What's working now-Post what's working for you.

[itchmesir]

Tiny little crappie jig and a berkley power bait waxy pink seems to be the preferred color.

I have some Alive! Waxies.. worked like a charm when the gills were slow to take on the fly.. I'd tip a bugger with one and cast it out.. they'd be all over it

[reinhard1]

yes those lindy little nippers or flu flu's with those power berkley power baits realy work on the panfish. pink on the power baits are my favorite colors as well. small panfish size tubes also are killers for crappies, many time just by themselves. good luck.

[Greg Clusiau]

I was catching a bunch of gills yesterday and tried live leeches just for the heck of it. You know how a sunfish will eat up a leech. It has to be the best thing ever. Anyway, after catching a few fish and losing my leech, I decided to slip on a 1" Berkley Gulp! Alive black leech and was surprised that the fishing remained the same. They ate it up. The pic is of how I store all of those jars so they won't tip over and make a mess. This sits in the front of the boat and never tips or spills. Also, the wooden frame fits neatly into the bottom of a 5 gallon pail, which I use for ice fishing.

[basssmasher*]

Thats a handy little idea!! I may have to utilize something of that nature for the hardwater season

[Slabasaurus]

This weekend I did much better on the 1/16th oz jig (orange) and a black/green crappie tube than I did on the crappie minnows.

They'd destroy it on the fall.

Bluegills and Crappie both went nuts for this presentation.

[ozzie]

I slammed the crappies this weekend on the old faithful 2.5" gulp minnows...the store was out of Alive so I just buy the regular gulp and put it in the juice...anyways I used blue colored ones and they worked very well...also used berkley 1" nymphs as the mayflies are hatching and the crappies totally ate them up!! Fun weekend finding crappies anywhere from 9' to 1' and getting ready to,if not already,spawn!!!!

[pushbutton]

I most often am in the bigger bait bigger fish camp. So my "panfish" leaches are mediums if not larges.

[itchmesir]

Fly rod is obviously working wonders right now.. this year I have seen a lot of people with long sticks on the local lake.. when I started 5 years ago.. I would be the only one on the lake using a fly rod... now the other day I saw 4 people with fly rods.. and seen another almost every day i've gotten out recently.. they're catching on to our secret panfish slaying method!

[popriveter]

Fished a lake near Amery, WI on Friday. The wind was intense and we couldn't keep the pontoon anchored in any spots we knew, so we found a spot protected from the wind and anchored in 5 FOW. Spent 2 hours casting 1/16th oz mini-mite tipped w/ a waxie. We were casting out over a drop-off. Fish came at the end of casts (10-12 FOW) all the way up to the edge of the boat. Sunfish, Crappies, White Bass, Pike and ever some Dace! Fish are still pretty shallow.

[Jim Uran]

The water temps are still high for this time of year in my area and the lakes really haven't turned yet. Sowe are still using late summer tactics. Fishing the edges of the weeds near the drop offs.

We fished this weekend, the first time in a while for me, but we managed a ton of crappies over an basin area trolling 1/8 oz jigs tipped with minnows. We just used the electic motor and went back and forth over an 18 foot hole next to a slow shoreline drop/weed edge. Some passes we would catch them up against the weeds and others they would be as far as 50 yards off the weeds.

Soon the lakes will turn over and those fish will be feeding on bugs coming off bottom in those mid range holes, 18-30 feet deep.

[popriveter]

Today, I caught a bunch of sunfish, 2 perch and 2 crappies casting an ice jig tipped with a waxie. I was casting into 4-5 FOW. Jig was 2" below a casting bobber. I thought it would be pretty hit or miss finding fish this shallow in November, but they were there.

[Jim Uran]

Working the soft bottoms with small jigs and plastics has been working for me lately. The fish must be chomping on something down there. Sometimes it's hard to work them off the bottom but once they commit they bite every time.

I like the smaller profile heavier jigs for this, like a diamond jig from Custom Jigs & Spins, or the Mooska from Northland, a heavy little tungsten jig that's good for pounding the bottom.

