Lifting the lid

[binka]

Or more a case of smashing through it.

Quite a topical one for the current cold snap, do you smash your way through the ice when your favourite stillwater or canal has a lid on it and have you had much success when you have?

I've done it in the past with mixed results but these days I'm more likely to just head off to running water if I'm that desperate to get a session in.

 

[thecrow]

I have done it on my local still water by using a mates boat and rocking it side to side letting the waves break the ice, cant ever remember catching anything after doing it though which isn't surprising considering the amount of vibrations I must have made with the boat

 

[Philip]

Nowadays if its frozen all the water over I would head for a river.

However on stillwaters if its not frozen solid then fishing to the edge of any ice can sometimes bring a few bites probably because the water will be slightly warmer in those spots that have not frozen yet.

 

[Lord Paul of Sheffield]

Ive always found fishing after breaking the ice can be better than on those days when is just ruddy cold

 

[flightliner]

I,ve fished up against existing ice and caught pretty well on the odd occasion.
Years ago I fished a pond where I had to break the ice with a housebrick on the end of a rope but never had a bite, another larger location I did the same and tho it was very slow I managed one bite for a small perch.
Nothing conclusive in any of my experiences but these days If the weather was so bad and travelling wasnt an option I would head for my city centres river Don for a few Greyling.

 

[Mark Wintle]

Only ever broken the ice once and that was on a winter league on a canal mid 80s. The ice was an inch thick and in the four hour match we only started to get bites in the last hour. I was third with 11oz. The upper Stour is currently 8ft up and across the fields and it's too cold for me to be sat on the bank nowadays so I think I'll pass.

 

[S-Kippy]

Never done it and I've no intention of starting now. If it's that cold then I'm indoors nailed to the sofa.

 

[sam vimes]

I broke ice to fish just last week. I'll only do it on waters that have good form when temperatures are very low. When it's cold enough for lids to form on stillwaters, I'll normally be on flowing water, if I can be bothered to go at all.

 

[thecrow]

I,ve fished up against existing ice and caught pretty well on the odd occasion.

I remember having a good pike session fishing up against thawing ice even moving down the bank to keep up with it, could of course have been coincidence but I wonder if the thawing ice was releasing oxygen into the water as it thawed?

 

[robcourt82]

We used to fish little knock ups on a small pool and in the winter the fish very often sat in the middle, in fact they would shoal up so tightly that I once had just under 200lb and second was about 25lb and he caught those from where I was catching from lol. I remember it well, i started at 13m but couldn't get a bite. Went to 14m still couldn't get a bite. Went to 16m and there were that many fish I couldn't get the rig to settle and ended catching 2ft deep. This was at the beginning of a real cold spell, thick frost on the ground and barely above freezing. Over the next couple of weeks the pool froze over and when we next went back we had to break holes for everyone to fish. As we weren't really tooled up for it we only broke holes out to about 5/6metres out but yet almost everyone was hooking carp.
I've heard theories suggesting the ice is like an insulator and the water warms up slightly underneath and also that breaking the ice allows oxygen to enter the water. I'm not sure why but I definitely don't worry about fishing through ice. Nowadays though I just have no desire to sit in minus temperatures.

 

[steve2]

In days gone by nothing stopped me from fishing through ice. I remember back in the winter of 1963 catch a few fish on frozen rivers where just a few places were ice-free.
All my lakes are frozen at the moment and with the temperature reading -3 I would rather watch tele or go to the local shopping centre.
I had a narrow escape from hypothermia while fishing the Gt Ouse relief channel one year and that taught me a lesson I would rather not repeat.

 

[rayner]

When I was younger, I used to break the ice, mostly struggled but was never deterred. These days I reckon I'm a little wiser, not so much that you'd notice but wise enough to stay home.

 

[terry m]

Have tried it a few times in the past and never caught a bean!

Frozen Stillwater then I head to the river.

 

[markcw]

the two clubs I am in wont let you break the ice, and because I fish canals and pools and the occasional commie, I am spending more time mooching around tackle shops and trying not to do any impulse buys that I know will end up stuck in a corner of tackle shed,

 

[thecrow]

the two clubs I am in wont let you break the ice

That seems crazy, what happens if the ice completely covers the water for an extended period, the water can become depleted of oxygen causing fish deaths particularly if the water is a shallow one.

 

[Clodhopper]

I have read that smashing ice can cause concussion in fish.

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

 

[thecrow]

I have read that smashing ice can cause concussion in fish.

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Only if they cruising just under the ice

 

[Philip]

I remember having a good pike session fishing up against thawing ice even moving down the bank to keep up with it, could of course have been coincidence but I wonder if the thawing ice was releasing oxygen into the water as it thawed?

Tony Miles wrote about catching a 30lb Pike from the Thurne under very similar circumstances..following the melting ice and fishing a livebait to the edge of it...Its a tale I tucked away in the memory banks in case the occasion ever arose.

I am not sure about the extra Oxygen ...perhaps..but one things for sure , you will be fishing "virgin" water that has had no anging pressure for a few days depending on how long its been frozen for.

 

[markcw]

That seems crazy, what happens if the ice completely covers the water for an extended period, the water can become depleted of oxygen causing fish deaths particularly if the water is a shallow one.

I even mentioned "what about cat ice, where you can push your fingers through it" answer was .. club rules,no ice breaking irrespective of thickness,