February is the month that marks the peak of the Icefishing season. Where the Ice is thick and the fish are hungry. The places I lake to fish is just about everywhere in the Rockies where the lakes are full of trout of all species, besides trout there are land locked salmon. In the Rural lakes you can also catch plenty of yellow perch and saugeye or walleyes.
    Locations of fishing is mostly done by reading local fishing reports and resources like fishfinder.org or the Parks and wild life department. I usually fish with my good friend Gregor Eigsti who usually has the location fish using his hand held GPS where he has marked fish in previous years. Out side of the GPS we also use the Vexlar fish finder to find where the fish are schooling. When using the Vexlar unit you can see if the fish are suspended or on the Bottom and can move the bait to the fish by watching the screen. The bite is usually vary faint so using a pole that is sensitive or your finger too feel the bite is important.
    We normal stay warm by using layers of clothing, Gloves, Good shoes, and a nice sled with a shelter, Usually it gets pretty warm in the shelter and we will have to remove some of the layers to be comfortable.
    There are many tips and techniques to use depending on the type of fishing you want to go after. For lake Trout (mackinaw) I use a curly tail grub with a piece of sucker meet on the hook. The color of the grubs I like to use is Coffee, brown or white colors and one of the real good techniques is using a large tube jig white with sucker meat on it. For Trout and salmon I use a bright pink or chartreuse jig suspended using up and down motions to attract the fish.
    One of the most important things to remember is SAFETY at all times, buy studding the conditions, ice thickness and proper shoes with spikes or some other form of gripping device. It is not fun having the paramedics coming and transporting you to the hospital with a concussion as I have experanced in the past. Remember SAFETY, SAFETY SAFETY. Have a great day of fishing and remember take a kid fishing