Ice Fishing Etiquette

[jdino]

First post in Ice Fishing sorry if this has been asked before. Never been ice fishing but thinking of going out to give it a try. Question is.......if I come across untended holes, would it be alright to fish from them? Don't want to PO the person if they happen along. What about drilling holes where others are fishing? How close is TOO close? Thanks in advance.

[Gill]

If there isn't anyone fishing them they are fair game. Unless there is somebody really close to them where they may be jumping from one set of holes back to the other. Ask if you think that's the situation. As far as close goes, I don't like people closer than 75-100 yards. Augers and noise can shut down the bite. It's just my opinion.

Gill

[perchjerker]

If there isn't anyone fishing them they are fair game. Unless there is somebody really close to them where they may be jumping from one set of holes back to the other. Ask if you think that's the situation. As far as close goes, I don't like people closer than 75-100 yards. Augers and noise can shut down the bite. It's just my opinion.

Gill

I agree. If there is doubt if a hole has been abandoned or not, ask the guy!

Whats the harm in talking to other people? You may make a new friend out of it. I often wander around shanty to shanty talking to people, seeing how they are doing, offering them some venison sausage or whatever.

and as far as whether you are too close, if you think you are then you probably are. If I am fishing in a small area I will just go over and strike up a conversation with the guys, then ask them if they mind if I set up by them if I think its a good spot.

just be curtious and treat others like you would want to be treated

[jdino]

Thanks!

[jokerjim]

I think in most all cases, if you ask anyone that may be close enough to have drilled the holes, if they mind if you fish them, you will get a go ahead. Best bet is to drill your own holes. Alot of guys punch several holes and hop from one to the other until they find a hot hole. As for drilling holes close to someone that is already set up, that can be a whole different ball game. Some guys seem to think that they own a certain spot. Common sense seems to work best.

[stampman]

I personally like people to fish around me ( 80 to 100 ft.). The more jigging bait around the more fish may move in. Just my opinion. If you see holes with people around them just ask. I got into an argument with some guys who had permanment shantys covering an entire reef. Nobody was at their shantys until I had been fishing for 2 hours. They said that I was to close to their shanty that I should move. I told them I had been there for 2 hours and nobody was fishing there. Also that it has always been first one gets the stop. No different than in a boat. Should I be able to put a marker bouy ( shanty ) over a submerge tree and tell you that marker bouy is mine an you have to leave. I have drill holes in 6 fow and had guys catch fish with in a few minutes after I was done. Don't really know if it spooks them for very long.

[stinkycat]

Open holes.... fair game but as others have posted if someone is nearby go talk to them most of the time they either do not care or their someone else's old holes.

As far as how close..... this one can be tough.

Once I started to set up next to a rental house.... I was drilling at least 100' away from the rental. This house was at least 1/4 mile from any other house but happened to be on a spot that I fished during the summer and I wanted to give it a try in the winter. I did not even know it was a rental house....no one was in the house either. Well half way through our set up a guy comes up and goes ballistic with a barrage of of four letter words telling me I am to close to his rental house that will be occupied in 20 minutes. I said to him that we did not know it was a rental, no one was using the house, we were 100'+ away (MN law says must be at least 10') and just how much of the MN lake water does he think he owns? He of course handed out more four letter words and left. We moved about 1/4 mile, even though we were perfectly fine where we were at, and watched the house for over 3 hrs. No one ever used that house that day.

Generally we try to stay as far away as possible. We seem to have better fishing outside of the pack. But sometimes its impossible. We do a lot of walking & talking not only to get the feel from the other guys around but we might pick up some good info about the bite. Also, you might make a new friend or run into an old friend.

Most important is to have fun!

[Checkmate]

I absolutly agree. Be nice and courteous. It all pays off. I trade information after striking up a converstation. You meet some really nice people this way. Remember if you walk into thier liveing room or their ice room, just be on your best behavior. You may be outside, but manners are still key. My opinion and sticking to it. Checkmate

[blueicecpa]

NAIFC tournaments & Former Ice Team rules 10' distance & no Hole blocking.

Some times its a city and bounce around empty holes.


But not then, I agree each lake has it's own "Ice Fishing Etiquette (http://www.walleyecentral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1078034#post1078034)", I found it's best to approach and make new freinds and ask what they feel about neighbors.

So 10' to one vs 100 yards may both be correct. :cheers:

Empty holes are variable depending on How cold it is and the circumference of the hole. 4" v 6" v 8" v 10" it may freeze and not be fish able till it's re augured.

[icemanjack]

There's also the guy who drills holes over a wide area and sets up tip-ups to keep people away. Last weekend we had a large group fishing in a good area doing well. The next moring we come out to find a guy had drilled holes over a football field sized area and had tipups laying in the holes, line not even out on most of them. He had to get there an hour before daylight, had obviously seen us doing well.

He got grumpy with me when I rode my ATV through his area, I told him to check his regulations and mind his manners.

