# Ice Fishing the Pond



## beemoth (Aug 3, 2008)

Been out today and 2 weeks ago to see if the fish were biting.
1st time out had about 6 inches of ice ---today about 9-10 inches of ice.

Me and a friend caught 12 perch and 20 some gills 2 weeks ago and the pics I took didn't save on the digital camera----operator error I guess.

Today I went out for about 45 minutes caught 4 fish .......2 perch 2 gills and this time I got the pictures to save on the camera. I put the gills with the perch to show the size comparision to the perch......didn't have a ruler handy


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## Salmonid (Apr 14, 2004)

Beemoth, nice chunky perch there!! I went out this afternoon for about 45 minutes or so and drilled 1 hole over a brush pile, took a dozen Golden Shiners, ( pesky ) 5-6 nice bluegills, 1 big Hybrid Bluegill ( ~9") ands a nice 9" Black Crappie, sorry, no pics, was by myself since Pendog66 couldnt get a hall pass from the Boss.... All fish on an chartreuse ice jig tipped with waxies

Salmonid


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## [email protected] (Feb 29, 2008)

Nice guys. Looks like a gravid female YP; ready to spawn next month!


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## beemoth (Aug 3, 2008)

Today was fast as you dropped a line the gills were all over my waxworm also caught 2 perch and a young smallmouth bass.......


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## beemoth (Aug 3, 2008)

Drilled 3 different holes away from last weeks honey hole and caught 1 gill out of the 3 holes. Finally I went back to the honey hole area and it was fast as you could drop back in you had a fish. Caught 2 red-ear shell crackers today. I thought they'd been wiped out cause you don't hardly ever catch one. 40 some fish in an hour and a half ----thick ice ---probably go out next weekend too. I 've got to get better on the close up shots


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## Salmonid (Apr 14, 2004)

Nice job man, I know what you mean about the red ears, i stocked 200 of em and in 3 years have caught like 5 of them...they are a weird one to figure out. Im headed out to my pond here in aminute so Ill have a report for you guys in a hour or two. 

Wishing everyone a few more days of good ice since we are supposed to be in the high 30's most of the week and low 40's on the weekend so this may be it...
Be safe folks, 
Salmonid


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## beemoth (Aug 3, 2008)

thanks SALMONID

you know the only time i seem to catch a red-ear is early spring and then after that you just can't get them to bite. I know there are some pretty nice size ones at least there was 2-3 years ago. These were smaller (ice) so they must be spawning. Was fun catching them just to know they're still in there. Post a pic of your catch when you get one


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## Salmonid (Apr 14, 2004)

sorry for the late reply, i did go out for an hour or so, played with my fish cam, that was cool, drill a hole, see where the underwater trees were, so I only fished a little bit, caugt a 9" Black Crappie, a 9" hybrid Bluegill and a 7" gill and about 15 BIG golden shiners, those guys are freaking everywhere in the pond, but this year my Hybrid Striers will be big enough to crop them down so that will be good. My ice was marginal at best, about 5-6 : but the top half was crusty stuff. I think that is gonna be the last time.....

I am shopping for a bottom difusser right now ( tax money) and once I have that in, I wont be ice fishing any more after that but I should have open water year round in a small part of the pond. do you use a bottom difusser, ?? 

Salmonid


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## [email protected] (Dec 22, 2006)

Mark, Your pond is fairly deep and weed free and your biomass load is low. I don't think aerating all winter is going to do much but raise your electric bill. Turn the aerator off in Mid November, enjoy the ice fishing for a few months then turn it back on in March.


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## beemoth (Aug 3, 2008)

no I don't use a bottom diffuser--------sometimes i think about doing the windmill method you know the amish way. I need more info on the subject because my pond seeems to be doing ok without a bottom diffuser. i read they are good for "fish" ponds but not sure if I need one. Why do you think you need one?


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## Salmonid (Apr 14, 2004)

with my pond being 12 ft deep and basically a clay pit with no runoff or any other way to catch water, I am sure i am getting a thermocline in the heat of the dry summers and also I want to insure oxygen saturation in the late fall before ice up so I dont get as bad of fish kill durring the hard ice winters we have had the last 2 years. I lost a ton of fish last year and am afraid to see where I am at when this stuff thaws out. I am already seeing dead fish under the ice . Does that make sense? I really do not have the sediment/algae problems that Bottom diffusrs are good at helping.

Salmonid


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## beemoth (Aug 3, 2008)

I can see your point about having fish die off like that.

I've had minimal fish die off after the ice goes off in past years but .... Don't know about this year yet.

If I was having a big die-off I'd be thinking like you are and try to prevent that from happening. You've got money tied up in buying fish the last thing you want is a winter or summer kill of your investment. Spending the money on a diffusser sounds like a good idea for you. Hope it works for you.


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## Fishman (Apr 5, 2004)

Just saw the post Mark. Fish kills caused this time of the year are usually caused by low oxygen conditions. The ice on the top of the pond isn't neccisarily a bad thing, but the snow that covers it is. No sun light penetration basically means no photosynthesis. Bacteria are always at work in your pond, decomposing organic materials reducing oxygen levels "all the time". Obviously you're fish are burning it up as well. Less than healthy fish, which are stressed out from a long winter and low oxygen get diseases really rather easiliy. I see it alot in older fish mostly, which are also the bigger ones with more oxygen demand. Give me a call if you have any questions.

