What's Workin Now...

[palisade1kid]

Same ole thing is working.

Just fished a bit differently,vertically speaking.

[Craigums]

Well after getting skunked a few times out I finally found the fish...the size however wasnt exactly there Anyways had the best luck on a small gill pill with 2 red maggots, and also on a marmooska jig with a little atom nuggie...However as time went on I switched to a larger Ratso which slowed the action and didnt produce any larger fish so I think all the fish in that area were just little. I was in about 23 feet of water. all fish were near the bottom but would come up to investigate the bait

[Corey Bechtold]

M M M M Mo-Monsters!

Nice report,

Corey Bechtold

[hanson]

What's working now??

I've got a couple photos to go with this which aren't online yet but we found the gills in 12-16' of water in the little lake I was fishing over Christmas.

First day on the lake was search and destroy time, or I should maybe say search as the destroying part wouldn't be in the cards. We located a very concentrated school of gills that were all glued to the bottom of the lake. Considering the temps were dropping with a big NW wind, it was sort of expected. A quick check of the online weather at home revealed a quickly rising barometer reading which was over 30 the entire time we were on the ice. Ick!

These fish wanted no part of plastics, and they wanted no part of movement (jigging) to elicit a strike. Jigging was OK to bring them in but once they started to look at the bait, you better hold still or that was it. The result of this painfully finesse tactic was many very small gills and perch.

2 days later we're back on the same lake. Weather was looking a bit different as we had a good south wind, comfortable temps, and the lowest barometer reading since the last time I was on the lake. And... we found some very cooperative bluegills this day but the theme, once again, was small size. I know this lake has some hogs in it but we could just not locate them. If we did locate them, getting them to bite was a different story!

A major difference between this day on the ice from the last day is I could get the fish to raise up in the water column. Couple days ago, I couldn't pull them off the bottom. This day, the were coming 3-4' off with some even raising up on the fall. Even though they seamed aggressive, they still wanted a lure held in place before they bit, very few would hit while jigging.

Another switch which seamed to work well was going from a horizontal lure to a vertical lure, specifically the Maynards Flutter Bug (which is a MJ favorite!). I tipped the Flutter Bug with 2 Eurolarvae most of the time.

Anyways... 2 days of fishing, augering, hole hopping, lure switching, and patience produced a couple nice fish including one very near 10". Photo to come!

[Matt Johnson]

Now, now Mr. Hanson... don't go telling everyone about the Flutter Bug I used it most of the time the other day too...

[hanson]

Quote:

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Now, now Mr. Hanson... don't go telling everyone about the Flutter Bug

I used it most of the time the other day too...

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LOL! I've got a pile of Flutter Bugs in my tackle box and this is the first time I used one in a LONG time!

Did the trick!

[Wookiee]

Size 10 flutter bug tipped with a charteuse nuggie produced for me on the 25th and 26th in 20 FOW on a metro area lake. Let's just say it was a crappie Christmas dinner That one just slipped out my bad.

[Matt Johnson]

Geez hanson... that looks like a familiar spot

[hanson]

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Geez hanson... that looks like a familiar spot

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No sir. Not the place we fished a couple years ago when BDR & I both caught nice 10" gills at the same time.

[cjac]

Nice fish! Love it when those sunfish have "foreheads"!!

Chris

[The Grebe]

Is it just me, or does it seem like alot of the heretofore high volumne posters are turning up missing? Didn't United Jigsticker have a post in this thread? Can't seem to find him? Haven't seen anything from him? BDR, Esbolt, etc? Maybe I'm not looking in the right places? I'll recheck?

[ole matty]

hey hanson is that legend rod ur holdin? i have one but havent really figured it out with spring bobber and the jiggin they kept messed up n fish arent interested. . i like frabill ones outcatch legend spring bobber even tho i m using same lures any suggestion to adjust my spring bobber on legend?.

[hanson]

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hey hanson is that legend rod ur holdin? i have one but havent really figured it out with spring bobber and the jiggin they kept messed up n fish arent interested. . i like frabill ones outcatch legend spring bobber even tho i m using same lures any suggestion to adjust my spring bobber on legend?.

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It is a Legend. I've got a couple deadly panfishing tools and this is one of them.

With the Legend, there are 5 different rods (UL, L, ML, M, and H) and 3 or 4 different springs. For panfishing with light tackle, you'll want the UL or L rod coupled with the L spring. The light spring has the orange tip.

Even with panfish jigs in the size 8-12 range, you'll want the spring pushed over halfway into the eye which holds the spring. This will provide the right dangle of the spring. You want it to hang down slightly so you can see both upward bites and downward bites.

