What's Working Now 2013/14...

[drcarplove]

Here around Lincoln Nebraska, I have been on the ice very early for us since Dec 13. Unpressured fish like every year respond very well to plastics. I like to find deeper spots on dropoffs if the lake allows. This allows my old body to sit on good amounts of fish and relax without the moving and searching shallower lakes and ponds require. I have acquired a Jason Mitchell meatstick with a fly reel set up. I have notice that with really aggressive fish my solid graphite Panfish sweethearts allow for the best hookups, tentative fish the meatstick works better but with the limp tip I reel as I set the hook.

Frank

[Corey Bechtold]

Anyone and everyone can share their reports! It's about staying current and helping others learn!

Good start to the 2013/2014 ice season so far!

Good fishing,

Corey Bechtold

[Brad B]

Went out Friday and had bad luck. only got two bites but they got off. this particular lake is small and there has been a lot of pressure out there lately. before you could drive out there it was better because there was less people that would want to walk out. I was thinking of trying some of the other lakes in the area when I get a chance. my goal for this year is to get on as many different lakes as I can especially ones I have not fished before.

[Corey Bechtold]

Here's Cole with a good one from the other day.

Good fishing,

Corey Bechtold

[Corey Bechtold]

And the release...

Good fishing,

Corey Bechtold

[amateurfishing]

nice fish corey & cole

been a weird year for me so far, least year had no problem getting my share of crappies & bass, this year 3 inch perch, northerns (on waxies no less!), and a couple gils. I have never seen this much northern action on my local lake, had 5 broken lines in 2 outings, so traded in crappie minnows for fatheads (first time fishing with these), and practiced my TB sweetheart deadsticking technique.

in a nutshell....perch & gills on waxies

northerns on almost anything

[PeteB]

I've been out a few times this year looking for perch but I can't seem to find them. The usual rock piles and points are totally empty in everything from 25FOW up to 5-10FOW. I found some gills in about 10FOW on the edge of the weeds and in the muck, but no perch. Every time I drop my Marcum camera down the hole all I see is an empty beach. I did see one really nice northern hanging out at the bottom of a 25ft trough.

The gills were biting very light, and taking their time to inspect the bait. I caught most of them on the smallest jigs I have tipped with one or two wax worms. I hate finicky fish.

On a postive note, I got my wife to spend her birthday fishing with me on Saturday. The warm weather was perfect for her to sit out in the sun and catching a few fish didn't hurt.

[hotdogger]

long time reader,first time poster.been fishin' down here in central iowa for about a month now.enjoying decent success on 8-9" gills.loving the northland tungsten[chekai],size 10 in gold.add a impulse tapeworm and hang on around sundown.crappies have been a lot tougher.don't bite until dark and darn hard to hook.smarter and faster than me I guess!

[Corey Bechtold]

Cole and I made it out today and actually hit 3 lakes. The first lake was tough. Basin fish roaming were hard to stay on and with the extreme cold I lost interest quickly so we decided to move lakes.

Went to the second lake and struggles to find them right away. I drilled out a different area adjacent to the small hump and BINGO! We ran into the school of Crappies. I was using the new Tungsten Drop jig and paired it up with the maki plastic and whooped up on them. The tungsten was nice because the holes were freezing up so quick. The fish were definitely roaming and having lots of holes was key. Another must was the noodle rod. We both were using Thorne Bros Power Noodles and without those rods I would be lost! Bites were light but they were eating well as the hooks were planted fairly deep.

Lake #3 was just a quick hop to scope things out for a future hit. Using the Vexilar was a must as I had to swing the sucre back and forth until I noticed a green flicker. Then I'd drop down an jig until the fish came in. Caught a few decent Crappies which gives me hope for the nex trip out. Fish seemed to come in about 3' off the bottom. My guess is they are searching for insects which will make me change things up a tad.

Good fishing,

Corey Bechtold

[harvey lee]

Looks like u have been doing well on the slabs Corey. Fishing later aft and tonight in the house for the night. Iced some 11-12.5 crappie all on a dead stick till bout 6 pm or so. They would not any jigs I threw at them but they sure are going for the white demon and a crappie minnow. Hit 2 17" eyes in the last 45 minutes and hopefully some gills in the am. Been icing the crappies in 23-25fow and the gills in a basin area approx 16-18 fow. Almost bedtime so the rattles can wake me throughout the night

[Corey Bechtold]

Brrrrrr! It was cold today but with the new suits we have it's easy to stay warm out on the ice. I have been wearing the new Clam Lift Suit and I have noticed it is wind proof (thank God) and a bit warmer than the original "Blue" suit.