I'll rarely call bottom based aerations units silver bullets, but reducing likleyhoods of winter kills they will do. Even if you just run them for a few days during periods of heavy snow cover.

Impressive crappie by the way!


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## [email protected] (Dec 22, 2006)

Sorry Mark, I didn't realize you lost fish last year. I'm surprised your having trouble. I have turned my aerators on periodically if snow blankets more than 75% of my pond. I let it run long enough to melt a hole in the ice and wet the surface to let light through then I turn it off. It usually only takes a couple of hours. I get a lot of wind where my pond is so it rarely gets completely covered with snow.

I run my aerator 24/7 in from Spring through Fall though and this mixing of warm water may have been what caused the perch die off I posted about last summer.

In kind, I'm concerned about running an aerator like mine all winter for fear of lowering the temperature of the entire water column. I don't think they'd freeze to death but believe it will stress them and increasing the possibility of disease.


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## Salmonid (Apr 14, 2004)

Yeah last year I counted like 35 fish, mostly HBG with afew BG mixed in, plus there is always the chance of all the fish that do NOT float so you just never know how many you may have lost, I saw another 8-10 about 2 weeks ago right before the 2nd big snow we had when the ice was just refreezing and was clear and hard, I walked around and could see them as obvious as anything, even saw a 10+" HBG, I hated to see him go, I did some research and supposedly the HBG are very wimpy and are usually the first to go. Ill be checking here in afew days if the sun burns off the ice we have, I probably will not restock HBG this year but will be adding more FHM and perhaps some adult BG to keep the going since last years spawn was pretty weak. Like everyone else, I am learning as I go ha ha, I bet I ll have it figured out about the time I hit my 80's......In the meantime, I KNOW I have too many predators so thats why I am pumping the FHM in and will continue to pellet feed and this year will be weeding out a whole bunch of 3-5 Lb channel cats...( but leaving the dozen or so Blue Cats I have) 

Salmonid


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## beemoth (Aug 3, 2008)

interesting that you're keeping blue cats and removing the channel cats.......

why would you go that route? I don't have any blue cats but do have about 30 channels.......... Are the blue cats less aggressive? I don't know so that's why I ask. I'm going to take out 5 cats this year for the dinner table.


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## Salmonid (Apr 14, 2004)

Well, thats the catfish part of me that is keeping them as a unique fishery. I got them as 4-5" fellers and I have several hundred miles and a lot of money tied up in them so I figure Ill get down to a handful of 15 lbers in another 2-3 years and really suprise someone when they catch/hook one, ha ha, I can always get and grow out channels, they are quite common so thats why I think Ill prefer the blues over the channels, Just a fun thing I suppose. Oh yeah, they are probably twice as aggressive at eating live bait as channels so it will be interesting to see if I can keep up the rest of the quality fishery with those guys in there.

Hey Ryan, is your bottom difusser a Vertex system?? if so, which model is it? 

Salmonid


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## Fishman (Apr 5, 2004)

Personally taken 2 calls this week, both hybrid gill die offs, and older larger fish.

I agree with what pondfin said, run it for 24 hours tops, and shut her down if the ponds smaller this time of year for ice removal.

Looking forward to seeing how big these blue get, I assume they're taking pellet feed during the warmer months? We've got paddlefish available in the fall too, the guys take pellet chow as well


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## Salmonid (Apr 14, 2004)

Yeah, Im looking at getting 2 paddlefish from you guys later this year, seems kinda cool and wont add to my predatory biomass, I love watching them breach like a whale on the ohio River, waaay cool.

SALMONID


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## Fishman (Apr 5, 2004)

We threw some in in a handful of ponds, plan on having paddlefish fish fry in a couple years  They swim on their side when they eat the pellet food, looks crazy.


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## beemoth (Aug 3, 2008)

Went out for about 2 hours yesterday with some minnows and waxworms and tried 3 new spots with no success. After wasting enough time I finally went back to the same spot that has produced everytime for the past couple weeks and the fish were there again. Why? i don't know because I do know that the whole pond is structure free especially out in the middle I mean I've got structure around the pond within 10 feet of the banks so I dragged a christmas tree and concrete block out to that spot to sink it. Fish weren't interested in the minnows this time but were all over the waxworms.

We have a DICK'S sports store up here and of course Walmart/Meijers and the 3 of them have little if any ice fishing gear to offer. You have the same problem down there?
The lure I've been using is a HALI made in Finland it was on a ice fishing for panfish article from an IN-Fisherman article i read on-line. It's one of my favorites now. I Found the lure at Fin-Feather-Fur in Ashland Ohio------It's a 25 mile ride from here but they've got whatever you need hunting or fishing


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## [email protected] (Dec 22, 2006)

You've had a heck of a year Beemoth. I had a similar experience catching gills too. They all seemed to be in 12'x12' area the last couple of times I went out. 

I got a good deal on a reel at FF&F once. That place has a mom and pop feel with a pro shop selection. I get most of my ice stuff from Gander Mountain and a few odds and ends at local bait shops.


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