CTFishTalk.com: What am I doing wrong? - Connecticut Ice Fishing Reports ( CT Ice Fishing Reports ) - A Community Built for Connecticut Fisherman.

Born to Hunt, and Fish · Joined: 02 Jan 2010 Posts: 32

I have been out ice fishing quite a few times this winter, virtually every weekend. my dad and I have been trying to catch some trout. We fished Westhill pond, Tyler pond, MT Tom pond, East twin lake with no success with trout. today At East Twin my dad and I had 7 tip ups out and we were both jigging when we were not setting up. we fished from 12 to 4:30 with no success witch seems to be a recurring theme for us. on the tip ups we had small shinners, we tried powerbait and velveta cheese. we have 20lb test leader on the tip ups with a variety size of hooks because that is what we had. most of the day i was jigging with a Swedish pimple and my dad was using a little jig head tipped with a wax worm. I have been looking at this site all season and never found any specific information/tips on how to catch trout, or any fish of that matter. this site seems like it is more of a bragging site, which is great, and i wish i could be bragging, but that is simply not the case and feel that more information should be given. I would really appreciate some real specific information/tips. I am not asking you to do it for me but, with the right setup all i have to do is spend the time and find the right spot which i am more than willing to do. My grandfather does alot of ammo reloading, I know that without being precise you will not get the same results as someone who is really precise. Could someone please tell me what kind of jigs, what brand-color leader to use, what pound test to use on the jigging pole and leader. what size bait works best. with this precise information I'm sure i am hoping to get some good results. with only one Saturday left to catch trout on on the hard water i am pressed for time and still have not full filed my goal. any info and tips would be great.
Thanks

Bluegill Terminator · Joined: 03 May 2007 Posts: 538 Location: Plainville

A- Your leader is too heavy
B-Where are you setting up?
C-All those trout lakes except Mt. Tom and Tyler are open till March 31

Answer the 2 question. As for the leader you need flurocarbon at no higher than 10 pound test. 20 pound test is what I use for pike so they don't bite me off. Hooks I use octopus circle hooks in size 1/0, 1, and 4 depending on the shiner size. Trout are hard to pinpoint because they like to roam a lot. Just remember though all trout like cold water. Weeds and shoreline are out of a trouts habitat late spring to early fall. Once the water cools down you will find them roaming the shoreline because they couldn't access it for 7 months of the year. If you are setting up in the middle of West Hill for example you will not catch anything because its just flat land full of nothing except for the rock pile in the middle and the underwater mountain about 100 yards to the right. You must find and locate underwater ledges and changes in the bottom. Look for land that extends into the water. All the other lakes I never fished thru the ice but I know West Hill good. The only way to get flags is to find underwater structure and close to shore. As for bait I fish with medium to large size. The bigger baits will get less action but bigger fish. Generally I do not ice fish a lake if I havent fished it in my boat or canoe. Finding weeds is vital to a succesful day on the ice. Here is an example of what you can catch at West Hill when you do your homework:

Size 14 shoe brown was about 18 inches caught near the boy scout camp on a ledge leading into 30 foot of water. Notice the size of the shiner on the left of my foot. The eggs are left over perch eggs from a cookout on the ice.
If you don't have a boat buy the CT DEP Guide Book for $25 books from the DEP store has all the popular lakes with accurate depths.

Born to Hunt, and Fish · Joined: 02 Jan 2010 Posts: 32

Thanks BT

this was the kind of info i was looking for. thank you for all the help. once again thanks.

Born to Hunt, and Fish · Joined: 02 Jan 2010 Posts: 32

BT,
we dont have a boat or a conoe but we are working on it. my dad and i are starting to save up for one. today we fished East twin and with a topo map we fished a shelf where we had water 40plus ft deep, and some as shallow as 15to20 ft deep. we didnt go out and fish totally blind, are shelfs even where trout setup this year??

Bluegill Terminator · Joined: 03 May 2007 Posts: 538 Location: Plainville

It's so late in the season now that the trout could be anywhere. From what I hear about East Twin people do good way out deep in 70 feet plus of water for trout. Did you get any flags at Twin?

