new to catfishin

[M1dwestF1sh]

I'm going to be heading out Sunday. Hopefully around 1-9 or so. Never been on the lake but I figured I'd walk or snowmobile out to the meth hole and just set up there. All I have is crappie and walleye gear so slender spoons and buckshot and things like that. I'm just curious how you fish for cats through the ice. Any tips would be great! I'm not lookin for your secret spot or anything but anything from what jigs are best and what bait works good. Thanks!

[Tom Sawyer]

Scroll through past posts here in the St. Cloud forum on the subject of tackle and tactics; you will be reading for hours. Crappie gear is all that's needed, along with minnow heads and/or chicken liver.

Good luck out there Sunday, let us know how things went.

[M1dwestF1sh]

Cool. I'll be looking through all the threads. Can I snowmobile from the winter access to the method hole with the current ice conditions?

[aanderud]

Cool. I'll be looking through all the threads. Can I snowmobile from the winter access to the method hole with the current ice conditions?

'Cattin the chain' 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 threads all have a ton of stuff in them 2015 is getting started now.

Here's the 2015 post:

http://www.hotspotoutdoors.com/forum/ubb...ain-2015#UNREAD

2012 with a video

http://www.hotspotoutdoors.com/forum/ubb...012#Post2726103

2011:

http://www.hotspotoutdoors.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/2406571/2

2014

http://www.hotspotoutdoors.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/3174752/1

The list goes on.

Basically over the years Darren and I sort of migrated from jigging all the time to mostly using bobbers, and from daytime fishing to night fishing (obviously we get out before dark but now fish well past dark).

Check out some of Darren't videos on youtube for ice cats. They can be informative.

Only tips I have are

a) don't go to big on hook or bait -- these aren't flatheads mid-summer

jig to get them to show up, but if they're there they will likely want it sitting still before biting. obviously there are exceptions to the rule but in general they won't bite an aggressively jigged bait like a walleye might.

c) neutrally bouyant bobbers

d) they can be anywhere in the water column

e) fishing sharp breaks has been the best for us.

f) drill plenty o holes while it's light out, and try to find the schools of fish. if you aren't marking fish by the time it's dark, keep moving until you do. You should be able to find giant schools of fish and they'll stick around as long as you have a line in the water most of the time.