What's workin' now : ICE

[Corey Bechtold]

Well, here's my weekend in a nutshell. Roaming around and finding the fish in all kinds of different areas. There wasn't a definate pattern for the Crappies this weekend, just the presentations were the same. Small, horisontal jigs tipped with spikes. Didn't see too much difference in color patterns. Whites, or combo colors like chart/orange, seemed to work the best. The Sunfish also fell to the same presentations. It was an awesome weekend for me as I took Friday off and was able to enjoy the warm weather and Good Company! Here are a couple pictures from the weekend...

I hope you all had a sucessful fishing weekend too.

Corey Bechtold

[Matt Johnson]

We hit the weeds hard. We were fishing in spots not much deeper than about 11-12 feet and the bottom 4 feet or so were solid weeds. I had to drop my jig all the way to bottom and through the weeds in order to catch a majority of the fish. My LX-3 didn't help me a whole lot yesterday because I couldn't mark my jig in the weeds. I had to use a very sensitive Thorne Bros Finesse Plus with a spring bobber to pick up the subtle strikes. I rigged it out with 2 pound test and a size 10 pink head/white body Shrimpo. I would just ever-so slightly quiver the jig in order to get them to bite. A person could have moved out off the weeds or fished above the weeds and had a field day on smaller pannies, but the bigger ones were hugging the bottom right smack dab amongst the thick weeds. We fished on the west side of Shady and east of the tiny island north of Goose (Tonka). I lost a nice slab that I guessed to be about 12 inches right at the bottom of the ice. Right after that I landed about a 10 incher. I think the slabs were amongst the weeds while the smaller fish stacked the deeper holes up. It's one of those situations were you have to run and gun all day and punch a lot of holes. The bigger gills were in the same areas. Here's a shot of CrappieTom and me with a couple gills...

I wanted to head up into Cook's Bay to chase pannies but I encountered a pretty good size pressure ridge and I didn't want to advise anyone to follow, especially with the warm weather and wind. Saw some of the shorelines opening up where the runoff hit the ice, a few culverts too.

I took my dad out today and we managed to get into a nice school of pannies. My dad brought home a nice meal...

The lakes pretty much solidified today and they're definitely not as "soupy" as yesterday.

Good Fishin,

Matt Johnson

[CrappieJohn]

I hadn't intended to fish when I left home for this shin-dig, but Matt got me rigged before I could say no to him. The catching was pretty easy even without the electronics to help me out, but as Corey stated...trying to find a definite pattern to the crappies was not going to happen that day. The sunfish were deep in the weeds and I'd imagine that the crappies were in the thick as well.

There were several instances where a solid bite simply went south, then started up again a few minutes later. Judging from the good catch of northerns at weigh-in I think that they may have been the culprits causing this.

On the over-all it appeared that everyone went away smiling....and wet. It was a treat to meet so many new people and be able to fish with those whom I've only read. Even with the light turn-out I think this event was a tremendous success.

[Stratosman]

Hit a spot on Saturday that had produced for me the last couple times out, when we arrived there were a few people around and some guys running sleds and a huy chasing his dog around on his wheeler. We marked fish however with the commotion and the shallow water we were in (7-8ft) it had the fish turned off. We worked away from the commotion, drilling holed every 50 yards or so, it wasn't long before we were on fish again, once a pod was located, we drilled about 8-10 more holes in the general vicinity and proceeded to catch a nice mix of crappies and bluegills. They were light biters so a constant watch of the line and the rod tip was mandatory. A few times the crappies would bite so light you would just see your line moving to the side of the hole, and the bluegills were just picking up the bait, but a light lift of the rod tip would give them away. Caught and released more than we could count, size is getting better too, biggest crappie around 12", bluegills around 8.5".

Again shrimpo's were the ticket, using no bait seemed to weed out the smaller guys also. Good fun and beautiful weather.

[Corey Bechtold]

Well, this weekend is upon us and I don't know about you but the weather forcast is good and I hope to get out and see of my Late Ice spots are going to produce. I plan to target Crappies and Sunfish mainly but I'll take what I can get. I hope you all have a good weekend and find some fish to boot. I look forward to hearing your reports, and I'll get mine up Sunday night too.

Good Luck everyone,

Corey Bechtold

[The Grebe]

We have been doing a whole passel of fishing but the catching ain't happening ! We've tried several new lakes and a few old reliables and it has been a case of "You should have been here yesterday and chances are they will hit tommarrow!"

When we have gotten into them, the weather turned sour. On Thursday night, on one of our favorite lakes, right at the bewitching hour, first 2 sunnies out of the hole where an 8" and a 9" and the wind picked up, the temp dropped and the snow started really commong down...horizontal snow!

