Ice-Fishing..."lures"

For the most part, anything I tie for open-water fly-fishing I can call a "fly"...even if its a frog pattern. That's already pushing the limit much to far for some, of course. But for Ice-fishing, for some reason it bothers me to call it a fly, because I'm not fly-fishing with it. I could in warmer weather, I suppose, but I'm not. I'm simply vertically jigging these below the ice with a 28" ice-fishing rod. So, it seems appropriate to me to term these ice-fishing "lures", rather than "flies".

To each their own on the whole nomenclature issue. ;) I know a number of other folks here that live in the northern part of the US and Canada ice-fish, so I wanted to share these. I hope nobody minds stretching the limit of this fly-tying forum to such extreme limits?

I tied up some of these "lures" for ice-fishing. I haven't tried them all yet. The ones with the rubber bodies, I HAVE tried, and they worked EXTREMELY well for bluegills and crappies and bass. So well, in fact, that I didn't even tip them with the customary waxworm or maggot. It seems the fish like chewing on that soft stretchy rubber so much that they hold onto it longer, and start swimming off with it, making strike detection easier.
The bottom two have slim strips of Chamois for the tail. I think the movement and texture will make these good ice-fishing lures, too....but the fish will have the final say.
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...Lures2010b.jpg

I tie something almost identical to that for ice fishing and actually seel a good handfull of them every year, speaking of wich I should probably get a handful tied for the season as the ice is building well just norht of us.

Steve

FishnDave,

Haven't ice fished since around 1980! Those would have been killers for yellow perch on Lake Champlain, in upstate New York! Were beadheads even around back then? I can't remember! LOL!!! BTW, streamer flies are often referred to as lures.

Best regards, Dave S.

Dave,
The line between fly-fishing and other means is gray at best. Many fishermen in the Rockies fish flies with spinning outfits and bubbles. Or they'll fish a fly rod with a spinning outfit and weighted nymphs. So I don't fret about what's a 'fly' or not. Did you tie it? Then it's a fly. How it gets used, maybe ear-rings, doesn't change what it is.
I tie a lot of 'flies' for fishermen other than flyfishers. These are castable with spinning outfits or trollable with conventional gear. They are still hand-tied, so they would qualify as flies, although they mimick fish. But that doesn't stop people from calling streamers 'streamer-flies'.

These are my largest examples so far of 'flies' NOT meant for a fly-rod, but for trolling for marlin off Cabo. (double 12/0 & 17/0 Deceiver patterns)
Attachment 6899
Attachment 6900

Attachment 6898

Dave,
I don't ice-fish, but I'd like to try some flies out for ice-fishing. Would you want to give them a try for me? They are jigs like yours, but 1-step ice-dub patterns.
Send me your address if you want to give some a shot.

Dave, those will definitely work! It looks like we might actually get enough ice to get out on it this weekend. The gills were biting a firetiger jig (Custom Jigs and Spins size 12 Diamond Jig) for me this morning. It's a color combo I don't use a whole lot... going to play with it some more in my jig and fly tying and see if the fish really like it around here.
My favorite cold water colors are white, pink, and blue at the moment...

Dave,
If you describe some of those flies, and the steps to tie them omitting the specific colors, many fly tyers would assume you're tying a nymph of some kind. Like you said, when fishing through a hole in the ice, you're jigging. That's just a specific fishing action. But when done with a fly rod people call it nymphing. It's all a matter of semantics. For what it's worth, all flies are lures by definition, but not lures are flies.

I've never Ice fished, but since I got into rod building I've wanted to build an Ice rod. For nothing else than they are relative cheap to make.

Hi Dave,

What is that rubbery material that you used on the top two? They look like they would work, and you mention that you have done well with them.

Regards,

Gandolf

I thnk you're the one who turned me on to the Rose Creek Ice Jig box for toting my flies around, so I guess it sorta stands to reason that there might be something that could be misconstrued as an ice jig or two in there as well . . . ?

