frozen waters

i want to wet a line this weekend but am afraid everything will be frozen will breaking the ice with a weight on a rope be any good or will it just put everything out of that area whats best ways i thought about catapulting a load of rock salt out over a swim to melt the ice but didnt want to pollute the water?

bones16 wrote:i want to wet a line this weekend but am afraid everything will be frozen will breaking the ice with a weight on a rope be any good or will it just put everything out of that area whats best ways i thought about catapulting a load of rock salt out over a swim to melt the ice but didnt want to pollute the water?

iknow the match fishing lads break the ice and catch heavy wieght numbers of fish but these waters are heaverly stocked carp lakes but the noise does,nt seem to put the fish off might be off putting to the pike

Ive broken the ice in order to fish before and following a scattering of small fry which broke the surface and lay there flopping about on the surface I scooped one into my net then stuck it on a size 8 hook under the biggest pole float I had in my box, result was a nice Perch that must have been pushing the 3 lb mark. My advice would be to break the ice and then feed small helpings of groundbait to attract the fry first then pike fish as normal. You cant catch Pike sat at home in the warm.

It will depend on the swim you choose(you can only break the ice out to a certain distance unless you have a boat)and on the thickness of the ice.
The best kit is a heavy wieght(heavy enough to go through the ice but light enough to throw the required distance) this should be attatched to a length of heavy chain about 2ft long and then attatched to a required length of strong rope,throw the wieght as far as you can(dont forget to keep hold of the rope lol)pull the rope till the wieght is jut below the ice, then pull and ease off on the rope so the chain acts like a saw on the ice.
Cut out enough room to fish and away you go.
Its not easy and it does not always produce but it can.

i did it with a weight on monday made a lot of noise a lot of mess but i still caught two pike that day