This morning we found the Crappies in 19-23' of water on an inside turn. I tried some new VMC jigheads along with my Gulp! Alive! 1" minnows. They did a good job but the wind made detecting bites somewhat interesting. There appeared to. E some remaining insect activity showing up on my Vexilar so I decided to switch to a tungsten drop jig with a plastic big like tail instead. The heavier jig helped in the wind and I was able to ice a few more Crappies before they quit biting at 10 o'clock.

We made a few moves in search of some Bluegills but the higher sun and cold front appeared to have them in a bit of a funk. We caught a few smaller fish along with some Largemouth Bass and Rock Bass. Arguing with fussy fish made us decide to go look go "greener pastures".

We went out to some deeper water (39-43') and searched for the needles in a haystack. This will definitely tries your patience. Drilling a tank of gas and marking few fish seems almost insane. Until, that is, you find that needle! These are roaming packs of actively feeding Crappies!!! We had a blast when we found them. Had to definitely use tungsten as the wind seemed to only increase all day! Color or plastic didn't seem to matter much as long as you were able to get the bait down to the fish before they disappeared. I used the Clam Pro Tackle Drop Jig and was very pleased with it.

Good fishing,

Corey Bechtold

[Corey Bechtold]

Sorry about the upside down pic. Can't figure out what happened there...

[Corey Bechtold]

Well after Church today Cole wanted to get out fishing. Crazy huh?! That's what I thought!

We headed back out to the deep basin we had luck the day before and got to work. Work it was as the fish were more scattered and we had a hard time keeping the holes open! The wind and cold was obnoxious but we finally found a few pods of active Crappies. Funny thing was the way we had to finesse them to bite as yesterday you could hardly get your bait down without them meeting it on the way down. When we found the group we had to drop our jigs straight to the middle of the pack and wait for the rod top to bounce. It worked so I'm not complaining...

Good fishing,

Corey Bechtold

[Corey Bechtold]

Last weekend was a busy one. My buddy came up from South Carolina and wanted to go fishing. Ok I said...

We went to search for some inside turn Crappies in the morning but the fish were very negative for some reason. We went out searching some new spots and stumbled into a few fish in a deeper basin. Again the Fish were scattered so we had to drill a lot of holes to stay on the fish. It was a MUST to have a jig that would fish fast! The Clam pro Tackle Epoxy Drop fit the bill.

This is a 15" Crappie that Cole (aka Fishbone) CPR'ed.

I hope everyone is getting out and catching fish!

Good fishing,

Corey Bechtold

[harvey lee]

Hit the lake yesterday morning with the wheelhouse. I was set up by 6am and after an hour of no gills, I got the drill out and went searching. Drilled 5 holes and the fun began. I was in 19fow and the gills were there but one had to wait for the next school of fish to come through as they were roaming quite a bit. All fish were on the bottom and I iced all my gills with a tungston jig and red spikes, my favorite for finicky gills.

After about a dozen nice gills from 8-9.25, I went back to the house and now the fished were stacked below the house, guess I should have waited a bit longer. I have no idea how many gills I iced but 50 is probably not far off. Boy, they were biting so light one could hardly see the spring bobber move at all, seem's to be the gill bite I get on every time I go out but that's ok, I still seemed to manage a nice meal or more every trip.

I was so impressed with the size, maybe 5 fish were under 8 inches.

Bout 1 o'clock, I made a pizza and watch the football game and since it looked like the game was over in the 4th quarter, I took the portable and went searching for some crappie's. Guess I should have just watched the rest of the game as no crappie were iced or even found. The week before on this lake, I crushed the crappie in the same area but not today.

