A Beginner's Guide to Ice Fishing - Tips for Setting Up and Getting Started on the Ice - Equipment Needed, Decoys Used, Best Lines to Use, Staying Warm and Some Tales of Great Catches

By Read Books Ltd.

This antiquarian volume contains a guide to ice fishing, with tips for setting up and getting started on the ice, information on equipment needed, decoys used, best lines to a staying warm, and some tales of great catches. Written in clear, plain language and full of invaluable tips and hints, this text is ideal for the beginner, and makes for a great addition to collections of angling literature. The chapters of this book include: 'Introduction to Ice Fishing', 'Tools and the Trade', 'Pike and Pickerel', 'Tilts', 'Setting In', 'Dull-Day Tactics', 'Tending and Hauling', 'Jigging', 'Perch - Baits and Tackle', 'Perch Methods', 'Decoys', 'Fly Fishing', 'Setting up and Fishing on the Ice', 'Spearing Sturgeon Under the Ice', and 'Ice-Fishing for Great Pike'. We are republishing this book now complete with a new introduction on the history of fishing.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Read Books Ltd.
• Release date: Sep 6, 2016
• ISBN: 9781473358492

Book preview

Ice Fishing

WITH all due respect for psychologists and their complicated ways of testing a man’s sanity, they have overlooked a simple method which they could apply in all our Northern states. Merely pick a blustery midwinter day when the mercury hovers around zero and make a tally of all those who refuse to stick their noses outside warm, steam-heated homes. Then run a count on those who are pounding holes in the ice of wind-swept lakes and dipping bare hands in icy minnow buckets. Deciding which group lacks the sound, sober judgment that goes with sanity shouldn’t be very hard.

TOOLS OF THE TRADE

Holding the subject of tackle in reserve, the following items of basic equipment will meet most ice-fishing needs: Spud, long-handled skimmer, minnow bucket, and, of course, plenty of warm clothing. None but the spud warrants further comment.

Any old spud won’t do . . . not when the ice has built up to a foot and a half in thickness. Then you need a heavy spud with a narrow blade—one which comes down with authority and bites deeply with each stroke. The edge should be beveled on only one side to throw chips toward the center of the hole as you work. Keep the edge sharp and free from nicks with a stone, and be sure to tie a loop of rawhide or rope to the top. Slip the loop over your wrist while cutting to avoid losing the spud through the hole.

When it comes to actual tackle you have a hundred-and-one choices, depending on how you fish and for what. Let’s take them up as they apply to the various species and methods.

PIKE AND PICKEREL

The cold water of winter doesn’t affect the feeding habits of members of the pike family. You’ll find them lurking in weed beds and preying on lesser fish, as they do during the summer months. Just go after them with a bucket of