What's Working Now 2013/14...

[Scott O.]

The Ant Drops are still working great on the perch and trout in the Hills, though they've switched to liking the org/chart color now.

[bbfenatic1582813981]

I have found fishing the basins for crappies (25-35') the smallest tungsten jigs with a single waxie will catch plenty of smaller fish. I am finding that using a 1/4oz jig head with a 2.5" Gulp Minnow jigging very aggressively in that 20' up to 10' range will attract the larger crappies actually hunting for a "better meal"...I have found them to be very aggressive and don't hesitate at all in taking this larger presentation. I don't get as many but I'd rather catch eight to ten 11-13" crappies than twenty five to thirty, 7-8" crappies....but that's just me.

[Corey Bechtold]

Upsizing is always fun! Keeps the smaller fish away and targets the aggressive feeders!!!

Great work everybody,

Corey Bechtold

[Corey Bechtold]

Sunday night I braved the cold and wind (again) and went out to try some new baits on some Bluegills. The fish were in 6-12' of water relating to scattered weeds. Getting them to bite was tough though! Tungsten has it's time and place that's for sure but when it comes to shallow water it's not always the bed option. Especially if the fish are "sipping" baits. The new prototype baits didn't fare very well so they got switched out. Since it was crazy cold and I only had seconds to unhook fish and get back down without completely freezing my hands I went with an old standby that I haven't used in a while. Gulp! Waxies! They do a much better job and I was able to ice quite a few good fish!

With tons of ice on the lakes we have a lot of time to get out and do the chase! Hopefully it will warm up a little someday...

Good fishing,

Corey Bechtold

[Corey Bechtold]

Extensions!!! They are almost a necessity on most lakes! Hopefully some warmer temps help so we can feel fishing.

Warmer weather will also help travel once the snow pack thins a bit. Since I haven't found a 4 wheel drive truck/SUV yet I have been confined to plowed roads or walking.

Hopefully we have a long late ice season. Can't wait to get back to fishing the right way!

Good luck,

Corey Bechtold

[th64]

Don't feel bad I went off road in an area that looked packed down and I got stuck-4wd jeep new tires agressive tread. Used my kitty litter trick and backed out w.o. a problem but I had to cruise back to the road too.

[muskie hunter]

I have been using snowmobile to get out but I did drive out on saturday me and my buddy with a yukon XL 4 wheel drive, and it didn't go well I got stuck in 2 ft of slush and I couldn't get it out so my buddy had a redneck buddy he called up with a montster truck and it got us barley out towing us with a chain. And his truck almost got stuck. But today it got to 50 degrees today in my town and melted a lot of snow, and the fish were bitting.

[Corey Bechtold]

Things should finally settle down as far as snow and slush. Then it's game on!!! Always look forward to this time of year so let's get this thread rocking!!!

Good fishing,

Corey Bechtold

[drcarplove]

Here in Lincoln NE it is now open water season. My last ice trip was feb3 but we had spotty ice for 2 weeks after that, I just do not push it acct old age and the fact the ice goes bad so fast here in the bottom belt of ice fishing. This year was nearly an all plastics year. My favorite, a glo-blue shrimpo in #8 and #10 was not the ticket this year. I seemed to do better with a #8 or #10 white ratso, especially on crappie. My favorite lake has a sunrise, sunset hot bite and the ratsos were the ticket nearly every time on a drop off from 10ft to 20ft. Looking forward to the ice team university in baudette next week. Here in SE Nebraska it is look for the warmer bays with sunny banks time until about mid April.

