the pole

[davetclown]

Ice Fishing Tip #5<br><br>So you want to catch a fish through the ice aye? <br>Well God Bless ya, and Good Luck! Cause you are about to embark on an adventure that you will remember for the rest of your days. <br><br>What you will need first is a pole. There are a countless number of poles available on the open market and even more so for hand made contraptions.<br><br>My personal favorite is the ever popular wiggle your thumb under the ice method, (though it works with pike, It is not recommended that you use this method if you plan to hitch-hike home after the event. You might need that thumb!)<br><br>You can build just about any thing that will work well with just a minimum of cost. Year’s back while teaching my nephew the basics of fishing, I armed him with a stick with a string, bobber, hook and sinker tied to it. His job was to fish over the side of the boat. Not vary happy was he with such an outlandish outfit; I explained to him that he had the better pole than any of the four of us in the boat. Not liking that he could not cast with it like everyone else, he grumped and used it cause it was all he had. Wanting to set him up to be a winner, I parked him directly overtop the honey-hole. Where the action was nonstop. He had successfully out fished every one in the boat, beating his uncle his daddy and his daddy’s buddy all put together. Then came the bonus his first soft shell snapper turtle, about 15 inches in diameter. <br><br>Building your own fishing concoctions with your kids will only increase the joy and gratification of family fishing,<br><br>Try one of these, use your imagination you will be pleasantly surprised! <br>A spool of line and a hook is the minimum requirement.<br>A spool of line with hook bobber and a split sinker is nice, and will do the job quite nicely. <br>A spool of line tied to a stick works well.<br><br>For those of you who are lacking in imagination, handy craft skills, and adventurism or just don’t have the time can do what most fishermen do, and that is the shop till you drop method. <br><br> Rule of pike bitten thumb (sorry) is, stiff poles are used for bigger fish while the more flexible poles are for your pan fish. Or visa-versa depending on the way you fish. <br><br>Stiffer poles give you a sharper jigging action where as flexible poles will give you a more gentle jigging action.<br><br>Stiffer poles will give you a hard setting action for bass and walleye, flexible poles will give smaller fish the opportunity to hook themselves as well as keeping you from ripping the hook out of softer mouth fish such as crappie ciscoes and trout. (Exception to the rule is that pike are very sensitive biters and will notice any tugs felt when hitting on a pole with any strength at all. Here is where you will want to use a noodle pole or a spin cast real leaving the bail open.)<br><br>The most common pole used for pike is called the “Tip-up” not resembling any type of pole that you are accustom to, this pole sits partially under water through your hole. Able to alert fishermen a hundred yards away with just a single action’ popping up a flag to let the otherwise preoccupied fisherman know that maybe there is a fish on the line. <br><br><br>[cool] “Don’t forget to wiggle your jig.” davetclown