“A dropshot rig is absolutely beautiful for putting a bait at the fish’s eye level—right where they’ve got no choice but to eat it.” Despite its 'advanced' connotation, the dropshot rig couldn’t be simpler. Think split-shot rig in reverse. As a softbait delivery method, the dropshot excels for bass. So it’s no surprise that small baits twitched and wiggled in new and tantalizing ways hold equal appeal for crappies, sunfish and big perch. If you can cast, you’re in. If you can tie a Palomar knot, you can master a dropshot rig. Amazing that such a versatile rig— this prefect presenter of soft plastics and livebait— would be so little employed by panfish fans. In reality, a dropshot rig can be as productive as a bobber and bait, or even a tiny jig. It’s even possible that the dropshot is ... [ Pound this link... ]
Winter Strategies for Spring Success
by Garett Svir The ice season is coming to an end but don’t throw out the larva or put away the ice fishing jigs quite yet. You might find success using winter strategies for spring success. After ice out, crappies will start to make their way from the deep water haunts of winter to shallow black bottom bays. It’s not spawning time. These fish are searching for the buffet line. Black bottom bays soak up the heat of the sun like a sponge and hold bug hatches necessary to start the food chain. Crappies sneak in on warm days for a quick meal long before the spawn begins. While minnows are a great producer once water temperatures have warmed, ice out slabs require finesse presentations. I think the experiment stemmed from my unpreparedness for the coming season. Winter jig boxes and larva ... [ Pound this link... ]
Last Ice fishing Go with the Flow
Plan ahead, drill and get things draining and you’ll catch more panfish than ever this time of year By Mitch Eeagan. It’s last call. No, it isn’t 2 a.m. at your favorite watering hole. You just got a phone call from your bud fresh off the hard water letting you know the short-lived season of last ice fishing is peaking - now. “You’d better get on the lake immediately, before ice conditions deteriorate to the point where you’ll have to wait until open water to catch your next limit of panfish,” he orders. Your plan? Surprisingly enough to your comrade, it’s not to fish right away -- or even tomorrow morning.Instead, you’ll be waiting at least another 12 hours to drop a line. You know that preparing ahead of time will get you more fish than if you walk right out and start fishing.Sure, ... [ Pound this link... ]
North Country Walleye ‘Meat’ The Precision Jigs
Methods like the jig and meat combo start to shine right about now, when cold snaps start getting measured in weeks and that first-freeze rush has kind of petered out. Walleye are still absolutely catchable using lures and jigs with more razzle dazzle, stroked quicker. But season after season, batting cleanup with a well-placed baitfish gets hotter and hotter the colder it gets. What's nice about these colder periods is they force me into moving around less and slowing my entire approach way down. How is that even remotely a good thing? For one, camping out on good spots really lends itself to being thorough, meticulous and maximizing what I'm doing. There's nothing better suited to soaking great structure than a baited jig. Use the cold and rougher travel to your advantage. Ma Nature ... [ Pound this link... ]
Late ice crappie patterns
The last period of safe ice typically offers some of the best ice fishing of the year for panfish like bluegill and crappie. For crappies in particular, we often find fish shallow and the fish can often be fairly aggressive. Finding crappie is often a matter of connecting the dots; on most lakes and flowages, crappies will suspend out over holes and basins through much of the winter. Crappie will then set up in shallow protected bays, marinas and creek arms that have a few feet of water to spawn. There's patterns to locating them; we know where the fish were, and we know where they are going to be in less than a month, so the key is finding structure between points A and B. More specifically, look for soft bottom locations and, if you can find weeds present, ... [ Pound this link... ]
Trout streams of your dreams
Adventure takes many roads, and if you’re lucky, it takes you to trout streams, too! If you’re really lucky, you’ll get to share it with your children. Fathers often dream of big adventure with their kids, journeys that take them far from home while bringing them closer together. For many of us, though, work and obligations pile on, and before we know it, the child is grown. Outdoor writer and dedicated Southern trout fanatic Jeff Samsel is not letting that happen. On July 20, he and his 10-year-old son Asher will embark on a three and a half week long expedition that is sure to provide high adventure and plenty of memories. The Samsels are living the dream: throwing rods in the car and heading west, intent on exploring legendary trout waters together. Father Samsel is doing it right, ... [ Pound this link... ]
Tailoring lure presentation for successful ice fishing
The reality of lure presentation in ice fishing is that conditions are changing from day to day, and especially from year to year, and your methods will need to adapt to reflect this. The biggest mistake I have ever made as an angler is getting so confident in a particular presentation, mentality or location that I quit learning. When you encounter lakes that are in a forage slump, a live bait lure often reigns as king, and the reasons become more obvious when you watch these fish with an underwater camera, like the Vexilar Scout. What you see when using a camera while fishing for fish that have too much to eat around them, are that these fish are not as motivated. Typically when you watch a panfish hit a lure or jig, they peddle up to the offering and suck the jig ... [ Pound this link... ]
Panfish in the Abyss – Late Season Ice Fishing
Both bluegill and crappie often suspend or move out over deep water basins on many bodies of water each winter. Deep and basin are often relative descriptions to describe a large offshore bowl of deeper water but more specifically, look for the bowls or basins that bottom out between fifteen and forty-five feet of water. Most of these basins are typically soft bottom but points and other structure that protrudes into these basins are often a harder bottom structure. The rock that intersects or protruded into a basin is really an overlooked location for panfish but often, we often find fish drifting through this open water suspended off the bottom. Breaking down these basins for suspended fish can be intimidating but there are many adjustments you can make to become much more ... [ Pound this link... ]
Ice Fishing Crappies a Few Feet Under the Ice
Ice Fishing Crappies - by Sight In deep water We believe that anglers are overlooking one of the most obvious places when they are ice fishing crappies: some of the biggest crappie and sunfish can be found high in the water column, right under the ice. There are many situations when high under the ice patterns shine, especially for big fish. I have my own opinions and theories, but I believe we often have success when we are ice fishing crappies right under the ice, because the bigger fish feel more confident and safe whereas the small fish don’t seem to like to leave the security of either the school, weeds or bottom and be silhouetted. Big fish also get to you faster, so if there is a pack of twenty fish swimming say ten feet down and they rise up to investigate you… ... [ Pound this link... ]
Ice Fishing No Weeds
There can be surprisingly solid ice fishing, where there are no weeds, for panfish on lakes and reservoirs that lack classic weed growth. From an ice fishing perspective, good weeds in the wintertime often correlates with good water visibility. Poor water visibility, turbidity or exposure to strong winds might create panfish water that might offer at least shallow weed beds during the summer but by winter, most of the weed bed is down. There are also some reservoirs particularly in the Great Plains States built to provide irrigation and the drawdown prohibits good weed growth from ever developing. Many anglers mistakenly believe that most great panfish water has good aquatic vegetation. That is not the case and lakes that are devoid of any aquatic vegetation often require completely ... [ Pound this link... ]