The easiest way and most common method is simply to slit their stomach and gut them.  Before you freak out, realize that the reason for doing this is for smoking them.  And the majority of people out there absolutely love to have smoked tullibee so this is the most common method of cleaning them.  It is quite simple.  Start at the rectum and insert your knife.  Take the knife and slit all the way towards the front of the fish until you can move it any longer.  This will open the stomach cavity and you simply take your hand inside and remove all the innards.  Use special care to make sure that you have them all removed.  At this point simply place the insides in the garbage can and set the fish aside.  Once you have completed this for all of the fish take them to a set tub or similar and wash the stomach cavity out with water to remove the remaining blood and similar.  At this point you have a set of fish that are ready for the smoker.  Simply start your process or drop off at your local meat market.

Another method is to fillet the fish much like you would a walleye or northern pike.  The process is very similar to that of a walleye.  Start right behind the mouth and cut until you reach the backbone.  Take this cut down to the tail and flip it over.  If you didn’t take out the rib cage do so at this time.  Now just remove the skin by placing your blade between the meat and the skin and you are set.  One final thing needs to be done at this point.  There is a set of bones that don’t come out when you fillet them and you now need to cut these out.  I simply remove that small part of meat on either side and throw it away.  Now you have a great fillet ready for your favorite tullibee recipes.

The fun doesn’t have to stop once you have landed all of your tullibee for the day.  Many people wait all year to get a group into the smoker to enjoy the great taste for the remainder of the year.  There is a relatively small time to target tullibee, so I would suggest you get out there and put on your ice fishing tullibee shoes while the action is fast.  There are few things on the ice that are more fun that a good tullibee bite.

Tullibee are great fighters and willing eaters during the correct periods of the year.  You rarely hear of anyone catching them besides late ice in Minnesota and a lot of times at first it is while people are targeting perch.  And truth be told, perch and tullibee at this time of year do share the same feeding grounds in many lakes.  On Lake Mille Lacs which is a popular ice fishing destination, the mud flats on the middle west part of the lake are a prime example.  The mayfly hatch has begun in earnest around these times and the perch and tullibee are taking notice.  Clustered together in impressive numbers to feed on the new hatchlings, perch and tullibee are strapping on the feedbag.  And for ice fisherman this is a good thing.

If you can place an offering where they are feeding you can catch them in quick order.  Such was the case this year in February and March up on lake Mille Lacs for me.  The first key (which is the key for all my ice fishing it seems) is to be willing to move.  Punch a bunch of holes.  And I mean 15-20.  Drop your ice fishing flasher down there and checking to see if anything is down there.  Keep moving and looking until you find some fish.  If you don’t catch any for a while don’t be afraid to move.  On a recent trip I moved from 8 mile flat to 7 mile flat and finally to Seguchi flat before I found fish.  Don’t be afraid to avoid the crowds and find your own spot.  In fact both times we really got into them we were off by ourselves at least 50 yards from

There's not much better than smoked tullibee.

As I said, keep moving until you find the fish.  However, once you do our experience was that you could fish that same hole for a few hours a really hammer them.  Once you find an active pod of fish you will have steady action for a while.  Presentation is important, but really the spot is important.  Our best lures were jigging spoons with small treble hooks.  It is important to remember that tullibee have small mouths, so make sure you hooks are small.   I was using my standard Lindy Frostee Jigging Spoon in the 1/16 ounce size and the treble hooks on them were perfect.  We found similar results with the small Forage Minnows.  A spring bobber really helps detect the strikes which can be hard, but usually are more of a pull at your line.  Once you detect that hit simply hammer them with a strong hook set and reel them in.  If you tie into a nice one you will be in for a good fight.  Even the small ones fight well.

Here is a quick video I found that shoes a person catching a tullibee through the ice.  Thought it was helpful:

One of the great reasons to fish for tullibee is for the great table fare that they afford.  Most people are very fond of smoking tullibee, and they are great that way, but don’t be afraid to check out some other great tullibee recipes that are out there.  If you are ever in doubt of how to cook them search for whitefish recipes because they are very similar in makeup.

The most important factor in the success of an ice fishing expedition for Crappie is location. While it is a common species, some bodies of water are much more heavily populated with Crappie than others, and some areas within he same pond or lake will be much more productive than others. Early in the winter, they like to stay in shallower water, but as the season progresses, oxygen levels will decrease and the fish will be forced into deeper waters. Crappie populations like to return to the same hot spots every year, so if you find a good spot this year, chances are that it will be just as good next winter.

Crappie usually eat smaller fish, including juveniles of species that eat Crappie as adults, but they have a diverse diet, and have also been known to eat zooplankton, insects, and crustaceans. Because of their diverse diet, there are many different types of lures that are effective for fishing them, but the best lures seem to be plastic with jig heads. Other popular ice fishing gear for fishing Crappie include crank baits and live minnows. The process of dumping large amounts of live bait in an area in order to attract fish, known as chumming, has been reported to be effective at attracting Crappie. Since they are more active at night than during the day, the best time to fish for Crappie is early morning or dusk.

