A personal Pocono area ice fishing report

Our last fishing report was void of any news from the Pocono area where, because of colder temperatures there, safe ice fishing gets a jump on other southerly areas. As such, avid sportsman Jules Fruhwirth, of Emmaus, sent in a report from his ice efforts last weekend on Lake Minisink in Pike County. His report is as follows: 

“We went to Lake Minisink where there was 8 inches of ice and caught some nice Perch and a 20-inch pickerel on rods with jigs tipped with minnows. I used my new Aqua-Vue under water camera to try to locate weed lines, structure and most of all, fish.  The fish were curious about the camera and would swim up to it, but only for a few seconds. 

We then drilled a lot of holes with my auger attached to a Clam cordless drill mount. This setup is lite and fast and I can drill about 30 holes through 8 inches of ice on one battery charge. But the action was slow.”

Fruhwirth said his cordless drill set-up was comprised of using his cordless drill, and for the auger, took the handle off a manual auger and just used the auger portion. Then he purchased the Clam handle, mount and auger adapter to complete the system. 

“My cousin and I then went to a local farm pond to target pan fish. There was 8 inches of ice and 2 inches of snow. Again I drilled holes to find green weeds (as dead weeds have no oxygen) and fish. The pond was loaded with big 10-inch blue gills, and a lot of 12-inch bass.  

The wind picked up so we set up my hunting ground blind and anchored it to the ice using my new Ice Angel Anchors. They worked great.”

Fruhwirth said these anchors can also be used in the ground but for ice, he drilled a partial hole. 

“I then drilled an extra hole for the camera to be able to watch our two baits while we fished. It was interesting to see how the fish reacted to different styles and presentation of lures and baits. We were able to zero in on what works best rather quickly. No more sitting around waiting and guessing.”

In a follow-up phone call, Fruhwirth said they used mostly minnows and shiners and did better jigging a “Rattle Jig” tipped with a minnow than waiting for tip-up action. And most fish were caught off the bottom in four feet of water at Minisink, and in 10 feet at the farm pond. 
With cold temperatures predicted for the remainder of this week and beyond, ice fishing should continue to be productive for those who can brave the cold and like to walk on water.
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