[stinkycat]

I have seen more than once where drilling holes actually helped the fishing. Last time was on Devils Lake ND. We would drill about 15-20 holes and hole hop for about 1/2hr and pick up a few eyes, then they would stop. So we drilled another 15-20 holes in a different direction and the eyes would hit for a while and then stop. I am sure they were just moving around the area but drilling seemed to start the bite every time we moved.

Just a stray thought that went rambling through my gray matter:)

[Makin Bacon]

Went out Sunday and Monday and had a handfull of Atv's and snowmobile's come within 10-20 yds. of our holes scouting our spot. After that bite shut down for a while, wanted to say , propper etiquette would stay away at least 100 yds. from people's holes and walk up to them and ask. Some people just don't get it.

[Seedtree]

Depends on the intruder. The local college's bikini team is always welcome.

[BillB719]

Depends on the intruder. The local college's bikini team is always welcome.

Knew there was a reason to have my wife come along. Well..... other than three more tip-ups. ;-)

[Airwave(OH)]

Don't drive thru the middle of people fishing. If you want to ask how there doing , park away from them and walk up to talk. I've had several this week drive right up to my shanty and ask how I'm doing. Many drove between me and a buddy who are only maybe 15ft apart, I suspect looking to see if we had fish on the ice, (Hint:You won't see my fish) Like I want or going to tell someone with that kind of consideration that were doing good and to go ahead and join us....

[Dacotah Eye]

I guess I go ice fishing to enjoy the day. If someone else wants to set up near me or come over and ask a few questions, it won't bother me. If it gets too crowded or noisy I either move or go home. I learned a long time ago that there will be other fishermen on the ice and they all own as much of it as I do. The only thing that really ever set me off was when a guy from another state told me that he had more rights to be where I was because his NR license was more expensive than my Resident license. Where I live there are a bunch of prairie lakes that are full of stunted fish anyway. If I lived where there was better fishing, I might feel otherwise. I have also met some nice people that set up near me.

[no1son]

Dacotah Eye that is about it.

I try not to give offense to those already set up and to be friendly. If I drilled a hole yesterday and come back today to find somebody on it, its his. I don't own the ice, and neither does anyone else. So I will use others' abandoned holes. Just make sure that they are abandoned. Unless it is really warm I will look for it to be well skimmed over at least. If then some one comes back later to reclaim it, I will yield rather than get into a hassle over it. Usually that isn't necessary, but if it is, it really is.

If you are courteous and friendly, sometimes some one will invite you into their spread to help them team fish it. I have had that happen several times.

Pretty much if you wouldn't like it, don't do it to other people. Mostly the ice is public property; so I give some one else's set up at least as much consideration as I would someone having a picnic in a public park. It is rude to crowd in on them, too.

[steiny93]

on the topic of distance....
i think it depends on the situation

if you are miles and miles from anyone else and you have someone drive up to you and drill holes less then 50 yards away you'll probably wonder 'whats up'

vs

if you are in a crowd and someone drops in 25 feet away it'll seem normal

[hnd]

if i'm panfishing on the ice, i generally bide by the 10' rule....however, i'm usually one of the first out on the ice and as long as its at least 10' away i generally don't care if people move in on me. they aren't my fish.

we were out one day and there was a hut on the ice. it was a quickflip i think. he was right on top of the point i was going to sit. i set up about 25 ft from him. we are in 30ft of water, but i still used a hand auger to get through the 12" of ice just to be couteous. we were like the only ones there on this 100 acre lake...

well after about a 1/2 hour, the guy comes out freaking out on us, blah blah blah blah fish have left because of our augering, threatened to call dnr, all that crap....all i said was "excuse me sir, i'm trying to fish" and zipped my shanty up. what was funny was dnr came out like 30 minutes later just to check licenses....i heard the guy telling him what we did was illegal and then the dnr shows him that 10' is the law. he said that we were making noise with our power auger, he comes over to check us out, our power auger is dry as a bone, not even hot and our hand auger has snow and ice all over it...they are both different sizes too....

some people...

[TJ]

You guys got it right. We don't own the ice and no one else does either. All everyone needs is a little common sense and courtesy.

Every decent fisherman fishes structure. When structure is limited, fisherman will congregate near it, whether the water is hard or soft. Just because someone set a shack on an element of structure doesn't mean it is all theirs 24/7. If no one is in the shack, I will fish wherever I want on the structure. If it is occupied, I will keep a respectful distance - which depends on the size of the structure.

Sometimes the 'structure' is a school of fish. Where I live, we chase perch in deep water trying to stay on top of a roaming school. Having a group of people working the school helps all of us follow the school and bring fish home. We don't fish in each others holes, but we are often close to one another. I've never had a problem with that.

[KTurner]

KISS - great place to practice the golden rule.... do onto others as you'd like them to do to you....

A different way to look at it? Fishing next to people is a good way to get to know more good people.... Unless your the type that doesn't even know you neighbors..... Or they are butheads and feel like that public piece of water is THEIRS.... Then it's time to head to the other side of the lake.......