Frank

[ZachD]

Went out the other day set my house in 6fow. It was a little windy so I decided to fish in the house and start to hole hop when the wind died down. I was fishing in a clearing in the middle of a weed bed. Things started off slow and then a huge black fish came from the corner of my hole and engulfed my lure (purple northland tackle bloodworm tipped with a wax worm) Big cat fish my inline real was screaming and I was getting close to my fly backing so I grabbed the handle to try to gain some ground on him. Got it 10 feet to the hole and lost him. Upon examination The fish had bent my small panfish jig hook straight. Dang never caught a cat through the ice oh well. Keep on fishing, getting a bunch of small perch and some medium sized ones kept two keepers. Sunfish were coming in but no matter what I did or what lure I chose could not get them to bite. Stepped outside to try and brave the wind and marked a fish right away after having it chase for a good min it slammed it like a tank this is not a sunfish could it be the catfish again? Nope bass dang where are all the sunfish. It was getting cold so I step back in the house and drop my line down lure gets crushed

Another bass all though fun I was after sunfish. I played the not another bass game for an hour it would go waves of small perch a couple uninterested sunfish followed by a bass coming in and slamming my small jig.

One of the biggest bass I have ever saw missed my lure wow that one would have been fun. I got sick of not catching anything I could keep so I decided to go out and bust some holes and get ready for the sundown bite and get ready to do some hole hopping.. Staying mobile was the key I would mark a fish pull it up and move to the next hole.. 30 mins before sundown I hit a hole in 8fow and the fish were just stacked there caught about 25-30 sunfish before the sun went away and it was time to pack up. The key was to hold the blood worm as still as possible and barley twitch its tail. Here are the ones That I kept to eat. I caught some bigger ones but they went back to the hole to be caught again didn't have time to take a picture with the fast action and small time window I had from when it started to sundown..

[Corey Bechtold]

Sunday I decided to get out of the house and take Cole out fishing. We drove out to a lake to meet up with some buddies and found the lake to be in good condition to take the Super Saturn out. Travel was good and we started the chase!

Spot #1 was slow so we went out a bit deeper and searched a lobe that extended into deeper water. There were fish there but the Vexilar showed them to be fairly negative. Negative wasn't the word, it was just fussy Bluegills! I popped one on a Drop Jig and a new bait that can't be named yet... I managed a few more Gills and Cole found a hole that had a few active Crappies. The fish weren't exactly stacked so we moved on to another spot.

Spot #3 was an inside turn and the fish that were there first were Crappies but not many big ones. Again The Drop Jig was good but when I was seeing fish on the Vex that wouldn't hit I thought they were Gills so I went to a lead jig to see if I could get more bites. That was the ticket as the typical Gill "sit and sip" was in effect. I went small with the plastic as well and the Polli from Maki was the perfect combo.

When I see Bluegills that won't trigger with larger stuff I tend to go with lead and red or black plastics. For some reason it helps me put a few more fish on the ice.

All in all it was a great day! Cole stuck with the drop Jig and a bigger plastic and was rewarded with bigger fish. I got more fish but some were smaller. Key depths were 12-15'. I looked shallower but more fish were staging in that mid range depth.

Pictures should be up soon. I hope everyone is getting excited for the late Ice period!

Good fishing,

Corey Bechtold

[Corey Bechtold]

Ahhh, late ice time! Fortunately or unfortunately (depending on how you look at it) the ice conditions are diminishing quickly. With the recent warmth and runoff from snow melting the fish have pushed shallow and are right under the ice feeding! It happens every year but this year we have new baits to use! I've been using the standard Berkley Gulp! Alive! 1" minnows for the Crappies but have also tried the Hellgramites (sp?) in the 1.5" size and they have been very good for me! I've been fishing both on a 1/32oz jighead (same as I will be throwing in a few weeks).

For the Bluegills I have had better luck with the Poli from Maki plastic. Red or purple have been the best colors for me. These baits have turned the sniffers into biters! The smallest Clam Drop jig has been the jig of choice for this bite.

Hope everyone is having fun! Be safe on the ice. Be sure to wear a life jacket as a precaution.

Good fishing,

Corey Bechtold

[Corey Bechtold]

[Corey Bechtold]

[Corey Bechtold]

It was a great ice season and I hope everyone had as much fun as we did! I am excited to see what new exciting products will be out next year!!!

I'll keep posting on this thread thru-ought the open water months to keep everyone up to speed on patterns.

Till next time...

Good fishing,

Corey Bechtold