You COULD practice your casting AND call it fly fishing:
1) Go out and drill a hole in the ice,
2) Go back to shore,
3) Cast to the hole! :)

Sorry, it's already been a LONG WINTER here in central NY!!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by WWKimba

You COULD practice your casting AND call it fly fishing:
1) Go out and drill a hole in the ice,
2) Go back to shore,
3) Cast to the hole! :)

Sorry, it's already been a LONG WINTER here in central NY!!

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That doesn't work WW.. You have to cut a loooooooong skinny hole. Takes most of the day, but at least you don't have to worry about your backcast. :D

I icefish most everyday and it's been a good year. I tie a few ice flies/jigs. I actually sat down and tied a few bass flies yesterday. I owed albasurf one.;) It's ready to go in the mail.

Nomenclature aside,

I don't ice fish, primarily because I don't do snow so I live where that's not going to be an issue. But if you put those onto end of a tippet attached to my fly rod, I'd call them 'flies' and catch fish with them.

Most of them would catch trout in the rivers and lakes that I fish in. A few would be killer bluegill flies, and I'd guarantee that you could catch all the smallmouth bass you wanted with ANY of them along the dam at Vallecito Lake in July.

And as far as building an Ice Rod goes, I've built on a few of the ones with the micro tips....they make cool little fly rods. The rods blanks were 40" and I added a butt extension of 8" for the grip/reel seat, giving me a four foot rod. Casts well with a 4 wt. line (but you HAVE to learn to keep your cast UP ;).

Lots of fun to fish with.

Buddy

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Gandolf

Hi Dave,

What is that rubbery material that you used on the top two? They look like they would work, and you mention that you have done well with them.

Regards,

Gandolf

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Gandolf,
I tried some of the ice lures in my picture yesterday. The top left one worked the best by far, with many fish taking it without any bait on it. The top-right one used thicker rubber, and got a lot of "looks", but fewer fish. I also tried the bottom-right one. It worked ok, and the chamois tail gave it excellent action, but overall it seemed to work best if tipped with a waxworm or red maggot.
The rubbery material is legs cut from various sizes of children's toys that you can often find at your local drug store/dime store, such as Walgreen's, or even at Target, Wal-Mart, etc.
Here's some examples of such toys:
http://www.starmagic.com/Koosh-like-Porcupine-ball.html

http://www.amazon.com/Play-Visions-M.../dp/B000V6DANM

http://www.amazon.com/Toysmith-Puffe...d_sim_dbs_t_37

http://www.amazon.com/6-Squishy-Ball...d_sim_dbs_t_40

Quote:

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Originally Posted by HideHunter

That doesn't work WW.. You have to cut a loooooooong skinny hole. Takes most of the day, but at least you don't have to worry about your backcast. :D

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Hide, you don't need the long hole you just need a target for the fly to land in. My luck though, even if I hit the hole (which would need to be at least 48"dia.) the line would freeze to the ice between the hole and me on the bank(next to a camp fire). The fish would take the fly, break the tippet and I'd never know.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bass_Bug

Hide, you don't need the long hole you just need a target for the fly to land in. My luck though, even if I hit the hole (which would need to be at least 48"dia.) the line would freeze to the ice between the hole and me on the bank(next to a camp fire). The fish would take the fly, break the tippet and I'd never know.

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Ahhh.. I beg to differ. You obviously have never tried it. Fish through the ice "tend" to be *at least* 5-6 feet deep. So - using your theory, you would have to then "feed" the line down the hole and yes, the line would freeze to the ice.. I'm telling you, don't argue with a man who has as much time on his hands as I do. ;) :D

The greatest difficulty is not hitting the hole with the cast. It is casting at all from the confines of the portable shanty that I am too much of a woosy to leave. I do believe that panfish caught through the ice and left right on the ice until you take them home to clean them when they are still half frozen are the best tasting fish You can get.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by rainbowchaser

The greatest difficulty is not hitting the hole with the cast. It is casting at all from the confines of the portable shanty that I am too much of a woosy to leave. I do believe that panfish caught through the ice and left right on the ice until you take them home to clean them when they are still half frozen are the best tasting fish You can get.

