Effective Strategies for Rainbow Trout Fishing Through a Hole in The Ice

During the winter months of December all the way through March in many area's, the most effective way to catch a trout is to head out onto a frozen lake or pond and do a little ice fishing. Although rainbow trout can be caught in rivers during these months, getting them to bite your offering is much more difficult than it is during the warmer months of the year. So, for trout fishermen who want to fish during the winter months, the best chance of landing a trout or three is to do go ice fishing. In this post I will discuss a couple of effective strategies to implement the next time that you head out onto the ice with the intent of catching a few rainbow trout.

The first thing to keep in mind no matter what strategy you are going to employ is that under the ice, is that trout are much more active during the changing light conditions that occur during the early mornings and late evenings than they are at other times of the day. This means that you need to be on the ice early in the morning and/or late into the evening if possible.   During these low light periods rainbow trout are almost always active, and thus the most apt to be feeding (which is what you want anytime that you are fishing).

Many anglers who ice fish for trout fish in water that is much deeper than it needs to be. This was a mistake that I used to be notorious for making when I was fishing for rainbows while ice fishing. The truth is that many times trout, and often large rainbows are caught in very shallow water when ice fishing. This means fishing the shorelines and drilling holes in water that is from two to four feet deep. This shallow water ice fishing strategy is very effective when ice fishing for trout in my experience.  Ice fishing in shallow water means that you are very close to the trout you are fishing for and those trout can (and often do) "spook" easily. So being as quiet as possible on the ice is paramount when employing this strategy.

Another effective thing to do when ice fishing for trout is not to neglect fishing with Powerbait. If you fish for rainbow trout during other seasons you undoubtedly know how productive fishing with Powerbait can be. Well, believe it or not Powerbait is also a great bait to use when ice fishing for trout. Powerbait can be used by itself and rigged on a small treble hook with a split shot or two pinched onto the line to keep it from floating to the surface or can be used to "tip" a small jig, but the bottom line is that  Powerbait is effective even when you are standing on top of the water that you are fishing in.

Finally, there is one of the most popular strategies that there is for fishing for rainbow trout beneath the ice, which is to use a small marabou jig, tipped with a meal worm or maggot for added attraction  Hungry rainbow trout will readily goggle up these little morsels as they cruise around in the freezing water of a winter lake.  I have caught many trout on tiny maggot tipped marabou jigs.  I have found that a key to using this strategy is to not be afraid to let your offering just sit there.  With many ice fishing jigs, the goal is to constantly "jig" the lure up and down, but with marabou tipped jigs, I have found that less is more, so to speak.  I will often just jig my rod once every 5 or even 10 minutes and let the rod sit there motionless in the mean time.  I have found that hungry rainbows will often take the bait when the jig is sitting there doing nothing. 

These simple strategies will help you to experience more success the next time that you head out onto the ice in search of rainbow trout, I guarantee it.  Now bundle up, get out there, and have some fun.