Ice gear 2022-23

[fishing_the_northland]

I like to prep early for ice so I do my shopping early before November at least. I've never had electronics for ice fishing before and I had been eyeing up the Garmin striker 4 ice fishing bundle and finally pulled the trigger yesterday. As a first time fish finder user any tips and tricks are appreciated. I also added a few Northland gill getters, Clam leech flutter spoons and Fiskas wolfram tungsten jigs (I'm a big panfish guy ). What are your staple panfish lures for ice fishing? Have you/ are you going to invest in any new gear for the upcoming season?

[monstermoose78]

Pinhead mino 

[slipperybob]

Pretty much most of my summer panfish lures will still work for ice fishing, mainly jigs and spoons.  For a very long time, I've been using Flu Flu jigs or something of similar feathered jigs.  Some wet flies have worked on occasions too.  Tiny spoons like Kastmasters in the 1/12th weight as well as Swedish Pimples too.  I've had great luck with Northland Forage Minnow spoon.   Similar Gapen Flicker jigging spoon.  These lures have been around like 20 plus years or so maybe.

 

Then there's the simple jig and plastics.  I like the Northland bloodworms.  There's similar plastics called Wedgees that are just long triangular strips.  Then there's those Little Atoms Nuggies which is like a round plastic plus a straight tail sticking out that always works.

 

 

[fishing_the_northland]

Flu flus under a bobber in the spring are one of my favorite ways to catch crappies and sunfish. For ice fishing I like the Northland punch fly because it's made out of tungsten, I just add a few eurolarvae and it's good to go.

 

My favorite plastics are the Clam Maki Pollis. I catch a lot of bluegills on those throughout the winter

[smurfy]

its all i ever use during the summer are flu flus or hooks that resemble a flu flu.  after the early ice out period however, the bobbers get retired for the season!!!!!!

 

u i usually have both plastics and real meat with me fishing both ice and open water. however i left all my plastics in my tackle box this fall..........so ita only meat this ice season!!!!!!!

[monstermoose78]

43 minutes ago, smurfy said:

its all i ever use during the summer are flu flus or hooks that resemble a flu flu.  after the early ice out period however, the bobbers get retired for the season!!!!!!

 

u i usually have both plastics and real meat with me fishing both ice and open water. however i left all my plastics in my tackle box this fall..........so ita only meat this ice season!!!!!!!

I switched to plastics only in the winter and have done extremely well. Lots of great stuff out there to use. As anyone else I got a problem buying fishing tackle. 

[smurfy]

19 minutes ago, monstermoose78 said:

I switched to plastics only in the winter and have done extremely well. Lots of great stuff out there to use. As anyone else I got a problem buying fishing tackle. 

i got at least 3 bottles of different kinds of plastics........i just dont need to buy more!!!!!!!!

 

there's also a reason i wont buy another or bigger tackle box!!!!!!!!!!! 

[Rick G]

1 hour ago, smurfy said:

i got at least 3 bottles of different kinds of plastics........i just dont need to buy more!!!!!!!!

 

Lmao...Gulp has its time and place.  Got to expand your inventory a bit.  Check out Panfish Pirate, P3 baits or Judges Jaw Jackers just to name a couple.  

Or you could just wait for the Hawk to throw stuff away again

[smurfy]

17 minutes ago, Rick G said:

Lmao...Gulp has its time and place.  Got to expand your inventory a bit.  Check out Panfish Pirate, P3 baits or Judges Jaw Jackers just to name a couple.  

Or you could just wait for the Hawk to throw stuff away again

I'm waiting for him to set the garbage out!!

[smurfy]

So Rick, did you get out today?? Curious what you seen for conditions.

 I can tell you from what I seen from the warmth of my truck  the horseshoe chain looks really wet and sloppy!!

[Rick G]

11 hours ago, smurfy said:

So Rick, did you get out today?? Curious what you seen for conditions.

 I can tell you from what I seen from the warmth of my truck  the horseshoe chain looks really wet and sloppy!!

Nope...Been having some Heart issues the last week or so.  Taking it easy till after Christmas.  Have buddies that have been out.  Lots of water and slush pretty much everywhere they been.  Need some cold weather to firm things up a bit.