I haven't had much luck after dark finding the basin bite, usually this time of year they are getting easier to peg down but maybe it's just the lakes I've been on. If you can find a good basin bite after dark, there is nothing funner IMO, a good glow jig and minnow works every time

[KrabbyPatties]

Yeesh...I was hitting gills in shallow on the early ice, but now I can't find anything. Yesterday I fished from 5' to 35' in a very clear lake that has produced for me in the past. I was all over the place and picked up only a few stray bass. The max depth of the lake is between 35' and 40' and I graphed nothing (also, saw nothing while sight fishing) shallower than 27'. At 27' to 35', I was graphing some fish near the bottom, but wasn't able to coax bites with minnows or euros. I managed to pull one tiny perch and assumed the rest of the fish might be dinky perch as well.

Was my assumption incorrect? Is it likely that there were bluegills and crappies down there with the dinky perch, but being tight-lipped? If that's not the case, I can't for the life of me figure out where the fish were since I worked much of the lake. Any ideas?

[BuckmasterG]

I've been having quite a bit of luck on crappies and walleyes the past 4 weeks, and most of the action has been on a pink Ratfinkee tiped with a minnow head or 3/4s of a minnow jigging. While having a deadstick set up with a fat head.

[swampbuck]

The new Northland impulse baits are awesome! Lots of big blue gills and crappies Hard Rock Mooska jig tipped with an impulse mayfly has been the best!

[Jim Uran]

Mid lake structure, in the 14-22 foot range has been dynamite lately. Small jigs, with spikes, waxies, or plastics have been luring in the big gils, and an occasional crappie.

[OnAFly]

I got out wading with the fly rod today after work. Found the sunfish in shallow, but the ones about 30ft from shore were more active. Got maybe 15 sunnies and 6 crappies over 1.5 hours. Coolest part was watching the pike come in after the schooling sunnies.

[Stick in Mud]

Yeah, those pike will be up slamming those gills for a while now. Always scares the **** out of me if I'm not expecting it.

[Slabasaurus]

Coolest part was watching the pike come in after the schooling sunnies.

I first saw that happen last spring up at my cabin, it's a lot of fun to watch

I've been having the most consistency with panfish in the evening, on smaller lakes (well, the warmer ones anyway). I have been focusing on the northern bays/shorelines, and looking for some mud. I've been finding there's a lot of insect activity in these spots, and no shortage of fish around them.

Been using the fly rod pretty much exclusively, they haven't been too picky, though the most aggressive bites have come on small leech patterns. That said, small nymphs have been working well too. I'd imagine a small jig/bare hook with waxies or a small piece of worm would work as well in this situation.

[Roscoe010]

The Northland Scud Bug did wonders for me on my last ice trip up to Fish Lake in Duluth about a month ago.

[lotsofish]

Bluegills are concentrating in their pre-spawn areas. Lots of action in 10-12 FOW on deep weed edges.

[Jim Uran]

Casting in and around the bullrushes on different bottom contents have been working well lately! It's best to stay mobile, whether using a slip bobber and a small jig, or just a small jig and plastic. Stay mobile until you land one and cover that area well.

Catch a few and move on!!

And remember to harvest selectively!

[quadfisherman]

I was on vacation last week and the sunnies are hitting the beds and feeding like crazy. I was using a orange jig and tipped it with a banana peel because I didn't want to get the worms out. I could see the fish on the bottom in about 8-10fow. I dropped the line over the pontoon. The kids had a blast watching fish take the hook.

I was also trolling for crappies. I used a Bass Pro triple ripple chewing gum chartreuse 2" grub on a green jig. We trolled at 10-15fow when the water temp was at 65 but moved out to 15-20fow later in the week when the temp was at 72-74 surface. I set the iPilot cruise control at .9-1 mph. I would add and take off split shots depends on what depth the fish were at on the graph. We had a blast catching some big crappies. I know my method is unconventional but having very limited use of my hands being that I'm a quadriplegic, it works for me.

[Jim Uran]

Oh wow quadfisherman!! That is just awesome! It sounds like your methods work just fine!

[paceman]

Way to go Quad! Sounds like a really productive tactic!