Ontario is Canada's number one fishing destination. Ontario is an "Iriquoian" word meaning beautiful or shining waters. As Ontario has some 250,000 lakes there is plenty of beautiful shiny water about. Most people know it as a fisherman's paradise in summer but don't forget it has a great winter season too. Why not consider ice fishing in Ontario this winter?

Fishing in winter is more of an adventure holiday. For the Canadians it is an everyday event and no big deal to cut a hole in the ice and start fishing or to haul out an ice fishing hut and in comfort. For everyone reading who is not from North America you probably won't know much about ice fishing or ever have considered it for a winter holiday. But for all you keen fishermen and women out there it is a fantastic experience that you should not miss.

You can chose literally any type of holiday you want and combine it with some ice fishing. The lakes and rivers are so numerous that wherever you chose to stay you are going to be in reach of a days fishing.

If you are traveling with the family and you are staying in the city you can still arrange a guide, an ice hut and fishing equipment for a day out on the lake fishing and enjoying the wonderful scenery.

If you are on a skiing holiday you can bet you can fit in a days fishing. These trips may also be featured as a sideline during snowmobiling, dog sledding, Native Cultural experiences or adventure lodge trip holidays.

There are hotels, motels cabins and B&B's all dedicated to the winter fisherman. You can rough it or stay in five star luxury. You can get a guide to show you the best fishing spots and you can sit out on the ice or have the comfort of a basic hut which will keep you warm and keep the wind off or a luxury ice fishing hut complete with heating and kitchen.

There are basic safety rules, the main one being make sure the ice is at least four inches thick, but a skilled ice fishing guide will see you have everything you need and update you on safety rules. You will also need warm, water proof clothing. Everything you need can be hired.

There are a number of ways to get to fishing spots. The easiest, you just drive up, get out of the car, tramp out across the lake and start fishing. But for the more adventurous you can snowmobile out to a more secluded spot or really go for it and hire a light plane to take you to the more remote areas of Ontario. Whatever you do you will see beautiful winter scenery and have some of the best fishing of your life.

This will be a unique fishing experience and it gives you the chance to potentially catch some very big fish. Depending where you chose to fish you might catch, lake trout, northern pike, walleye, whitefish or rainbow trout. There are 180 varieties of fish in Canada and 144 of them are found in Ontario! Of course after catching your fish You will want to eat it and what could be better than an open fire out by the frozen lake and the smell of fish cooking while you enjoy all that beautiful winter white Ontario scenery.

By: Sunny Jones
Sunny Jones is the owner and writer of the popular online travel guide and community, Travel Advice Pages, which dispenses invaluable travel advice for worldwide travelers.

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The ice is about to really set on some major lakes and walleye veterans will be hitting their spots like rabid raccoons. So how do these guys find their prime winter spots. Well, most likely there was some trial and error involved, and some stories from this guy and that, and a little luck here at this spot, or that one.You get the idea, hot spots comes from little pieces of information that have been gathered over years of experience to give you some old standby spots.

However, with ice fishing there are signs of angler presence that don't exist in open water months. And one of the biggest signs is holes. Yes, it may be obvious, but some people don't do enough ice fishing hole analysis when ice fishing. On bigger lakes, hole analysis may be very hard to do, because of the enormous amount of water that one must cover. On small lakes though you can see ice fishing hole patterns with a bit of walking or snowmobiling. I don't ever recommend encroaching on people's holes while they are there , and using old holes that people have drilled may be a bit of a no no for some anglers. (If you don't have an auger though , and are on larger lakes there is nothing wrong with using some older holes that are abandoned to get to some water with just a small axe, but don't ever intrude on ice fishing holes blatantly).

What I am recommending is more of analyzing where these fisherman are locating these holes. Above the surface of the water there is little to differentiate one piece of ice from another. But the holes tell a good story about the fishing in the area.

