Hey Wisconefisherman,
I thought that I already posted this reply but maybe forgot to submit it. Anyway, this is Den. I'm the one who shared some maggots with you and you demonstrated the Vexlar fish finder for me. Too bad we don't have much of an ice fishing season to warrant paying for one of those. It is neat how it picks up your lure as it drops down to the fish. Good talking with you and welcome to Washington.

Way to go Wiscony! You got some filletable fish on this trip. I hear/see alot of people using jigs and such, I'm not in that group, I keep it small and keep it simple! I do however put the maximum allowable hooks in the water per state regs to cover the water depths that I'm fishing. For ice fishing, I use about a six foot, 4lbs, fluorocarbon leader with 3 single gamagatsu #8 worm hooks spaced about 2ft apart on the leader and a single split shot on the end, about 6" below the bottom hook, to feel the bottom and adjust depths from there. I just put enough worm on the hook to cover the metal and tip it with a salmon egg if I'm targeting trout. I'm able to cover about 6 foot of the water column this way and I never get attached to any hole that isn't producing fish, I move after only 10 or so minutes if non-productive. Fish do tend to snarl up a multiple hook leader but I know it's worth the extra effort and just carry spares ready to be swapped on to the working rod. These leaders do break easy so any line weight you choose should be fine. I've only found the trout to be really leader shy at times. I just use some sort of snell knot or whatever it's called to tie in the hooks. Loop on shank, 5-8 pass thrus and pull it snug................good to go! Hope the ice lasts a couple more weeks to get us into some of those March 1 opening lakes. Semper Piscatologist!

MarkFromSea-- thanks for the advice, i wasn't aware that you could use multiple hooks on you line like that. that is good to know!! All i knew is that i could only use one pole in wa, compared to 3 in wi. but now that i know this it will be a little easier to cover the water column.

Motor1-- It was nice talking to you out on the lake and the perch fried up great! Maybe i will see you out there again before the ice goes. I might try lake rosevelt next week for some walleyes otherwise maybe i will see you out on the ice
--thanks for the maggots

First paragraph on page 36 of the fish regs. It's always best if we see it for ourselves and double check special rules section for individual body of water. Something gets changed every year! Sometimes, more often. I reccomend getting on the fish and game news list, they send about 10 emails per week though, lots of clutter and blah blah. LOL I have kin in Irma, WI.