Sniffers to Biters

[mallardnwalleye]

Well the age old dilemma of how to turn those marks that come in on your flasher into biters is once again upon us, or at least me. Early to mid ice we always seem to have the eyes bite on the tried and true raising up-jiggle- pause and the other "tried and true" presentations.

Well, now it seems as every year at this time very little works well. The raise, The pause, The deadstick, The bottom pound just aint doing it.

Any ideas or tricks out there?

[YiGGiN4SLoBS]

Dynamite?

[CANOPY SAM]

It's that time of year MNW. Water temps are nearly down as low as they'll go for the year. Fish metabolism is nearly at a stand-still, so feeding is almost unnecessary for continued survival. Top that off with almost daily frontal boundary changes, and wildly swinging barometric pressures from day to day, and you've got a perfect equation for "Sniffers and no Biters".

Patience is a must now. It's Jan 23rd today. Toward the end of Feb and into March patterns will begin to change back toward more aggressive, pre-spawn fish.

[creepworm]

It sounds like a terrible idea but I usually have good luck using a lindy darter or like lure. Usually when they are right on the bait looking it over a quick twitch of the rod will get a reaction strike out of them. They may not be hungry, but instinct forces them to hit it.

[mallardnwalleye]

Dynamite?

Tried that- all I got was a giant duoshing. Shut down the fishin for a day or so as well.

[mallardnwalleye]

It's that time of year MNW. Water temps are nearly down as low as they'll go for the year. Fish metabolism is nearly at a stand-still, so feeding is almost unnecessary for continued survival. Top that off with almost daily frontal boundary changes, and wildly swinging barometric pressures from day to day, and you've got a perfect equation for "Sniffers and no Biters".

Patience is a must now. It's Jan 23rd today. Toward the end of Feb and into March patterns will begin to change back toward more aggressive, pre-spawn fish.

Agreed 100%, but I always think there is a way ..... somehow .....there is a way.

[mallardnwalleye]

It sounds like a terrible idea but I usually have good luck using a lindy darter or like lure. Usually when they are right on the bait looking it over a quick twitch of the rod will get a reaction strike out of them. They may not be hungry, but instinct forces them to hit it.

I'll give it a run. I use a rattle spoon but maybe something that vibrates a little more will get them worked up a little more

[fishersofmen]

Or scare them more. I would go spoon with no rattle. Less is more right now. I was dropping down a rattle spoon the other night and they would take off in the other direction. Down sized to a slick jig with a head and got some strikes.

[SLABFINDER]

I agree with fishersofmen... less is more right now. .. stay away from rattles with the finicky fish. .. the video from red lake is a good lil tid bit if you still have the hankering for using spoons a frostee spoon has worked great for me at times... try new things also like loading up a spoon with waxies or try pinching the tail off a minnow to give it the injured effect... good luck fishing guys

[Stick in Mud]

Another option is to move around enough to find the biters. In my experience, some fish will bite no matter what you throw at them, fewer will bite if you get the perfect lure in front of them, and some won't bite no matter what I use (I will often have three or five rods rigged up with different lures/sizes/colors/styles/etc., and many of them won't bite anything.

If I was really interested in catching lots of them, I'd drill a lot of holes looking for the ones that'd hit just about anything.