Born to Hunt, and Fish · Joined: 02 Jan 2010 Posts: 32

no flags at twin but when i checked the traps there were 2 minnows off of them and i put them on pretty good btw what is the best way to put one on? the wind kinda sucked today up there and we had one flag up right after a strong gust that was a false alarm. no real flags today. I was also wondering what that reddish stuff that is near your fish-boot? is that blood, or some kind of bait?

Bluegill Terminator · Joined: 03 May 2007 Posts: 538 Location: Plainville

Perch eggs. As for hook placement. I used to hook right after the dorsal fin, but know I hook right before the dorsal fin. Much better hook up ratio, and less of a chance of ripping the shiner right out of the fishes mouth.

Born to Hunt, and Fish · Joined: 02 Jan 2010 Posts: 32

thanks for the tip. a couple more question i have is, is a Swedish Pimple a good jig for trout?? what are some other good jigs for trout? At twin lakes, you said they are hitting them where its 70+ft deep, do you have any idea what depth people are doing well there?? also have you ever had any success on PowerBait through the ice??

SeaDog1 · Joined: 21 Dec 2009 Posts: 2629

Hi BHF!

BT did a great job trying to give you insight on how to ice fish for trout.
Trouble is trout can be 2 inches under the ice one day and deep on the bottom the next.
As BT said -> set your traps at different depths along a ridge or drop-off.

As for jigging -> Your using a very good jig that has proven itself.
BUT -> Some times trout want a big jig and other times the very smallest micro jig is what they want.
Also sometimes live bait will work, other times scents, and other times imitation baits such as Power Bait. It's up to the fish Exclamation

LOL

Don't get upset -> Just keep on trying -> You may have to change the size and color jig 2 dozen times during an outing before you get them to bite.

The idea is to have fun and keep on learning.

Best regards,
SeaDog1

Born to Hunt, and Fish · Joined: 02 Jan 2010 Posts: 32

Thanks Sea Dog,

I really appreciate any information i can get

Born to Hunt, and Fish · Joined: 02 Jan 2010 Posts: 32

Bt,
I got the fluorocarbon leader like you said, got the hooks you said, and spent a part of my day "rigging up our 8 traps. should I be using any kind of weights on the traps?? please let me know. I really appreciate everything you all ready told me.

fishinschmoe · Joined: 01 Jan 2010 Posts: 300

here is another simple trick, as far as which leaders to use...
Try a Good Old Fashioned 99c pack of Eagle Claws, in size #4 or #6. (smaller if you like little shiners).

As SeaDog said, trout are weird. they move alot, both up and down the water column, as well as east and West. Where you catch em at 7:20am may be totally different at 7:45 that same morn.

If we are targeting trout, we set a straight line across deep water, and put our shiners at 5' depth intervals. When flags fly, we move a few flags in that range hoping to score. Some times ya win, sometimes ya dont.

Ive caught alot of green trout with black stripes, and orange fins, and not so many with pink racing stripes and black spots.

Lastly... thanks for the eggs-on-the-ice clarification. I thought you puked on your trout Laughing

Born to Hunt, and Fish · Joined: 02 Jan 2010 Posts: 32

Hi, FC

thanks for the help. we usually set our tip ups at different lengths and something we do so you can keep track of the depth of the tip ups is put a button right after the reel, so that if a fish takes some line off you know where you were set up. then you know exactly where to set the other tip ups up. you only put the button through two of the holes so it can slide when you want to the depth. it doesn't affect how line goes out either. it seems to work really well.
Thanks for all the help

fishinschmoe · Joined: 01 Jan 2010 Posts: 300

OH YEAH, buttons are a MUST. I also dab a spot of Bright Pink (it is what I had at the time) on the side of the spool. That way, when your button is gone, you can still see if your spool is whizzin before you grab your trap, and lose the fish.
Another odd factoid... In my experience, Trout grab your bait, run like a bastard, stop, spit it out, then suck it back in. THAT is when you drop the hammer on em.
so... when your spool is burnin, leave it alone til it stops, when it starts goin again, yank, and you got em (usually).

Born to Hunt, and Fish · Joined: 02 Jan 2010 Posts: 32

HI ,fshinschmoe

Thanks for all the information, the idea with the bright pink sounds great, I am going to do that. thank you for all the tips. do you think east twin will still be safe after all this snow-rain?? I know they had about 15in of snow Tues-Wed. I was there last Saturday and there was 12in of ice. will it still be safe this Saturday?