One of the characteristics of the holes to analyze is their distance from the shore. Often times anglers will have found with electronics, or from experience, the point at which the bottom drops off into deeper water where walleye will hold.

This drop off may last for miles or only a few hundred feet. But, the point is, that you now have more information than you did by just blindly drilling holes all over the frozen tundra. When you search around these holes also look for signs of fish being caught. Like fish scales and blood from fish that are thrown on the ice to be saved to eat. This is obviously prime information.

Now if you want to come back to theses spots throughout the winter and it snows a good deal in your neck of winter paradise you need to mark these spots somehow. And you want to mark them so its not that obvious.If you have a gps unit this isn't that hard to do, but if you don't, and you are close to the shore, prop up some sticks in an odd way that you will be able to notice the next time you walk past them. If the holes are close by the shore count off your steps and write down how many steps it took you to get there.

It may sound a bit outdated , but it has a certain walleye hunting barbarian aspect to it , as opposed to saying , oh yeah, my hole is at N 75 blah blah blah, W 64 blah blah blah, you can say my hole is 75 paces off that giant oak out there.

If you don't have electronics to key in on underwater structure than use ice fishing hole analysis this winter to gather information on that will give you some success. Or you could just continue to walk 50 yards from the parking lot and use your auger more than you fish. Whatever floats your boat, both are fun, haha.

By: M. Fox
To talk to fellow walleye anglers about certain spots and tricks visit http://www.walleyelures.info.

Eskimos do it. So do polar bears and seals. People in Norway, Sweden, New York and Minnesota do it too. What is it? It's ice fishing! Wherever there's a lake with ice thick enough to walk on, you will find people ice fishing. This charming sport has entertained fishermen in the 'off' season for ages. Putting on layers of warm, dry clothes, you can't help but feel a part of the long line of ice fishers before you.

So you think you can plod out onto the ice, drop a line and start hauling in the fish? Think again. There are many small details involved in ice fishing that the novice might not have thought about. There is so much more to this sport than waiting and trying to keep warm until 'the big one' tugs on your line! There are a few steps in the process, from the moment you make the hole in the ice to the moment you release the fish from your hook. Your goal is to have a successful day, not sit out there shivering in the wind because you have nothing better to do.

The first thing you should do when arriving at the lake is to make sure it is completely frozen over and thick enough to withstand the weight of you and your equipment. The next step is to begin drilling. The pros say that you should drill your holes first because the noise of the drill can frighten the fish temporarily. If you drill early the fish should have returned by the time you are ready to drop a line. It is smart to drill at least ten feet from shore. Begin by drilling a number of holes in a line and repeat, making several lines.

Once your holes are drilled and structure is set, it is time to start fishing! For beginners there are two different approaches to take when ice fishing, active or passive. When most think of ice fishing they imagine the passive method, where you set a few lines and relax, trying to stay warm while you take part in something else like cooking or listening to the game. On the other hand the active approach, as the name implies, is well, active. It is considered active because you fish by jigging by hand or with a wind-operated tip-up.

Using a set line is the most common way to ice fish. A set line will usually be rigged with a single small wire hook tied to the end and a split shot attached six to eighteen inches up the line. After hooking a minnow to the end the line is lowered to near the bottom or in the optimal strike zone. You may also use bear paws to add dropper lines to your main line. A dropper line makes it easy to fish at multiple depths with one line. Once the lines are set all that is left to do is sat back and enjoy the winter weather while you wait. Bringing in a fishing line by hand can be a real challenge, and you have to be careful not to get lost in the excitement or you may lose the fish. Take your time and keep the line taut. When you have brought one hand up as far as you can go, grasp the line with the other hand and keep pulling the line. You are also going to have to figure out how active the fish is before you attempt to bring it through the hole. If the fish is fighting too much, you might end up losing it. Be patient and try to get the head through the hole. Once you've done that you're home free and the fish is all yours!

