09-30-2003, 06:04 PM
Line
......line is one of your most important features of ice fishing even over a bug. depending what you are fishing for you will want to use the lines listed below.
......the brand is not so much important as the weight of the line.
......for lake trout as mentioned above you will want 12 - 20 pounds, they do get quite big 30+ inches and thoug thay dont fight as much in the winter as they do in the summer they can rap them selfs around a weed or two.
......bass and cisco - 4 pound line is suficent
......for crappie perch blue gills rockbass - 2 pound high quality line test is the maximum you will want to use. you can get line from 1/2 pound and up. what I do is; I load up with 4 pound test line and make leaders out of 2 pound test line.
the reasoning behind the high quality line is this; you do not want a line with cruls in it when ice fishing the fish bite so light that if there a curl in your line when it is hanging you will never know if you have a bite. when I say they bite light that your bobber may just have the slitetest nudge and that will be the only notice you get before your bait is gone or they feel the weight of the sinker and let go. they are realy finiky this time of year
the reason for the lighter lines is the same as mentioned above. when you are fishing for the fry pan, you will realy want to keep the above mentioned in mind even more so because they can feal the line when they bite, they will let go.
......Use new line on your gear every year. this makes tons of difference from getting good bites and hook ups and having all them curls. you can keep unsused line in a cool dark place for years, you just need to replace the line on your gear a day or so before the ice season.
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......line is one of your most important features of ice fishing even over a bug. depending what you are fishing for you will want to use the lines listed below.
......the brand is not so much important as the weight of the line.
......for lake trout as mentioned above you will want 12 - 20 pounds, they do get quite big 30+ inches and thoug thay dont fight as much in the winter as they do in the summer they can rap them selfs around a weed or two.
......bass and cisco - 4 pound line is suficent
......for crappie perch blue gills rockbass - 2 pound high quality line test is the maximum you will want to use. you can get line from 1/2 pound and up. what I do is; I load up with 4 pound test line and make leaders out of 2 pound test line.
the reasoning behind the high quality line is this; you do not want a line with cruls in it when ice fishing the fish bite so light that if there a curl in your line when it is hanging you will never know if you have a bite. when I say they bite light that your bobber may just have the slitetest nudge and that will be the only notice you get before your bait is gone or they feel the weight of the sinker and let go. they are realy finiky this time of year
the reason for the lighter lines is the same as mentioned above. when you are fishing for the fry pan, you will realy want to keep the above mentioned in mind even more so because they can feal the line when they bite, they will let go.
......Use new line on your gear every year. this makes tons of difference from getting good bites and hook ups and having all them curls. you can keep unsused line in a cool dark place for years, you just need to replace the line on your gear a day or so before the ice season.
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