Wisconsin Pike Ice Fishing Tips

Video Transcript:

Hey guys, Jesse here. Going to be heading out to do a little ice fishing tomorrow. Just kind of a local lake. It's actually a lot of trophy fish in there, so hopefully we can connect with one of those.

We've caught them up to 45" in this lake. Definitely a lot of potential there.

We pretty much do all catch and release, so I'll show you the rig here that we use to catch them.

Basically where we're going to go tomorrow is this area up here. It's this one pretty big flat and you can see right through here is that channel that comes up, that little finger you can see. Right now the water's a little shallow but this main area up here is 2-3 feet and this one section here is 4-5 feet.

So that's a tip if you're going along a big flat like that and you notice even a foot difference in depth, that foot deeper where the ridge runs is going to concentrate those fish. You're going to connect with a lot more fish there than out in the open flat area.

The map says there's a rock pile there but I've been out there enough to know it's not much of anything. There are a few smaller rocks but it's not going to hold a ton of fish although we will be fishing in this stretch right here. Probably getting on the edge of the rocks and coming down the channel.

I wanted to show you what depth we're fishing and what features I'm looking for. Keep in mind that when you see areas where the depth changes a foot or so, that's what fish will use as a travel route and they will concentrate along the channel's ridge.

Now I'll show you the rig that I use and we'll go from there and hopefully we can trade some fish on the ice.

Here's a look at the rig real quick. i think this is a one dot muskcat catfish hook with the old DareDevil spinner and some red & white beads on a piece of 30lb. seven strand wire. I also make some with a 80lb. flora carbon and some with 20 lb flora carbon depending on the conditions and how finicky the fish are. But, most of the time this wire is thin enough that I don't have any problems.

I can keep up fishing with guys that are using straight 20lb flora all the time. I can't see a noticable difference on the bites with Pike anyhow. I don't think they're that picky on it. And, I have it under a Beaver Dam tip up. That's what I'm going to be using tomorrow so, we'll see if it works.

First fish of the season. Looks like a decent one. Sweet, nice Northern Pike.

Watch close to see how to unhook a fish with a hook in the throat.

30 incher, yeh.. alright, time to release the fish back to the water. There we go!

Our first little ice fishing trip of the year went not too bad. It was kind of slow but we managed to pull two fish out and one more flag but other than that was a good time. Good to get out on the ice and get a couple lines wet.

So, yeh, we're going to keep at this and try to make it out at least once a week ice fishing on Wisconsin lakes.

Visit the Sporting Goods Department at Reedsburg True Value Superstore for all your ice fishing gear and tackle! We have the supplies you need for a successful day of fishing any time of year.

Video credit: Jesse Marden