# Ice fishing chum



## JStarbrite (Apr 3, 2000)

I heard of chumming your ice holes with cat food. Is the leagle? If so, does it work? I read the post about lowering a weighted perch or a jug of minnows to the bottom as a decoy. I also heard that urinating in your ice hole (man, that sounds perverted!) will attract fish. I guess it will keep it from freezing over for awhile if anything else, but who wants to eat any fish that comes out of them!

Any other ideas to bring fish to the hole?


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## Tattoo Mike (Jan 7, 2002)

My father-in-law uses chum and it seems to work. Sometimes he uses bread to bring in the minnows. Which I guess will bring in the bigger fish. He also made himself a clicking bottle that he drops in from time to time. We usually do about the same so I'm not one to say it works or not. However I do fish close to him and we usually do fair to good. He told me stories about him and his brother using all kinds of stuff including sardines. Plus on thre legal end I know that they sell those lake feeders all over the place.


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## JStarbrite (Apr 3, 2000)

What is a clicking bottle?


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## Tattoo Mike (Jan 7, 2002)

Lol sorry he took a small gatoraide bottle, some kind of battery operated clicking devive, a couple of 4 oz. weights and some 80 lbs fishing line and he drops it in the water next to where he is fishing. The clicker itself was ordered as a fish caller from a mail-order electronics catalog, its cost was a few dollars and had to be assembled.


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## Magnet (Mar 2, 2001)

My buddy has an old vintage "fish caller". Battery operated. It has a controller, 50 ft of cable, and a thingy on the end that makes the noise. With it turned on and being out of the water, it sounds like the ticking noise that a fish finder tranducer would make. The control box has a dial on it where you can adjust the frequency of the ticks and tune it in for the particular species of fish you are after. This is lowered down the hole and controlled from above. I have argued with him time and time again about its effectivness. We always seem to do just as well as each other. I give him a hard time and claim that all it does is scare the fish. He claims that it actually works and uses it religiously.

Magnet


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## Fried Fillets (Nov 15, 2001)

Jstarbrite, I have heard the same thing about canned cat food. I guess your supposed to open the can part way and send it down, preferably with a rope so you can retrieve it and don't pollute. The cat food is supposed to attract minnows, I have never tried it. As far as the noise maker, I have talked with several people and have read a few articles. Fish are interested in noise but too much is no good. How many times have you thrown your anchor in and almost immediately catch 1 perch, then sit for several minutes and sometimes never catch another one. I use a mushroom anchor in the fall, not only does this create noise but it also stirs the bottom which kicks up food for the fish, hopefully creating a feeding frenzy. Just my 2 cents worth.


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## Lunker (Aug 27, 2001)

If your on Lake Erie or any other body of water that has Zebra muscles AlreaDY ... I bring a old hockey stick and break off as many as I can off the seawalls and bring them to my hole for chum. It works pretty good. DO not however bring them to another lake to pollute that body of water with them , this is only on lake Erie or any other already zebra muscle infected water. I found the bluegills are growing huge in the marinas and cuts around here and are full of the little zebras. I never seem to catch any perch so I cant tell if the perch like them or not. ><>
Guten Fischen!


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## JStarbrite (Apr 3, 2000)

The technique for cat food that I heard was to put 2 tablespoons in as soon as you drill them, then a tablespoon every half hour or so.

I'll give it a shot and post the results.


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## GoneFishin (Jan 11, 2001)

Seen many things thrown in an ice hole in my days, but there were two that have seemed to work. An old buddy of my Dad's used to use golden rod grubs or cheap maggots or spikes to chum, if he didn't have these he would put a little oatmeal in the hole and stir until it started to slowly sink. All I can say is he used to catch fish.


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## roger23 (Jan 14, 2001)

I use egg shells and sweet corn, it really works good in clear water .also works in spring on gills , they will come a long way to pick up crushed egg shells for a nest,


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## Guest (Jan 18, 2002)

I have never heard of someone using a mudder(mushroom) anchor during ice fishing season, probably because they are too big. But when I go out this morning, I'm going to try using a length of braided tipup line with a short length of chain attached. I figured that if I put 1 extra hole behind my bucket, I can make some noise and stir up the bottom, and hopefully it will get the fish to feed.... Will post results when I get home.


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## WALLEYE MIKE (Jan 7, 2001)

I have used bread crumbs and tuna fish. Can't really say it worked because i haven't used it enough to see a differenance. I heard that INF uses 2-way radios set to channel 11. LOL


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## Gone Fishing (Jul 31, 2001)

Good one Walleye Mike!! Poor IFN is never going to live that one down!


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## roger23 (Jan 14, 2001)

I forgot about one of my better ones, it really worked good untill the batterys went dead ,I droped my brand new 5 cell Mag Light in the hole,


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## Gone Fishing (Jul 31, 2001)

Yes Roger23, I have chummed them with rods, reels, landing nets, rod holders and mudder anchors. It didn't help the fishing but it sure got the wife biting!


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## Guest (Jan 18, 2002)

Man,,, another dig about the radio.....I think that you're right G.F. I'm never gonna hear the end of it!

Ok, now, the results of my mudding chain. It seemed to work, although not wonderfully. But that doesnt mean that I wont try it again. Was out and watching others, and they didnt seem to be doing as well as I did. Final tally, 37 perch total,,, 12 keepers(9 to 11 inches).

What really surprised me was that I caught a real nice 7 inch shiner...... that never happened before.

Seemed that after knocking the chain around, it would take about a minute before I got a hit, the they came hot and heavy for about 2 minutes, then died... Ralltle the chain,,,,, wait a minte and it was back on again.....

Gonna give it a try out at Stoney this weekend, and see what happens.....


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## treehunter2 (Feb 7, 2001)

here fishhyyyyyy....... her fishhyyyyyyyy ....... you got that on the right channel ? here fishhyyyy.......... here fishhyyyyy.......... that whats wrong your seen double thats channel 1 it needs to be on 11.......... uh ok........ here fishhyyyyy.........


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## WALLEYE MIKE (Jan 7, 2001)

INF, good thing most of us have a good sense of humor or there would be alot of pissed off guys around here.


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## Guest (Jan 19, 2002)

Actually Mike, I was kinda expecting to see something about tying a radio on and bouncing that around.....


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