[monstermoose78]

12 minutes ago, Rick G said:

Nope...Been having some Heart issues the last week or so.  Taking it easy till after Christmas.  Have buddies that have been out.  Lots of water and slush pretty much everywhere they been.  Need some cold weather to firm things up a bit.

I hope you get there taken care of Rick! 

[Mike89]

2nd MM...

[Tom Sawyer]

2 hours ago, Rick G said:

Nope...Been having some Heart issues the last week or so.  Taking it easy till after Christmas.  Have buddies that have been out.  Lots of water and slush pretty much everywhere they been.  Need some cold weather to firm things up a bit.

This weather should make it easy to kick back and heal up. Gonna be horrible to get around for quite a while. To much heavy snow over not enough ice.

 

Get well Rick

[smurfy]

3 hours ago, Rick G said:

Nope...Been having some Heart issues the last week or so.  Taking it easy till after Christmas.  Have buddies that have been out.  Lots of water and slush pretty much everywhere they been.  Need some cold weather to firm things up a bit.

darn......hope all turns out, but i can relate!!!!!!!1

[Rick G]

9 hours ago, monstermoose78 said:

I hope you get there taken care of Rick! 

 Thanks guys!!!   The Doctor is well aware of what's going on. Right now, trying some healthier lifestyle changes.  If that don't work, change or add to my meds. 

[Wanderer]

Pulling up 14 inch crappies and 10 inch gills may be taxing one one’s heart, so I’ve heard.  Yah, you should take the break and take care of yourself.  Get better soon!

 

For jigs n such, I get to start over.  I can’t find my main jig box so I have to rebuild.  Forage Minnows, Buckshots, micro Rippin Raps, Demons, Moon jigs and Neon Lights are about all I’m loading up on though.  So much of the other stuff I’ve tried has rarely worked better so I’ll just make it with my standards and save some room.

 

I suppose I’ll get some small 13 tungsten jigs too.  

[leech~~]

13 hours ago, Rick G said:

Nope...Been having some Heart issues the last week or so.  Taking it easy till after Christmas.  Have buddies that have been out.  Lots of water and slush pretty much everywhere they been.  Need some cold weather to firm things up a bit.

Wait what, a youngster like you?  You don't even have bad habits, like smoking, heavy drinking, glutinous eating or ugly woman do you?  

[Wanderer]

On 11/23/2022 at 10:10 PM, monstermoose78 said:

Pinhead mino 

Forgot to mention, I did grab a couple of these to try.  Based a recommendation I’ve seen somewhere. 

[Rick G]

54 minutes ago, Wanderer said:

Forgot to mention, I did grab a couple of these to try.  Based a recommendation I’ve seen somewhere. 

Honestly,  the pinhead has become one of my go-to baits.   I never would have thought a baitless spoon could catch so many fish.  

[Wanderer]

That’s a smaller version of what I bought. I got the small jointed pro version.

 

Is yours as similar to forage minnow as it looks?

[Rick G]

Nope, just like this, except white with a little glitter on the top. I have not tried the Pro version yet

[smurfy]

 all this fishing tackle porn................

[Wanderer]

5 hours ago, smurfy said:

 all this fishing tackle porn................

Yup.  Lots more options than a plain hook and a minnow or whatever you can find in someone else’s trash. 

[monstermoose78]

Looks like hawk is selling stuff now instead of tossing out for smurfy

[smurfy]

1 hour ago, monstermoose78 said:

Looks like hawk is selling stuff now instead of tossing out for smurfy

Yea the last time I talked to him was at the decoy show in Alexandria he mentioned he got into some gig and wasn't gonna be on any sites enjoying our infinite wisdom! I haven't seen his promos though!

[Rick G]

31 minutes ago, smurfy said:

Yea the last time I talked to him was at the decoy show in Alexandria he mentioned he got into some gig and wasn't gonna be on any sites enjoying our infinite wisdom! I haven't seen his promos though!

He's alive and well...busy fishing. I talk to him from time to time

[smurfy]

6 minutes ago, Rick G said:

He's alive and well...busy fishing. I talk to him from time to time

Did he mention getting rid of any fishing tackle?

[monstermoose78]

He was selling it on Facebook lol

[fishingstar]

I started using pinheads last winter. I have had my best luck with the blue and white. I have tipped it with wax worms.