What's Working Now 2014/15...

[Corey Bechtold]

Spoke with some good people at the Ice Show that liked reading the WWN threads so I thought if get it going again this year!

I've only been on the ice 3 times so far but fishing has been pretty good so far.

Key depths have been 12-20'. Mainly Gills and Crappies. A few giant Gills and very respectable Crappies have been falling to Drop Jigs from Clam tipped with either a Red or Purple Polli or Wedgee. The consistent pattern has been to fish slow and make sure the bait is perfectly horizontal. Any slight drop results in -0- fish.

I hope to try and sneak out later this week with the warmer temps.

Be safe and as always...

Good fishing!

Corey Bechtold

[Scott O.]

I've been out 4 times so far this season. One lake hasn't yielded hardly anything despite my best intentions. The other, however, has a good gill bite going on. The first time out, the white Drop with a purple Jamei worked great. The second trip required switching to real bait as plastics weren't working, but red spikes coupled with the Ant Drop were killer. Waiting for other lakes to freeze up now to try other lures out.

[ZachD]

Vmc wax tail jigs have put the crappies above the ice (Red and super glow colors)

Tumbler spoon has been pounding the eyes

Rapala ultra light rippin rap in the (uv colors The orange one is my best one) paired with a dead stick with a fathead in the hole next to a rap has been deadly for eyes as well.

[Corey Bechtold]

VMC definitely has some good looking stuff. I bought a few jigs and somehow misplaced them already! Lol.

It seems like the plastics world continues to grow and now there seems to be a whole lot of good options for us. A few that have done really well for me in the past are Northland Tapeworms and Mayflies. White tends to be te best color for the Tapeworm and Red Mayflies generally gets the nod.

Good fishing,

Corey Bechtold

[ZachD]

Set lines with a small shiner out produced everything this weekend.

Went out Fri and Sat with my dad 3 Different lakes caught 20+ walleye.

1 caught on a pink tiger stripe uv rippin rap, 1 jigging a northland eye dropper red and white tipped with a whole minnow, one VMC flash champ spoon 1/16 oz Shiner color with a minnow head. The rest with the setlines.

Tried for crappies but could not locate any caught a bunch of bluegills with VMC wax tail.

Northerns caught on set lines as well a 27 1/2 and one that was lost at the whole that I would say went 30-32 inches

[ZachD]

Set lines with a small shiner out produced everything this weekend.

Went out Fri and Sat with my dad 3 Different lakes caught 20+ walleye.

1 caught on a pink tiger stripe uv rippin rap, 1 jigging a northland eye dropper red and white tipped with a whole minnow, one VMC flash champ spoon 1/16 oz Shiner color with a minnow head. The rest with the setlines.

Tried for crappies but could not locate any caught a bunch of bluegills with VMC wax tail.

Northerns caught on set lines as well a 27 1/2 and one that was lost at the whole that I would say went 30-32 inches

At the hole*

[monstermoose78]

The plastic that has been working for me is the Maki plastic Mino in white with red flakes. The crappies have been crushing this plastic. I hope clam comes out out with a longer hook shank and bigger hook gap for these plastics.

Any white tungsten jig in the 5 mm size tipped with a wax worm has been producing blue gills and crappies.

[Jim Kusuda]

Drop Jig XL

Same jig. Bigger, wider-gapped hook

[monstermoose78]

Drop Jig XL

Same jig. Bigger, wider-gapped hook

Sorry I should mentioned the jig by name the pug bug jig. I have the drop jig xl but it is a short shank.

[Corey Bechtold]

There are a ton of companies that offer good jigs. The most important part of the system is the hook. Be sure to get the best quality you can so you don't loose fish. Nothing is more frustrating than breaking hooks!

I'm getting out this weekend so I hope to have a report up by Monday!

Good fishing,

Corey Bechtold

[th64]

Got hook, line and drag-Hook should be the strongest part of that trinity even a fine wire one.

[Corey Bechtold]

Well my jump on Sunday was fairly uneventful. Went out blind and tried using the Navionics app to locate some promising areas. Focused on inside turns adjacent to deeper flats. Used the Conversion kit and am constantly impressed with that unit! Drilled about 70 holes through 10" of ice on the first battery! Unfortunately the whole side of the lake we were on had a lot of clumpy green goo which tells me the lake probably turned over and froze before it could clear up. Apparently the areas we tried had good evening potential but we didn't have time to wait for that bite to happen because we ha to get to a Christmas party.

Made a bigger move to the opposite side of the lake and noticed it was a tad clearer. Probably had a NW wind as te lake froze to move some of the goo. Rummaged a bit shallower for fish but only found a few groups that were constantly on the move! It is interesting and frustrating how fast fish move! Managed a few Gills and Crappies on the shallower breaklines in 6-10' of water. The fish were fairly fussy and like I said moving way too fast to try and stay on them.

