Its winter up here and the lakes are frozen and i was wondering if its plausible to go ice fishing and catch fish for the aquarium. Im not sure how much this would stress a pumpkinseed or crappie, going from 32 degree water to 68 in a couple day period. Any thoughts?
Winter Time
- Thread starter Winks
- Start date
Really? i thought the first comment would be me getting reamed out for even thinking about such a large temperature swing..
I would try it. Bring a cooler to put the fish in when you catch them, if you try to put them in a bucket, the water is likely to freeze. When you get them home, slowly drip acclimate them to room temp water over the course of a day or so. You may be able to do it faster, but its safer to do it slowly.
fisher12889;3900748; said:
I think I will try it, the only problem is my fishing skills and patients with it isnt to great, but i may try this weekend. If i do i will let you know the results
A better way to do it is to use a cooler, put an airstone in it to aerate the water, place it in a cooler part of the house for a day or two, with the lid shut. Check the temperature, and when it's resonably close, acclimate normally. I tcould take a few days, depending on the temp, also, keep the lid on the cooler as closed as possible. You can't close it all the way, but you want to trap as much cold in there as possible. Also, you will have to use a large enough cooler.
Fish in the wild often times go through rather drastic temperature swings due to thermoclines. I have seen thermoclines in the ocean that showed up on depthfinders very well, the thicker the line the more drastic the thermocline. We guistimated some of them to be a difference of 20-30 degrees farenheight. I know that I have been through some that felt every bit that much swimming, but that's kinda hard to guage.
The point is, fish are more temperature resistant than you think, particuraly the natives.
Fish in the wild often times go through rather drastic temperature swings due to thermoclines. I have seen thermoclines in the ocean that showed up on depthfinders very well, the thicker the line the more drastic the thermocline. We guistimated some of them to be a difference of 20-30 degrees farenheight. I know that I have been through some that felt every bit that much swimming, but that's kinda hard to guage.
The point is, fish are more temperature resistant than you think, particuraly the natives.
Winks;3901226; said:
I would try fishing in 3'-10' of water. Use small jigs tipped with a mealworm, waxworm, or small minnow. If its legal to use two poles where you live, set one up as a deadstick (just let it sit there motionless) while jigging the other one. Bites will be very soft, you might only feel a small amount of resistance or see the line move a bit. 2-4lb test line would be ideal. One of the keys with ice fishing is to keep moving if your not getting anything, I wouldn't stay in one area more than a half hour or so if your not doing any good.
kzimmerman;3901237; said:
Yea idk why i didnt think of that, i go free diving a lot and we were in really warm water and dove down about 35 feet and it felt like you were being choked it was so cold.
And thanks for the ice fishing tips, im hoping to get a couple tiny ones, maybe crappie or maybe pumpkin seed. Depends on what bites.
Thanks again guys, we are waking up around 9 to go. If i do get some ill post some pictures
Probably no pumkinseeds, they slow down alot in winter. But Yellow perch, crappie and some catfish stay active year round. Little crappie jigs or shad darts might work too. You might also get a pike!
I agree.
To make a very long story, very short, I recently received some juvenile (2.5-3") Lepomis megalotis that arrived in much cooler water than I had anticipated. The receiving tank temp was 77F, the water they arrived in was 57F. After the period of time that they had been in this bag, and the conditions, I made an executive decision & scooped & dropped the entire works into the receiving tank. (a 20F degree difference) The fish acclimatized well, and were all eating by the next day. Several weeks later all 16 of those juvies are still going strong, and growing like weeds.
Not something that I would recommend, even less so with larger fish, but just shows how resilient natives can be.