We were able to haul right up to dark, but it was a job fighting the elements. We released the majority of the fish we caught and brought home a few for the pan. We did'nt know what the weather was going to do, so we did'nt stick around for the night bite Crappies.

There certainly is a degree of luck involved in this thing we call fishing, thats no lie.

There are alot of good spots on any given lake, but the fish are'nt always on those spots, they may be at the spot next to it, or across the lake and if you are lucky enough to plunk down on the spot they happen to be at, during the time you are hunting them, chances are that something good will happen.

We hit one of our local Sunfish spots last night...talked to a few of the troops and they had been biting the evening before....about 20 fisherman got "O" sunnies and 7000 Perch!

Highlight of the night...on the last hole I dropped my bait into, a pike about 6 pounds, grabbed my little Demon and the fight was on! Drag on the little reel was set just right and the 4# test was up to the task!

After alot of runs and some serious tugging, I landed the Pike and promptly turned it loose to thin down some of them danged Perch! I guess we have to keep trying!

[The Grebe]

Well, we tried this evening out at Peltier, again, nice day to be fishing, lousy day for catching! We got half a dozen sunnies and half a dozen Perch, no Crappies.

We had the aqua View down and we could spot the fish, but they would'nt bite. The Vex would show them come up to whatever bait we had, then sink right back down.

We stayed until after everyone had left, hoping that the quiet down would help trigger something, but that was wishful thinking! Have to try something, or somewhere else the next time....running out of ideas?

[msm1018]

I had a lot of luck with an orange C J & S shrimpo, I caught a bunch of crappie on just the lure. I would go below the fish and then slow pull the shrimpo through the group of fish until tick tick tick, wham I'd have a fish, we limited out for 4 guys yesterday, I caught the biggest on a 1/16 frostee with 2 waxies.

[Matt Johnson]

We found the crappies suspending over deeper holes in about 40-45 feet. Custom Jigs and Spins Shrimpos, size 10 glow, were the ticker. The plain plastic worked, as did tipping it with a maggot. The fish were relatively aggressive and would rise to the bait. We marked fish anywhere from on the bottom to 15 feet off the bottom. A wide variety of sizes ranging from 9-12 inches. Perfect weather and the hot bite was between 4-6pm.

Good Fishin,

Matt Johnson

[Corey Bechtold]

Finally, a chance to sit down and type. This weekend I got to chase some fish with Bailey, Brooke and Cole (the 3 amigo's ). Here's what we found. The fish were roaming the deeper water feeding like cattle. I had a lot of holes all over the place and there was no real rhyme or reason for the fish to stay in one place. I had the kids in the fishhouse while I plugged around searching for active fish. I stumbled to one hole and saw fish on the locator. I got my bait down and the fish were aggressive. I banged 2 Crappies on 2 drops. Then the fish took off on the roam again. I had to do a lot of hole hopping to stay on the fish. I called the kids out to help me fish. We ended up having some success but the fish were scattered. The fish that were up on the locator seemed to be a bit more willing to bite than the fish that were hugging the bottom. We caught our fish on small white jigs tipped with spikes, and jigging spoons tipped with spikes or plastic. It was nice to get them on the fish again. I also got a chance to fish with a legend the next day for some other species. Thanks to Matt Johnson and hanson for the good company. I had a great weekend and the late Ice period is coming at us full speed! Here are a few pictures of some of the fish we managed.

Cole with a nice Crappie

Ruby and a Slab

The 3 Amigo's

[Matt Johnson]

The three amigos rock Corey! I had a great time this weekend! We'll have to do that again sometime in the near future...

Good Fishin,

Matt Johnson

[Matt Johnson]

Found the crappies and gills in deeper water. 38-42 feet and suspended for the most part. Fish were suspended anywhere from a foot off bottom to about 20 feet off bottom. The more aggressive fish were holding at about the 5-10 feet off bottom. The higher fish tended to be sniffers more than takers. An odd situation but that's how things seemed to go. Not a whole lot of size, but some consistent action once you got into an active school. We had to punch several holes and move around to stay on the active fish. Sometimes the school would slow down enough for you to catch a dozen or so fish before it moved on or quit biting. I started out with a size 10 Shrimpo but switched to a heavier action jig like a Fatboy/Ice Minnow so I could get down to the fish faster. The Shrimpo was working very well, but the it took so long to get down to the strike zone. The heavier jig might have cost me a few fish because of light biters, but I think the benefits out weighed the costs...

My dad and me with some pannies and perch

Late ice is fast approaching and the bonanza is about to begin!