By: John Packer
John Packer is an avid fisherman and recommends GoFishin.com for all your fishing tackle needs. Sign up for the newsletter and get weekly specials on fishing poles and various fishing equipment to fill up your tackle box.

Fishing information courtesy of Resources For Attorneys, a legal and lifestyle directory for attorneys, lawyers and the internet public.

One of the most popular recreational forms of fishing in Scandinavia, Russia and Germany is Ice Fishing, a sport also practiced in Canada and the United States, not only during winter, but also all year round in Alaska. However the most popular place to enjoy this activity is in the Great Lakes. Considered originally from Scandinavia, it was brought to America by Swedish, Norwegian and Finnish settlers arriving to Minnesota, a state where people from Nordic families is totally engaged in this sport. Ice fishing was exported to Canada from Minnesota and from here, it also arrived in Alaska.

Minnesotans found ice fishing an entertaining option, keeping in mind that the Great Lakes are often totally frozen, with the only exception being Lake Erie. When the bays of the Great Lakes freeze, yellow perch and northern pike are the most common catches waiting for enthusiasts of this sport. Ice fishing is practiced catching fish with lines and spears or hooks by opening a hole in the frozen lake to fish through. Depending on personal preferences, fishermen can sit in a heated cabin on the ice or on a stool placed on the open expanse of the frozen lake. Cabins are more popular indeed, because most of them have bunks and diverse amenities.

From all the forms of fishing, ice fishing is perhaps the activity requiring less effort and skill, just patience, good luck and the inner conviction of enjoy doing nothing else that sitting on ice, if not physical, at least exposed to low temperatures. For some people, this condition may appear unappealing but in the northern states, ice fishing is considered a serious entertaining activity with competitions and contests offering good prizes to people with the largest fish catches within a limited period of time.

One of the contests attracting more people every year is held at the Houghton Lake in Michigan. The "Tip-Up Town, USA", an annual festival celebrated the last 56 years ago during the second third of winter, and enhanced with other snow related activities such as strolling, snowmobiling, snow-sculpting and fireworks, in conjunction with Ice fishing.

While in the United States, Ice fishing contests have a prevalent carnival like atmosphere, full of camaraderie, in Finland, ice fishing contests have been defaced after repeated scandals involving both organizers and contestants, who have been caught cheating, making people belief this is not a sport, but just a pastime. However, in the United States there is an association supporting ice fishing activities, the American Ice Fishing Association (AIFA), which says that ice fishing contributes to managing the fish species population, and the economic growth of the community, bringing calming and relaxing effects of well being to all the participants.

Because ice fishing can be something more than a one-day experience, there are shelters conveniently located for longer fishing expeditions. Some others are mounted on-demand using simple structures, although the larger heated structures are basic for the success of fishing trips lasting several days.

By: Robert W. Benjamin
Copyright © 2006
Robert W. Benjamin has been in the software business on the internet for over 5 years, and has been producing low-cost software for the past 25+ years. He first released software on the AMIGA and C64 computer systems in the late 1970's-80's.
RB59 Software
http://www.rb59.com/software.

Fishing information courtesy of Resources For Attorneys, a legal resources and lifestyle directory for attorneys, lawyers and the internet public.

As an ice fisherman I love the thrill pulling a huge northern pike through the ice. I've learned a few lessons over the years. Typically learn the most from our failures, not our successes, and that also holds true for ice fishing for big northern pike. I hope you can save yourself some pain and learn from my trail and error. With a proper game plan and the right equipment you can set yourself up to put some beautiful fish up on the ice. There is not a lot to it, but you do need to create a game plan that will give you the highest opportunity possible to catch these monsters.

I target these larger fish later in the season when the weather is warming and with that the fish are bulking up for the spawn. I like to fish lakes with a history of big fish, but more importantly, lakes that have good weed structure. I drill a series of holes when I first hit the ice and then let the auger lay. I would recommend using a hole no less than 10 inches. When it comes to getting that massive head in the hole you need all the advantage you can get. I like to drill the holes along a weed bed that is alongside deeper water. Ideally you want to be situated near a spawning area.

