Spearing thru the ice

M

Montana Husker

Banned
I know this is a pheasant forum, but last winter I took up ice fishing and spearing. Spearing is a blast, but I am looking for pointers or hints to help my success. I have been out on nelsons near malta and have did alright, but does anyone have favorite decoys they think are better then others? What about local and depth? Any info would be appreciated.
 
MH, Spearing is legal here in MN too.
I grew up doing it, Northern Pike are the only legal game fish that can be speared through the ice in MN.
First of all you need a REALLY dark house. No windows or covered real well. banked good on the outside with snow. You don't want a bit of light to cause some sort of reflection.
You need a good size hole 30 inches sq or similar.
Water depth should be best at 6-8 feet.
Weedy areas (for Northerns) is best.
Decoy suspended 3-4 feet down from the top of the ice or 16 inches or so below the bottom of deep ice.
Live decoys are best, sucker minnows 1 foot long or so with a harness. Keep a lively one on.
Northerns sometimes come in a hundred miles an hour!:eek:
Sometimes come in very slow and stare at the sucker. Either way a guy good with the spear gets the fish.:)
Everybody here has a collection of artificial decoys too. Most any will work some and some more then others.
My favorite is a white decoy with a red head about 8 inches long.
Put the decoy on a breaded line 20 pound test or so and always use a good swivel.
Your spear should be well balanced and sharp, 7 tines are nice. All steel with about a 4 ft handle. A good flexible nylon rope 1/8-3/16 attached.
When the fish comes in just put the tines carefully just below the water surface, take aim and let er go, release the spear entirely letting the spear and fish go to the bottom. Retrieve carefully. ( I've also one handed a few in my day):)
Attach the other end of the rope with plenty of slack to your wrist or a handy eye hook on the wall.

Great Sport for sure!! :cheers:
 
I've never tried it, so I don't really have anything to add, but I'm sure glad you brought it up on this forum so I could read about it!! Sounds like a heckuva lotta fun:cheers:
 
Yeah the ice house we have is awesome, big 5x5 hole with heat and benches. But you are saying we should keep all lights off? Ive already speared a couple of little northerns this year, but want to nail a 20+ that would be really neat. They have a big tourney coming to nelsons the end of the month so hopefully we can be competive their. Now sure on how you locate the weed beds though, just from familiarity with the lake??
 
Once you get going at it a 20 inch Northern is nothing but something to look at. Really! that's about a pound and a half.
I've taken several in the 20-25 pound range, hundreds 5-10 pounds that would be 26-30 inches. Winter spearing is the time to go for the lunkers.:thumbsup:
Yes You DO need a "dark house" for spearing. Shallow water, big opening in the ice. Anything that might cause a reflection or shadow to show movement from above will keep the the bigger fish from coming in or spook as they come in.
And be sure there is no light getting in from between the fish house and ice, snow banked and packed works well.

Light and windows are good when your angling through a auger hole, different situation then the big spearing hole.

I've been by Nelsons reservoir a few times, never been on it. Didn't Mt state record Walleye come out of it?
Usually shallow bays are weedy. Are there bull rushes on the shore in the shallows? A good place to fish Northerns is out on the lake side of the rush patches in about 8 ft of water.

Keep us posted on how the fishing goes.
 
I've never done it but I still remember as a kid (I'm 68 now) reading about spearing Northerns in Outdoor Life and Field and Stream magazines. Everything mnmthunting said is as I remember it but I recall that guys also built a bar above the hole that they hung their spear on pointing down into the hole by a cup hook on the end. They didn't have to reach around and mess with getting the spear ready, it was pretty much set and only have to lift it off the bar and go for it. I remember the decoys they used were hand carved wooden things painted garish colors like bright red fins and tractor green. Each author swore theirs was the killer deal though.
In case you're wondering, I can't remember what I had for lunch yesterday but this crap I remember.:laugh:
 
Well, fishing was slow this weekend, the weather was awesome, sunny and temps in the 20's in the afternoon. We did get some northern on tip ups and a couple of walleye on the same, spearing was slow, ofcourse we had 3-4 kids running in and out of the shack most the day, which did not help our cause..LOL. I know they say spearing is a Norwegian's version of watching TV and I am starting to see why! Oh well, gives me time to dream of next years hunting seasons and plotting what tags to put in for this year.
 
Winter fishing can get REAL slow. Now that I'm retired maybe it will be different confused: I've spent a lot of time watching a decoy with a spear in hand, sometimes fighting to keep awake. About that time a big Northern slams the decoy, wakes You up.:eek:
Up in the cold frozen North, Winter spearing Northerns was BIG sometimes hundreds of shacks on a smallish lake. Now days only a handful of old timers still spear.
Every couple years MN Legislator tries passing laws to end the Winter Northern spearing. And soon it will come to pass. :rolleyes:
Coming from the Twin City area. Fishermen down there are afraid Winter spearing is taking out the large female spawners and worse yet taking a chance away from a soft water angler.:(:(

It's true, a lot of huge female Northerns are taken by winter spearing. However most will just die off of old age anyway. :)

Time to apply for licenses soon. I'll go for the MT Big Game Combo, I have 2 points for special elk. I'll apply for N Breaks Elk if I don't draw I'll refund the elk portion. The combo will include deer, fishing and upland bird. Then I'll get the MT migratory bird stamp and I'll be good to go.
 
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