its time for ice fishing. (Eagle Lake: areas, top, water)

[Maineah]

Originally Posted by RANGER.101ST

they just swim in to the bait trap.

Funny!!!....I meant when you use them for bait? Do you hook them through the tail or the mouth?

[RANGER.101ST]

Originally Posted by Maineah

Funny!!!....I meant when you use them for bait? Do you hook them through the tail or the mouth?

right through the mid back that way they can swim around if they are not allready dead

[Maineah]

Originally Posted by RANGER.101ST

right through the mid back that way they can swim around if they are not allready dead

Just like a shiner then! I didn't know if hooking a polywog through the tail would kill it.

[Maineah]

Originally Posted by RANGER.101ST

yup we get mostly shiners or chub once in a while we will get a larg polly wog those are the best.the fish go crazy for them.

We used to trap our own bait when we went to Greenville fishing every weekend. We started right after the ice on the little bogs was thick enough to walk on right after deer season. We had a place in Gray where we could catch 100 dozen silver shiners in a weekend!. We had a bait box in a stream in the woods( hidden and locked of course). It saved us a pile of money when we fished alot! I kept them in an old freezer in the cellar for a few years but it was a pain to keep changing the water all the time. We would have plenty of bait for staying a week or more up country. We'd just fill two coolers with them and they would stay good all week long( we changed the water daily) They were good hearty bait. We caught a lot of salmon,togue, and cusk on those shiners. We still used night crawlers for brookies in close to shore.

[Maine Writer]

Originally Posted by RANGER.101ST

yup we get mostly shiners or chub once in a while we will get a larg polly wog those are the best.the fish go crazy for them.

They're bullfrogs. They mature much slower than leopard and other smaller frogs. The bullfrogs in our pond came from a bait trap.

[Maineah]

Originally Posted by Maine Writer

They're bullfrogs. They mature much slower than leopard and other smaller frogs. The bullfrogs in our pond came from a bait trap.

We used to catch one in the bait trap now and then. We always threw them back. I never heard of anyone using them for bait...learn something new....

[RANGER.101ST]

Originally Posted by Maineah

We used to catch one in the bait trap now and then. We always threw them back. I never heard of anyone using them for bait...learn something new....

you gota try it they love them things.

[Maineah]

Originally Posted by RANGER.101ST

you gota try it they love them things.

I will! There was a pond up north in "The County" that was access by 4X4 only. I think it was called Carpenter's Pond. Supposedly it is loaded with 5 pound brookies. We tried fishing it one day in the summer a year or two ago and never got a strike. It was a beautiful clear bottom pond but it was chock full of those huge bullfrog pollywogs and leaches like you would not believe. Just stepping into the water for a few seconds was enough to get several leeches attached to your leg! That is one of the reasons I didn't think gamefish ate the polywogs or maybe that's why there are a lot of 5 pounders in that pond!

[reloop]

[quote=RANGER.101ST;7102050]

Originally Posted by reloop

once your out there fishing and haveing fun it dont seem so cold.i think when we went a cpl weeks ago it was only 5 deg out.

Very true...we just bundled up and kept moving. It was okay as long as the wind didn't drop the temperature to well below zero (which gusts did a few times)...still, it's Maine, and it's January, so we know what we're getting ourselves into don't we?

Besides, fresh cold air gets the kids pooped out enough to sleep like bricks at night.

[BoundtofindME]

Anyone know what kind of fish this is? We thought it was a togue, but we're not sure. Caught on Eagle Lake in Acadia (on Groundhog Day.)