For big pike I believe in presenting a large, still bait. I love using a tip-up for this type of presentation. I build my rigs using a 12 to 18 inch leader, 2 size 1/0 treble hooks and a slip ring. I attach one treble hook on the end of the leader and have the second leader slide freely on the leader with the slip ring. I attach the leader to a 40 to 50 pound black braided line. I like a black braided line so I can see the line on the ice and also so I can control the line with my hands as I fight the fish.

Large pike hit large bait. I complete the rig with about 8-10 inch bait. I buy my bait from the local super market. I like using sardines. They are very soft and I think that they become an attractant as they sit in the water. Tulibee are also a good choice especially if they are natural to the body of water you are fishing. I simply apply one treble hook in the head and one treble hook in the tail of the bait. I let the bait sink to the bottom and raise it about 6-12 inches off the bottom. Then I let it sit. I like to set the rig on the deeper side of the weed bed. I use a tip up for this rig as now I just let it sit. If I’m fishing with a group we will run a number of these rigs along the edge of the weed bed, some closer and some further off. The pike I catch on a rig just described is 30 inches and up, with the majority of my fish in the 40 inch range.

Now it can be a waiting game, or you can be active in the process. Living in Manitoba I am only permitted 2 lines in the water. Depending on the body of water I am fishing, I set up 2 rigs like this, or other times I set up one rig and then use an ice fishing rod to target pan fish and bait fish. This does 2 things. Firstly it helps occupy me as I usually need to be moving and have something to do. Secondly, it attracts baitfish to the area, and therefore helps draw in the larger pike. I enjoy jigging for perch and as I keep perch in the area I am fishing I’m convinced it acts as another attractant to big pike.

When the tip up flag goes, the real fun begins. Approach the flag slowly as you do not want to spook the fish. It is important not to set the hook right away. This is where experience comes into play. I am convinced these fish spin the bait in their mouths after the initial hit. You need to get to the rig and quietly determine what the fish is doing. After they hit the bit the fish will move a short distance and then stop. This is where your will power and discipline come into play. Wait! Wait until the fish starts to move again before you set the hook. I gently pull in the slack after the initial hit and pull it until is tight. Then I let it off just a touch and wait until the fish starts to move again. This process will take at least a minute and possibly more. I have set the hook at this point if I have waited for a considerable amount of time and it has not moved. Again, slowly tighten the line and then when it is tight give a hard set and get ready for that line to sing. If you set the hook and there is nothing there, you may have set the hook too soon. It may also be a smaller fish and they tried to bite off more than they could chew. Once the hooks are set, the fish will take off and you need to keep tension on the line, but let it go where it wants to go. If you have other rigs down in the area, get them up because these things can run a long way and a tangle only makes the tension higher.

From here you just pull when it lets up and let it run when it wants to go. This is where the heavy braided line is nice at it won’t cut your hands if you are careful and you can see it as you pull it up on the ice. Your blood will boil as you see the beast swim past the hole and keep your head about you as you need to gently work that massive head into the hole. As the fish comes out on the ice be careful as this is where many break offs can occur. A gaff can be used, but it could definitely damage the fish. I usually prepare to go down after it with my arm if needed, but the trouble is you are taking your life in your hand when you put your arm down a hole with a big pike and 2 trebles! But hey, your wounds will heal. And I find those wounds heal a lot sooner than the wounds of losing one of these trophy fish.

I trust you will have the opportunity to pick up some of that spring sun as you sit out on the ice this spring and wait with anticipation for the flag to dance indicating you have a fish on the line that is worth getting up out your seat for.

By: Garth Epp
Garth invites you to All About Fishing Rods, an informational based web site to assist anglers. Check out your many options before you buy your next ice fishing rod or tip up.

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