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THAT'S what the joke was about ice-fly-fishing. building a shanty that's 4 feet wide by 60 feet long with a 15 foot ceiling, just for a 30 foot cast. The sad thing I'm sure more than couple fly anglers have actually thought..."I wonder if I could build....."

Hi Dave,

Thanks for the answer on the material and the report on how they did. Time to go to "ToysRUs asap.

Thanks and regards,

Gandolf

lol.. I think there are several of us who have too much time on their hands. ;)

So, I built myself this *really* short flyrod (pay no attention to the reel - the reel only holds the line).. :D

http://www.goodhunting.com/goodhunters/images/6007.jpg

1/3/11.. 14"

You should have held the reel just out of frame, now you went and lost all your 'cred'! What were you thinking????

But since it's really a sweet fish, we can let the reel slide on this one.

Hidehunter,

IF that rod has sliding bands to hold the reel in place, then it IS already a fly rod. All you got to do is put the fly reel on it back by the butt of the grip.

Try it. It's loads of fun. (but you may want to wear different headgear, maybe something that protects your ears for the fist few tries...)

Buddy

Hi Dave,

One more question. What hook and size do you use for these? Is it a standard nymph hook, or a 2X long or what?

Thanks and regards,

Gandolf

Gandolf,
#10 TMC 100 hook is what I believe I used for most of these. A standard #10 nymph hook of your choice should work fine, as would a 2XL hook since you can cut the rubber leg to whatever length you need to cover the shank below the bead. 3XL will catch fish too, but probably is longer than it needs to be.

Small is good when ice-fishing. I stopped using split shot to help sink lighter ice-lures and try to use adequate weight built into the lure, because too many fish would pay attention to the little split shot instead of the lure! :)

Yeah, I know. But the last time I went icefishing I caught a 50 lb. block and two 5 lb. bags. I used catch and release on the 2 bags of cubes! I released the cubes.

Hi Dave,

Thanks for the information. I am wanting to get the materials, have a go at tying them, and then taking them fishing next spring.

Thanks much again for the help.

Thanks and regards,

Gandold

The techniques and materials used on 'ice fishing lures" can be adapted to our fly tying also. Here are some 'ice jigs' I tied up for a friend using only pheasant on a 1/16 oz lead-head #10 jig hook.

Tail - various feathers from back of pheasant
Body - pheasant tail fibers
Wing - various pheasant feathers
Hackle - after-shaft feather

I think I may have to tie some up for fly fishin!

Those DO look good, Dale! Nice!

Ice jig? I use those for bluegill and crappie all year long.

I've only been ice-fishing once.

I used to drink a little when I was younger, and once, when I was playing a gig in Bemidgi (?), Minnesota, some guys talked me into going ice fishing when I left the bar. I was a little hammered, but they loaned me the correct gear (rod, line, lures and ice-auger to make a hole in the ice with). It was around 3:00AM, and very dark. I found a suitable place on the ice and began to dig the hole, when a loud voice from the darkness startled me. " THERE ARE NO FISH HERE...."
I looked all around and didn't see anyone, so I just assumed it was my imagination, and I started digging again. The voice returned, from all directions, like over a loud PA system," I SAID THERE ARE NO FISH HERE..." Now I was really scared. In a small voice, I asked " Are you God? Are you trying to warn me of danger?.." The voice answered," NO. I AM THE OWNER OF THIS HOCKEY RINK, AND I AM IN THE CONTROL BOOTH...."

Seriously, the only time I went Ice-Fishing, all I caught was 100 pounds of ice cubes. My sister tried to fry them and almost drowned us.