nice fish, John!

Hey...I'll get back to you on the perch article you wrote, been crazy here with power outages and snow and lack of heat. Sorry for the delay!

I am so envious of you guys pullin' perch through the ice. Always wanted to do that!

Jim, sorry to hear about what you're dealing with out there....you and Linda take care, I'll keep you in my thoughts.

Thanks Jim .Tony says "what you're dealing with" ? Hope all is okay!

Tony ,those hybrids YOU catch are what's to be envied! Also ,I would like to see a few pics of what jigs and spoons you are using through the ice .On my jigging rod ,I  start with a bigger  presentation and scale down if the bite gets slower .For my dead sticking rod I may do the same or start a little bigger and scale down .Waxies have out fished Mealies and spikes.

Thanks Jim .Tony says "what you're dealing with" ? Hope all is okay!

Tony ,those hybrids YOU catch are what's to be envied! Also ,I would like to see a few pics of what jigs and spoons you are using through the ice .On my jigging rod ,I  start with a bigger  presentation and scale down if the bite gets slower .For my dead sticking rod I may do the same or just start with a marmooska jig. They seem to be good sized for Gills .I sometimes use the real micros cause its necessary. Waxies have out fished Mealies and spikes.

John...just lots of ice storms, power outages and a few family medical issues that are starting to work out. Matt had now heat this week, we had no power last week and we're getting hammered with about 2 feet of snow and ice now.

It's all good!

Wow Jim ,sorry to hear this ! We are getting the snow now and may be going through some ice and power loss our selves in the coming days . I hope not to have to use the generator for the first time .  . I brought some fire wood into the garage in preparation but the rest is getting buried . The wood pellets are gonna be hard to restock in the garage with this snow .Got some work ahead of me even after all the shoveling .Bad year for me not to have a snow blower !

Just finished shoveling round one .About 10 inches .Took an hour with a little help from the wife.

We had 21 inches of drifting stuff, now its freezing rain on top of that. I did blow out the driveway, shovel the walks, dig out the vehicles and make a way to the sheds...took about 2 1/2 hours. I'm tired, man.

But thank God for snow blowers!

Six trips on ice so far but mostly small Gills and Perch . Good sized Crappie though .Least I'm avoiding a shameful skunking!  http://bigbluegill.com/photo/albums/hardwater-2014

15" thick  up here in NJ David .Gonna take awhile I believe . Sure hope the thaw is somewhat gradual ,don't need flooding in my area!

We have 10 to 12 in the Mason Dixon area, and temps this week are to go below zero for a few nights, maybe getting to low 30's by Friday. We could have at least some stands of ice into the 3rd week of March, even later further west.

Hope to get out a few more times...

Welcome Greg ,cant wait to give your nymphs another try  on pounder rigs this ice season again !Especially early ice ,they worked good last year ,a Bass ,a Pumpkinseed and several Bluegills took one you made up for me . Remember, it was on Vernon Valley Lake .

john..what are you fishing for? if you're using tip ups for perch or crappie that would be ok, but if you're fishing for pike with tip up i would use like a 20-30# dacron line with either steel leader or lately i've been using 30# mono and usually no problem.

icejohn

ithchin' to go fishin' ....ice fishing, no ice around here yet but usually some ice fishing around Christmas time and full steam after the first of the year. hopefully soon.

John, Pickerel and Bass using shiners on the tip ups usually is what I'm after and Gills ,Perch and Crappie on the jig rods . I've never used steel leaders on tipups but have been cut off before by suspected Pickerel . I should try at least one or two of the tipups with a light gauge steel leader or thicker leader like you suggest but I've always thought it would be a turnoff to them in clear winter water .Wont know till I try ,Thanks John ! Wish you the best ice fishing this year ,I'll look for your posts !

yea john, if your fishing for pickerel or bass probably 6-8# test would be fine but if there are a lot of pickerel around i would use heavier mono leader..also look up quick strike rigs, i've made a couple of designs that work well with pike and would also on bass, walleye or pickerel. i fish cayuga quite often in winter and lots of pickerel but usually on jigs and most of time can land them...i keep them over 20-21", good eating. are you from the new york state area?