As to how I fish it? I fish the lure with a very subtle jigging action. I try to get the tip of the spring moving about a 1/4" up and down. This provides the lure with an ever so gentle jigging action. When the pannies are aggressive, they'll zip right up and hit the lure and the spring will be pulled down. Set the hook and onto the next one. When they aren't so aggressive, I'll jig for a little bit and then hold still. Alot of times on this hold they'll come up and bite and you'll see the spring pull down a little.

Most of my panfishing is active and being mobile. I can't sit in one spot and wait them out. I'd rather have 30 holes in an area and slowly move from hole to hole picking out the active fish and then move onto the next. The way I approach my tackle and jigging technique is the same way, remaining active and responding to what the panfish are doing and telling me. I cannot sit in one spot with 2 lines down watching 2 bobbers, that just doesn't work for me.

Guess I went into a bit more detail because how I fish the Legend spring bobber is just a part of my approach towards panfish in general.

[Grant Pearson]

Went out last night and caught a bunch of sunnies on a glow teardrop and a waxie. Had originally set up for northerns, but only could find 1 tip up so I decided to drop a line down. After the steady pannie action, I pulled the tip up so I could drop a second rod down. Needless to say, the action we were on last night was fast enough where I had to take a break from fishing to put the tip up back down as I couldn't handle two rods in the house!!!! As soon as one bobber would go down and I'd set the hook, the other rod would start going down!!!! I'm not complaining by any means, and it was great!!! The one thing that I did notice, was that LINE MAKES A DIFFERENCE!!!!! Both my rods have 4 lb Fluorocarbon on them, and my fishing partner had blue line on his reels and, with everything else the same, I was out fishing him at lease 4 to 1. We had the same bobbers, jigs and bait on at the same depth.

[Matt Johnson]

Spent most of the weekend on the ice chasing down pannies. Found a lot of action still in the shallows... 6-9 feet of water. A lot of green weeds still available. Spent Saturday in the Chisago area and Sunday a little closer to home.

Used primarily size 6 Ratsos or Maynard's Flutter Bugs tipped with a Little-Atom white Nuggie. The fish were fairly aggressive and we didn't need to use a whole lot of bait. Although a little euro larva helped on occasion when they turned finicky.

We also hit a spot in about 13 feet of water with a hard bottom (some gravel) and found a better pod of gills. Still nothing huge, but the numbers were stacking up.

Also decided to run and gun with larger crappies with a jigging spoon and managed a couple fish. Had to work for them though.

The slight snow we received on Saturday gave a sudden burst of fish activity. Always nice to have one of those

Looks like we're going to see some colder weather slide in tonite and into tomorrow. I wouldn't expect to see too much of a change in fish activity, only 10-15 degree change...

[Jim Hudson]

Went Minnesota bound the past few days on a multi-species gig... After fishing walleyes and perch, we went after a some big crappies, that were in numbers, but the bite was tough...

The fish were littered inside the weedline, down into the stalks. You had to drill through the weeds or drop a camera down to punch through the canopy.. Fish were cruising through, chasing young of the year perch and were very well fed!! Interesting enough, the darker it was (more snow), was the spots that produced the best. Wish I would have had more time to fish these critters at dusk or into the night.. I think that would of been key for a more consistant bite. Next time!!

I mainly used vertical presentations, green seeming to be the ticket, tipped with a blood red micro nuggie... Crappies up to 14 inches...

[Matt Johnson]

Nice fish Jim! Thanks for sharing the pic and you should come to MN more often

[Jim Hudson]

Thanks Matt.. I try to sneak over to the "other" side a few times a year.. hehehe

[hroyals07]

hey all i'm planning on going to either Medicine or Minnetonka today for crappies, i was wondering what I should you and how deep to go

[Craigums]

Royal welcome to FM.....I don't think anyone is going to be able to answer your question. You will just have to expirement. As the old saying goes "Thats why its called fishing not catching"

If it was me I would start near some breaks or Deeper flat pockets near a break or weedline.

Id start out with some plastics, probably a Little Atom Nuggie (But to be honest play with what you have in your box, and have confidence in). If you mark fish on your flasher but can't them to commit try downsizing to a smaller bait or tipping a small jig with some larva. If you don't mark any fish within 30 minutes I generally go punch some new holes...You can always come back to where you started

[markkstanley]

Key depth is 18 to 22ft along breaks. Bite starts right around sunset. Key on inside turns and structure attached to shore is holding more fish. Not quite time for mid lake structure or suspended crappies yet on Tonka. Good luck.