In the winter, Crappie usually stay between fifteen and thirty feet under the ice, but they have been known to roam to both shallower and deeper depths. Schools of Crappie develop favorite feeding locations and return to them daily, so if you can find one of these hot spots, you should stay there for a long time. You will know when it’s time to move on from a hot spot when you suddenly stop catching fish in that area. This means that the food in that spot has been depleted and the Crappie have stopped going there.

Of all the species of game fish that are commonly targeted by ice fishermen, Crappie is perhaps the best suited for using electronic equipment to enhance the ice fishing experience. The Crappie that are suspended in the middle of the water column are most likely to bite, and these are coincidentally the easiest to detect with a fishing sonar system. Using sonar equipment to detect schools of Crappie can not only pinpoint where in the lake you should drill your ice hole, but can also indicate the depth of the school. This is important information because Crappie are much more likely to notice lures above them than below, so you will get more bites if you know how deep the fish are, because you can then position your jig a few feet above them. When ice fishing crappie, a good way to attract the Crappie’s attention is to pull the bait above the school and drop it back down amongst them.

Of course, you can never catch a fish if you fish in the wrong place, so if you want to land a northern pike, you will have to learn about the northern pike’s natural habitat. In lakes, they like to stick to areas with clear water, where they can easily see their prey, and areas with lots of underwater weeds, rocks, and other debris, where they can easily hide from their prey. Some promising places to fish for northern pike are close to rocky points, narrow channels, and river mouths.

The northern pike is an aggressive predator, and will go after almost any kind of bait as long as it is big enough, although live bait is thought to work the best. The most common live bait items are six inch smelt, Portuguese sardines, large shiners, and suckers. The northern pike is a powerful fish, so you should use a large, sturdy hook and a thick line.

Northern pike have large mouths with many very sharp teeth. If you land a northern pike, be very careful as you are removing the hook, because people have been known to have their hands badly torn up when a landed pike bites them. If the teeth of a northern pike break your skin, you should clean the wound as quickly as possible, because there are many species of harmful bacteria that live in the mouths of these carnivorous fish.

Northern pike eat in a way that is unlike many game fish species. When most types of fish want to eat something, they quickly open their mouths and close their gills, which creates a low-pressure zone inside the mouth. The only way for the water to fill that low-pressure zone is to flow into the mouth, which in effect sucks the food item in. When a northern pike wants to eat something, it swims up beside the item, and quickly snatches sideways with its large, elongated mouth. This means that, while most fish species must pull the whole food item into the mouth at once, the pike has the ability to test its food without full on biting it. As an ice fisherman targeting northern pike, this means that the fish will sometimes give a small tug at your line without actually taking the bait. These tiny tugs may be frustrating for ice fishermen out ice fishing pike, but at least they indicate that the fish is down there and interested in the bait. Just be patient.

Because lake trout move around under the ice more than most fish species, you have to understand the fishes’ natural systems of behavior in order to successfully land lake trout while ice fishing, You can’t catch a fish if your ice hole isn’t in the same location on the lake as the fish. Generally, lake trout search the lake for a good feeding location, and when they find it, they stay there until the food has all been eaten. They will look for these feeding locations at various depths in the lake, unlike many species that stay close to the bottom in winter. Because of this variety of different depths that lake trout can be found in, it is advisable to experiment with different presentations and locations.

A lake trout’s head is structured in such a way that its eyes are situated towards the top of its head, which means that lake trout can see above them much better than they can see below. This is an important fact to keep in mind, because it means that lake trout are much less likely to go for bait that is on the bottom. In fact, they have been known to rise as much as forty feet to intercept a lure.

Be aware that lake trout are most likely to go after a lure as it descends. Because of this, many people do not feel the initial bite because of the slack in the line when the jig is descending. Lake trout can be very large fish, and they can sometimes be more than forty pounds, so it is not advisable to let a hooked lake trout out any farther than you have to. The farther you have to drag the fish through the water, the more difficult it will be to land, and the more likely the fish is to escape from the hook or break the line.

The best technique for catching lake trout is to start with the jig only a few feet from the bottom, and work your way towards the surface, staying at the same depth for a few minutes before bringing it up a few feet and trying that depth for a while. With this method, you can work the whole water column and ensure that any lake trout in the area will have had a chance to go for the bait.

The best ice fishing gear to take with you on a lake trout ice fishing expedition includes an ice fishing rod, leader, jigs, and other ice fishing equipment such as an ice fishing shanty. The rod should have at least a fifteen pound test. You should have a variety of jig sizes, and fluorescent yellow jigs seem to work the best.

Lake trout is one of the most fun fish species to catch while ice fishing. It is a real challenge, and there are not many lake trout around any more, so don’t give up if you don’t land one in the first hour. If you give it some time, you will find the ice fishing lake trout rewarding, especially when you get to taste the mouthwatering fillets from your fresh catch.