Despite a balmy start to 2020, hardwater anglers are hoping for the best and a beastly February.
Seriously, would you go out in 15-degree air temps with 20-knot winds whipping your fingers and toes into frostbitten numbness to catch the fish of a lifetime? Of course you would.
Personally I’ve traveled the world chasing hundreds of species of fish but there’s nothing like drilling holes through the ice to pursue fish, because I know the rewards that come. Hardwater fishing is not something to pass the time during the winter months, it’s much more than that. Ice anglers not only pull up a multitude of fish, but claim some serious trophy caliber northern pike and muskellunge.
Target Times
Zach Merchant, owner of Round Valley Bait and Tackle is an ice legend. Merchant has claimed more big pike and muskies pushing 15 to 25 pounds in New Jersey through the ice hole than any other human I know, and that’s because he dedicates himself to the game. He starts by studying big fish feeding patterns. “The day before low pressure system moves in pike and muskie start to feed,” Merchant said, adding “Plan your days out around the start of low pressure movements.”
Regarding mindset in going after trophy ice quarry, Merchant said, “You need to decide what you are going to target during a day, especially if you are strictly going after big fish. It’s easy to get lulled into catching smaller perch and pickerel all day, but you have to commit to the game. You have to be willing to give up the numbers of flags for quality of flags.”
During the “first ice,” Merchant sets the spread out in a minefield pattern, searching out the depths where the big fish are hanging. “I begin my season by setting a varied spread out near the weedline edges, where creek inflows are coming to start and also drop some lines off into the deep. Once I find where the bites are on the first trip or two, I begin to maximize my time and set tip ups out at those specific depths. Some lakes I am fishing 25 to 30 feet down later in the season, but it may be only 5 to 15 feet in the start. Once I find where they are holding I know my game plan as soon as I get on the ice the next time where to set the spread to maximize productivity.”
Baits & Rigs
“For baits, go big or go home,” said Merchant. “I generally use whole yellow perch, chubs, trout or a big golden shiners; 10- to 15-inch baits. You have to have a mentality that you are out there to get the biggest of the fish and have to be willing to look past the flags of the yellow perch and pickerel and such to go after the lunker pike and muskies. You may only get one hit during the day, but it will be worth it. On a good day, you may get six to eight hits on those big baits.”
Trophy fish means pike and muskies pushing the 10- to 25-pound mark on any given day. First and foremost, be sure you have a proper ice auger that drills a 9- to 10-inch hole diameter at minimum to pull a large fish through the hole without having to chip away at the ice. Regarding rigs, Merchant’s big fish set up includes a tip up spooled with 30-pound Dacron, a 50-pound barrel swivel, 24- to 36-inch section of 50-pound Seaguar fluorocarbon, size 4 split shot 16 inches above a 1/0 Gamakatsu octopus hook for live whole shiners or up it to a 4/0 Mustad baitholder when using live trout and yellow perch for baits, hooking them through the lips or just behind the dorsal fin.
Big live baits may up your chances, but there are anomalies. One particular day on a New Jersey lake, Merchant and I were getting blanked and we saw some crazy cats with no game plan except for downing bottles of vodka and dropping chicken livers on steel leaders with 6/0 baitholder bluefish hooks, cleaning up on 10- to 15-pound northern pike. Yes, when they left we picked up their leftover chicken livers crusted on the ice, put them on our tip ups and caught pike the rest of that day.
End Game
You’re not dealing with panfish here to simply swing up through the hole; it’s a patience game to end the battle on big fish. “Let the fish dictate the fight,” Merchant stated, adding “When you creep up onto the tripped tip up and see the spool singing, let him run. Most times, the pike or muskie will be just grabbing that bait horizontally running the line off. When he stops, he’s not done, he’s inhaling that bait. Many guys will want to hit right then and there, but let the big fish eat the bait, they need to take the time to turn the bait and inhale it.”
Merchant advised that when the run stops for five to 10 seconds, the big fish will lazily begin to pull line off; that’s when it’s time to set the hook with a sharp pull of the line. “There’s going to be plenty of give and take, fingering the drag and playing the fish out. Let him run and pull the drag through your fingers with a soft touch,” Merchant noted. “Once you get the fish and see it in the hole, expect another run or two, give him the drag through your fingers, do not rush it! When you see the fish don’t panic. Steer the fish’s head inside the hole and then it’s go time.”
Once you get the fish’s head inside the hole, hold the line up vertically controlling the head, put a Boga Grip into the fish’s jaws to pull him out; if sans a Boga Grip, gently grab the fish under the gill plates and hoist him onto the ice. Once the fish is out of the hole, minimize the time exposed to the frigid air temps. Snap your pic and get him back in within one minute to ensure its survival.
For some inspiration here’s a journal entry from Budd Lake last late January:
“Met up with Uncle Greg and Zach 6:30 a.m., drilling holes in the dark; 0 degrees out! No wind luckily. Using chubs, shiners for baits. Set out and had first hit at 9 a.m., a nice 34-inch pike from Zach, another flag went off ran me almost to the spool, let him run but not enough, pulled bait out of its mouth nice fish missed. Another flag, I landed a 26-inch or so pike, Zach and I kept reeling in pike until Greg got his around 3 p.m. with his first ever ice pike went about 32 inches, then Zach landed one at nightfall around 5 p.m. beauty fish again over 15 pounds! Altogether we went 11 for 14 on pike, banner day!
So while reading this sitting on the couch, or watching reruns of some fishing show, know that today, right now, some hardcores may be out there pulling in monster fish through the ice. Bundle up and hit the hardwater!