Good Fishin,

Matt Johnson

[gman2002]

just a question for some of the metro pro staff, do u guys ever fish the st. criox around the bayport area ? huge crappies !

[Matt Johnson]

gman,

Nope, I've never ice fished that area. Sounds like some pretty good fishing. Maybe we put together a get together out there next winter?

Good Fishin,

Matt Johnson

[fishingmike0770]

Shrimpo, shrimpo, shrimpo. Only lure that works great for all species of fish. Caught sunnies tonight along with a few crappies on peltier. Caught a northern on saturday. Just a great reliable bait that the fish cant seem to resist. One of my "go-to" baits.

No bait on the shrimpo has been working the best for me because then the tail can really get-a-wigglin' when u jig it. With bait on, the tail doesnt seem to get as much action.

Havent tried that ratso but wonder, does it have the same action and when would fish prefer this over a shrimpo?

[Matt Johnson]

The Ratso can be worked in a similiar fashion. Keep in mind that one is vertical (Shrimpo) and one is horizontal (Ratso) though. I like to try and get the back end kicking on the Ratso, where on the Shrimpo I like to incorporate a bouncing action, or a quivering action.

The Ratso is great for sight fishing. You can see the jig much better and the nature of the fish will help aid in hook-sets as well. When fishing deeper water I prefer the Shrimpo because you have a more direct hook-set. You don't have to turn the hook to get a solid hook-set when using a vertical jig, it's a straight shot and the absorption from the line won't play as big of a role. This is usually only when the bite is light though and the fish are very finicky and it pays off to slow-fall the bait to the strike zone, but when there is an aggressive bite I will switch to a horizontal jig with more weight so I can get down faster.

Both vertical and horiztonal jigs also portray different forage. Horizontal jigs can portray minnows and other horiztonal moving presentations. Vertical jigs imitate more of a scud and non-vertabrate organisms. Vertical jigs will imitate more of what panfish feed on during the winter months, but that doesn't always mean that they will out produce horizontal jigs. There is a time and place for both, and some days both can be used effectively.

I usually have a rod rigged up with a Shrimpo and a Ratso at all times when out on the ice.

Good Fishin,

Matt Johnson

[ivegottabite]

i have been using ratsos mainly this winter and has some good outcomes. but it seems i can get the fish to sniff it but then they go away. i slow down my movements on the jig but it doesn't seem to help. any suggestions out there from the experts?

[CrappieJohn]

When you see the fish approach on the marcum or whatever, try just holding your bait as still as possible. Even when you "try" to do this, subtle vibrations, even from your heartbeat, will go down the line and create an enticing mini-quivering in the tail of these baits.

[ivegottabite]

Thanks Tom, I also found a post in the ice fishing forum about Ratsos and Shrimpos. Hopefully I can get out this weekend to try and fine tune my skills

[Matt Breuer]

Well I finally got to get out for fun today for about an hour. I only left the truck to drill my hole due to being very sick!

Managed a few 'gills and crappies on a glow brite / orange Custom Jigs and Spins Toadie. This is another horizontal bait which is very deadly on bluegills, and probably the best sightfishing jig out there!

[Matt Johnson]

Nice pic Matt! Looks like a dandy gill! I'll be seeing you in March

Good Fishin,

Matt Johnson

[Corey Bechtold]

Well, I'm finally back from Mexico and I'm glad to see you guys have been having some luck. Now it's my turn to get on the fish! It's hard to believe it but I was starting to miss Minnesota (and the great fishing we have here) as soon as I stepped off the plane. I also don't sun tan very well unless red is a good tone .

Watch out, I'm Back!!

Corey Bechtold

[Matt Johnson]

Welcome back Corey!

Good Fishin,

Matt Johnson

[CrappieJohn]

Gee Corey, are you trying to tell us that the rest of you matches your neck color now?lol Good to see you back. NOW....we have to do something with this attitude about ice fishing and get you on some REAL fishing.....as in open water.

[Fish'n guy]

I have a question that would be for one of the crappie experts. I was fishing last nite in about 30' of water in a lake that I ususally catch nice crappies on but last nite I would mark suspended fish and they would come up to it but wouldn't hit the lure. they showed more intrest in the forage minnow tipped with a crappie minnow but they didn't eat it. I also tried jigging raps as well as small genz bugs and many other tiny crappie jigs with a waxie or half a waxie and every jigging method that I could think of. I did manage to get on crappie that was 12" on a genz worm with half a waxie but all of the other crappies wouldn't react to my presentation. Any tips??

Thanks for the help, and GOOD FISHIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!