# Interesting ice fishing technique



## fishwoman (Nov 13, 2009)

Hi there. I'm a longtime fisher but haven't ice fished before. A friend told me about a certain technique and it has me intrigued--I'm trying to find out more. What I know is that find a shallow, clear lake, cut a hole, lie on the ice, cover yourself with a blanket or a tent and you can see under the ice as you fish. Has anyone done this? Can you tell me more? To begin with, I'm curious what this approach is called.

Thanks!


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## blhunter3 (May 5, 2007)

An underwater camera works just as good.

Some of the lakes I use to fish in MN, had very clear water and if you had a dark icehouse you could see down to about 12 to 16 feet.


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## drjongy (Oct 13, 2003)

fishwoman said:


> To begin with, I'm curious what this approach is called.!


It's called ice fishing.

You don't need to lay on the ice, use a tent as you said, or use an actual ice house...anything to make it dark on the inside of the house will help you see better through the ice and into the water.

This technique requires congelation (black) ice, which is the purist form of lake ice and is formed from the bottom. These conditions are usually only found in the early ice season. As soon as there gets to be snow and a lot of cracks in the ice you will start to get snow ice, which is the ice that forms from the top. Visibility through snow ice is not good at all because of all the imperfections and air bubbles trapped in the ice.


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## njsimonson (Sep 24, 2002)

My uncle used to do this for trout through the ice. It's just sight-fishing, I guess, in the raw, without the shack.

Last year I frequently fished a clear NEMN lake for bluegills and crappies, and could sight fish down to 21 feet with the windows closed in my shack for bull gills. It was awesome. You learn a lot watching and being able to see the fish, the lure and the action.


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