Bout 6pm, I went back to the house and made some supper and set the rattle reels for the next football game. Nothing until 1:30 am when I iced a nice 21 inch eye. I dropped the flasher in the hole and did not see much more so back to bed. In the next 3 hour's, the eyes got me up 3 more times. At about 3:30, one rattle reel went and I got up, waited for the fish to make another run and when it did, I set the hook and could feel from the headshakes, seemed to be a nicer sized eye. I played with it slowly as I did n want to lose this fish. Well, I got it to the bottom of the hole and was having a hard time getting it's head to come in, finally I broke the line and off swam my nice eye, oh well, I would have CPRed it anyways.

All in all, a fun, actioned packed 30 hours on the lake, a linit of nice gills and 4 eater walleyes and one that got away. Didn't feel to bad about not getting into the crappie's as I had alot of action for the time I was on the lake.

These panfish this winter have done nothing but bite as light as they could when I have been out.

I believe my success this past month has been from being as mobile as I have been as I cannot seem to find a location where one can just sit and catch fish, seem's the more I move, the better I do.

[amateurfishing]

caught bout 40 gils on sunday, saved a few, very light biters even on spring bobber rod, even caught a few on "up" bites. minute fish jig with waxies, smaller was definitely better, all over the column from 5 ft to 20, they would even come screaming up from over 5 ft away at times, definitely acting like crappies

[clayton08]

I have yet to try the maki as hard as I do the impulse line up (why change it when it works kinda thing). I have iced an ureal amount of crappies this year and thats no joke. Whats working for me well you will never see my DH longboard noodle with any other tungsten than a jalapeno this year tipped with either a tapeworm, mayfly, or something very similar. I usually fish in western mn and the bite is absolutely crazy this year. Nice fish btw corey looks like you been doing good yourself. Ive been doing some tourneys lately but dont have another for a couple weeks so gotta love fishing your own waters that you want to. I will be bring a couple groups out this weekend hopefully they can learn how to fish plastics in one weekend as they by far are outfising all other baits. Whats been working for me is a combination of things but it all starts with good electronics, rods&reels, line, jigs, and choice of plastics. Anyone thinking that plastics are a joke then keep thinking that way or jump on the bus.

[Corey Bechtold]

I have a lot of respect for the Impulse line of plastics. Both the Tapeworm and the Mayfly are great baits! Only problem with the Tapeworm is it's hard to find in stores because they tend to be sold out all the time...

One thing I like about the Maki line is they are soft and have incredible action! The only down fall is since they are so soft (because they are hand poured) is they are more fragile. They rock though!

Berkley still has a few baits that work incredibly well for me. The Gulp! lineup simply catches fish (Waxies/Fish fry/1" Minnows). Only problem is if they hit the ice shavings and it's very cold out (like we have now!) they can freeze on the ice causing them to rip off the hook.

I can't seem to limit myself to just ONE kind or brand of plastics! It's an obsession!!! lol

Good fishing,

Corey Bechtold

[clayton08]

Pretty much your right on there. I use em all I have an arsenal. have a 2 sided plano full of em in one of the pockets of my suit at all times. I gotta hold of some dh plastics they actually work pretty good. Its all about the motion thats for sure. Panfish plastics got a mayfly looking thing with a longer tail its not to bad either. All in all I mix it up too i have the whole clam lineup with me just that lil tapeworm works soooooo good for me its hard to part with. Yes there hard to find but when I find them they usually get grabbed fast and by the handful. Were you from corey?

[Corey Bechtold]

I'm from Minnesota.

[clayton08]

I figured that I primarily fish lake minnewaska and on time to time bring groups out there. If you ever wanna hook up shoot me a pm I live in the west metro and Im fishing all the time as long as work allows. Otherwise im usually up on waska, osakis etc every weekend rippin lips.

[Corey Bechtold]

Anyone ever experience a Bluegill bite where when things are tough the only color that produces is blue?

Later,

Corey Bechtold

[Scott O.]

Used the new Clam Blade Jig on deadsticks this weekend tipped with a minnow and had pretty good luck with it on pike. Will use it more often after this for sure.

[Corey Bechtold]

I need to get out fishing soon! No more of this freezing my butt off for 3 hours with freezing line/holes/guides and hands...

Everyone getting excited for the weekend?

Good fishing,

Corey Bechtold

[Drewski]

Off to Devils tomorrow afternoon to chase some jumbos for a few days! Unfortunately the temps aren't looking to be much warmer up there than they have been around here the past few days.

Even so, can't wait! A little cold has never stopped me