We left the lake just as we started noticing more fish showing up on the deeper holes and the Vexilar was picking up baitfish and bug activity which probably meant there was a good evening bite. Oh well, I'll put in more time after the Holidays!

Hope everyone is getting out on the ice and finding some fish!

Be safe out there.

Good fishing,

Corey Bechtold

[Corey Bechtold]

Here's the "low down" on my weekend fishing. Friday was kind of a mission. Had some family from out of town (Florida and California) and they wanted to have their son see what Ice fishing was like. I took them out to some areas I've done well at and unfortunately the fish were scattered and fussy. Moved to a different area and managed some Crappies but the fish weren't real active. They decided to head in and get some food but I stayed out with 2 of my kids. They hadn't even reached the shoreline when we had a good group of Crappies come in. We caught 3 bigger Crappies before they even got in their car! Not sure if it was a timing thing or what but we had a good hour of activity before the fish simply quit right at prime time. Key depths were 17-19' and the fish were right to the bottom. Drop Jigs with Gander 1" Minnows and Maki plastic Mino's worked best in bright colors.

Saturday was a search mission. Try and find some bigger fish. This was tough as we ran into a cold front. Didn't find anything shallow so went to a new lake to try our luck. Found fish scattered in several areas but they were very finicky! They were hugging the bottom in 21-26' of water. Managed to catch quite a few but size wasn't all that great. Smaller tails on Tungsten jigs worked best. I tried to stay with a bigger bait to find bigger fish but still had a hard time getting the bigger bites.

Hope everyone else is finding some fish. This cold snap should stiffen up the ice which is a good thing.

Let's see some reports!

Good fishing,

Corey Bechtold

[Corey Bechtold]

Last Thursday I met up with some buddies to hit the ice. Hit a lake that has been kicking my butt lately. Started earlier than I've been fishing it the previous 2 times. Guess the third time was a charm as the fish were very active in the morning. Found the active fish to be roaming the edges of a small rock hump in 17-19' of water. Fished with Drop Jigs in White and used a Gander Mt. chartreuse 1" Minnow. Those baits have been good for me lately as they are hardy and stay on the hook very well. My buddy was using more natural colors but not getting as many bites so he switched up to the same colors and we had a field day!

One thing that has been very consistent has been keeping the baits perfectly horizontal. It's crazy that even missing on a hook set can make the jig come off horizontal.

The bite tailed off around noon so we had some lunch and went back out to search some new spots later in the day. Ended up looking in an inside turn adjacent to deeper water. Most holes were loaded with tiny Perch and Crappies. I followed the break towards the outside tip and found the bottom content to change and the bigger Crappies were definitely using that area. The bite slowed down just as the sun started going down. This made me question the fish and made me wonder if they would be more active at different times of the day...

More of the report to come!

Good fishing,

Corey Bechtold

[ZachD]

Drilled along the red line on a lake around the leech area. Stayed in 19-20fow

During the day was catching bass and gills on a pink Vmc wingding Jig

put the house up before dark where I found the crappies the day before. Did't switch jigs but did switch to tipping with 3 wax worms instead of 1 and put down set lines with crappie minnows. Jigs out performed set lines 25 to 3 but the biggest 13 inch crappie was on a set line and the 2 others were bigger as well.

No pic of the crappie Phone died

[Corey Bechtold]

Recently I have been finding Crappies following bottom transitions in 15-18' of water. Strange thing is most fish over the soft bottom tend to be Perch and if I get on the hardest bottom the fish are there. Try definitely like that medium firm bottom!

Key baits still have been Tungsten Drop Jigs tipped with a brighter plasti tail like the Gander Hardwater series 1" minnow or Maki Jamei.

Anyone else having luck lately?

Good fishing,

Corey Bechtold

[ZachD]

Well after getting nothing but small perch the weekend prior on a couple of very good slab crappie lakes around Alexandria. I decided to try a lake closer to home. Drilled a 25 holes before wetting a line finally finding fish stacked in 23 fow off a point of an island. Fish where stack from 22 to 15 feet in the water column Most fish not very active. Could pick out 1 or 2 fish from the group then would have to move 5-10 yards to find another couple takers. They did not want larger baits ended up getting most fish when I switched to a green and yellow 1/24oz Tungsten Jig tipped with a Trigger X mustache worm with the tails ripped off and one Wax worm. Straight line reel was a must.

Another key was to find 3 or 4 fish that were in the group that were bunched together drop just above them and twitch the bait like crazy then leave it as still as you could.

Setting hook was more of a guessing game any twitch of the rod and you had to try and set the hook. Hook up rate was about 1 out of 4

Ended up catching 6 nice crappies and 12 good size sunfish with a couple dinks in the mix.