muskie fishing on ice

[fishboy2]

does anyone know any trick for fishing for muskies through ice i really want to help my dad in catching a 40+incher.anyhints would be great. I am fishing for them at pineview res. i utah. any info you have for me could you private message me it would be a lot easier for me to read that way. thank you

Smelling old_coots cooking

FB2
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[IceFishingGod]

Fish Boy,

You should have posted this on the Utah page, I would have seen it sooner. The key to muskie through the ice is the same as fishing the water. Perserverance. Use a #2 Fire Tiger Needle fish tipped with a filet of perch. (remember, it can only be 1" square by law in Utah). I've also had luck with jigs with that best emulate a perch, pumpkin seed color seemed to work best. If you know where submerged structure is that would be a good place to start. My little spot is directly across from the west marina in the little cove just north of the pipeline. You'll need a fishfinder to locate it, it's just a bunch of sunken christmas trees. The old river bed in the south arm is also a good place to try. Any place that transitions from shallow to deep water is good. The muskie will try to pin the perch against the ledge and that's where you want to be. I see Muskie suspened between 12-17 feet but these fish are just cruising around and don't seem to be feeding. Work you're jig through the water column SLOWLY, one or two jigs up, one turn of the reel, if you think you are going way to slow you're probably about right. They almost always hit it on the down side. If you have a GPS add a post here and I'll post some good numbers that will get you started, No I don't care who else sees them. Just do me a favor, if you're not going to eat them let them go. You can measure them and have a fiberglass mount made, they look better and last longer than a skin mount. Here are the main things for Muskie on ice. 1. FInd the structure. 2. Find the Perch. 3. Match what the muskie are eating (perch). 4. Work the lure to look like a wounded perch. 5. Keep at it, I've put in alot of hours with only 5 Muskie through the ice. 6. Have fun, I always catch perch while fishing for Muskie, otherwise I'd get bored and leave.

IFG

[Flagmanonice]

Here in Minnesota, the best fishing is at first ice, and it goes down from there ! Dead smelt on a quick strike under a tipup works the best for me! Flagmanonice[]
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[theking]

[][]Hi Fishboy2, Here in Northern Maine, A nice big ole shiner, smelt, or small suckers seem to do it for me. We catch our fair share. Ggood luck!!!
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[IceFishingGod]

Growing up back east we used the same thing. Unfortunately it's illegal to use whole fish for bait here in Utah. We can have 10 wives, but can't use live bait on any lake or dead whole bait on most lakes. Go figure. Can't use tip-ups either, 1 pole is all you get. I sure do miss tip-ups, me and my buddies would get together and have a 100 of the things on the ice. The fun was seeing who could get to it first. Full contact ice fishing. I'm too old for that now, maybe 1 pole ain't such a bad thing.

IFG

[lou]

i gotta laugh at that one!! haha. i could never figure on havin ten husbands haha! lucky i can deal with the one i got! he,s too much like me! hahaha how do ya like me now. haha just joshin. i just had to quote on the 10 wife thing couldn,t hold it back. haha mare. why is that ya can only have one pole not use live bait? that,s weird to me. that,s all i fish with here. and whatIS THE PROBLEM WITH TIP UPS? LATER[]
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[lou]

yeah there we only use the minnows good size minnows or young suckers. that,s good bait. or sometimes we,d stick half of it on the silver 1/3/4 jig and let the current jig it on its own and somethin would bite.even good size trout! that,s the thing with natural bait, that,s why i love it, anythin will hit live bait![]
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