# Ice fishing tips for beginners Alum Creek



## moto (Jan 16, 2011)

Hello everyone I'm new here and to ice fishing me and a couple of my friends went ice fishing for our first time today near Cheshire Market right next to the bridge. we cut about 6 holes anywhere from 6' of water to around 15'. The ice was around 4" thick and was really solid. we were out there for around 2.5 hours and didn't even get a bite! I am looking for any pointers such as locations on alum creek and what bait we should use for crappie and saugeye. we were using jigs and mill worms but they were unsuccessful. Thanks for any advice.


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## lv2fish (Jun 23, 2005)

Standard rule of thumb, start a foot or 18 inches off the bottom. Use small ice jigs with wax worms or small minnows (i prefer the waxies for the most bites). Use a small float to detect a bite if you don't have electronics and pay attention to the float, many bites will be very light (not like you get in warmer water, you could be getting bit and just don't know it - sometimes it can be the smallest of hits and the fish has it). Continue to experiment with colors and presentations (fast, slow, up high, etc.) My final advice, don't give up, sometimes the best fishing is an hour before and after sunset. Hope this helps.


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## Perchy101 (Apr 14, 2004)

Figure out what you are targeting also. Don't go out to the middle of the lake looking for Gills/Crappie.

Try to find cover, fallen tree's in water, coves, etc that will hold those types of fish.

Pink jigs have been hot the last couple days at Alum.. Tipped with either small minnow or a couple waxies...

Don't sit in a spot waiting either -- if you are able to move, keep moving around trying different holes. 

Crappie aren't also on the bottom as they like to suspend in the water column.


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## GerardV (May 17, 2009)

Perchy is a first class ice fishing teacher. He put up with me today in my second ever day ice fishing.


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## moto (Jan 16, 2011)

Thanks for all the great advice everyone. I'll will def. buy more jigs that offer more colors and bring both wax worms and minnows. Even though I didn't catch much I had a blast and will def. give it another shot. I did notice the spot I was at had no structure so I'll will try to find a better spot. Is Hoover a good spot to fish as well near oxbow??


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## Perchy101 (Apr 14, 2004)

Hoover is very dangerous due to the water level's going up and down.

I would tend to stick to the 2 major lakes around Columbus for ice fishing -- Alum and Buckeye.


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## lv2fish (Jun 23, 2005)

Perchy101 said:


> Hoover is very dangerous due to the water level's going up and down.
> .


I agree, exercise extreme caution on Hoover. I fished on it one time over 10 years ago, we had 12 inches of ice that day and there was a gap of 8-10 inches from the water to the bottom of the ice. The consumption of water from that lake continues in the winter and you can see this sort of condition happen. I never could get comfortable fishing that day and never went back again. Too much pucker factor for me.


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## moto (Jan 16, 2011)

By a pink jig you mean for instance pink color weighted jig with no rubber worm just 2 wax worms on the hook hooked through tail or head?


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