What's Workin Now, Fall...

[Corey Bechtold]

I know it's not exactly fall yet, but the water temps have dropped a bit and the fish have seemed to turn on. I am going to be out fishing with the Big 3 (my kids) this weekend to see what we can do on the Panfish.

Some things we are going to try are plastic (of course) and live bait. Also some small hair type jigs either dressed with live or artificial. I'll post the report after the weekend.

Good luck to all,

Corey Bechtold

[Corey Bechtold]

Wow, what a weekend! Great weather along with some good fishing. I had the kids out Friday, Saturday, and Sunday and they cooperated very well in the boat. Cole only tangled the rods we weren't using and Bailey and Brooke learned a few tips/techniques that helped us catch fish.

Friday we fished an area lake and found the water to be much cooler than last time out. The surface temp was 74 degrees and the fish were relating to a midlake point. Right away Brooke caught the first fish, a Sunfish, in 5' of water. She had it on before I could get my line in the water. Then Bailey got in on the action as she caught another Sunfish in the same area. I drifted off the edge and found schools of fish hanging in 10'-15' and shortly found them to be Crappies. Cole helped me bang a couple while I worked the boat back up to shallower water where the Sunfish were hanging. Bailey then caught a nice Largemouth Bass on a Ice fishing rod. Talk about a battle! Cole did a great job with the net as she worked the fish to the boat. We ended up chasing mainly Crappies closer to dark and they readily took a 2" Power Minnows on a 1/16 oz Scenic Tackle jig. Pink and white worked great along with Smelt color Power Minnows. The fish would pick up the bait and swim up or horizontal with it. We had a ball and watched a beautiful sunset as well.

Here are a few pictures from the day...

Bailey with her Bass

Brooke with a Crappie

Cole displays his fish

Me fighting a Crappie

The Crappie

Brooke and another Crappie

Like I said, a great evening on the water with the kids .

I'll post the Saturday/Sunday results when I have more time.

Good Luck,

Corey Bechtold

[Matt Johnson]

Awesome report and great pictures Corey! Your kids always seem to catch fish!

Good Fishin,

Matt Johnson

[Corey Bechtold]

Well here's the reports I have from Saturday and Sunday. We switched lakes after Friday and again went in search of Panfish. Of course there had to be a cold front that moved through Friday night and that could have something to do with the fishes' lack of interest on Saturday. I found the fish to be on the bottom adjacent to a sharp break that went from 5'to 20' of water. They would come up and inspect the bait but showed no interest in biting. I tried everything from flu flu's, CT's baits, Exude, Gulp, Powerbait, Culprit, and a live bait. We did pick up one here and there with the different baits but nothing I would call a pattern. There were 4 nice Sunfish we caught, a 10" Crappie, some small Perch, and a teeny tiny Bass. We only fished for a couple hours and decided to call it a day and try again on Sunday.

Sunday when we woke up Cole v-lined it to the boat and was ready to go. Bailey and Brooke got stuff ready and we hit the water again. This time we searched a deeper weedline with a gradual slope to deeper water. I marked schools of fish and some baitfish on the bottom when I found that there were Sunfish there when I landed a 8" Gill. Bailey dropped in a 2" Pink and White Power Minnow and held it off the bottom. I positioned the boat over the fish when Bailey set the hook on a nice fish. It was running all over and I thought she had a Smallmouth Bass. When she got the fish up I saw it was a huge Bluegill! She was really excited and the fish measured in just over 9.5". This thing was really tall and thick. We took some pictures and slipped it back in the water.

Next we drifted out a bit deeper and found fish to be scattered up and down the water column and it didn't take long till I found out that they were Crappies. I started catching some nice fish anywhere from 3-6' off the bottom. They would come up and take the load off the rod. Chart/pepper Power Minnows on a Chart jighead were the ticket. I tried a few other baits but they wouldn't even get a sniff. Bailey and Brooke each caught some Crappies on Pink and White Power Minnows and Power tubes but the color I was using was the best. I think that it had something to do with the water clarity being a bit stained along with the type of forage these fish were preying on.

Some keys from Sunday's fishing outing were staying mobile as these fish were on the roam. Also fishing slow and being very subtle with the presentation. A very slow lift to bring the bait to the fish seemed to be the trigger. Water temps were again in the low 70's and the water clarity was only 1-2'. Power Minnows again got the nod on a 1/16oz or 1/32oz jighead.

The kids also learned a few tricks about how to trigger the Crappies and swing them into the boat when they broke water. They learned the hard way when each of them reeled too much line in and the fish were able to shake the hook before they were over the boat. They lost almost no fish after they got the technique down.

Brooke and Cole didn't feel like posing for the camera this day so Bailey and I took some pictures, enjoy...

Bailey with an 11" Crappie

Bailey and me with a couple Crappies

Bailey's Bluegill

Bailey release

I'll be camping with the family this week and hope to check out some new lakes to see what's workin'. I'll keep you posted on how it goes.

Good Fishin',

Corey Bechtold

[Matt Johnson]

That is a monster bluegill that Bailey caught! I definitely think we have another panfish diehard on our hands

Glad to hear you're making it back out on the water Corey. Hopefully those boat problems will get taken care of shortly, and for good this time

Good Fishin,

Matt Johnson

[Corey Bechtold]

Yea, if worse comes to worse I will wear a life jacket and swim out to fish or maybe borrow one of the kids' tubes!

I hope Bailey keeps her interest in fishing for a while before she gets into the makeup/hair/friends/gossip/phone/boys thing . If not Brooke and Cole still enjoy getting out.

Take care,

Corey Bechtold

[rosspj59]

Nice fish and Pics Corey! Way to go keeping the kids interested by catching all those great fish. 3 kids in the boat would be interesting, but you make it look so easy. Keep up the good work!

[Oldtyme]

I was going to start a new thread but this will do.

First off: Corey. Excellent fish /pictures as always....

Second: I was out fishing today for bass and nothing was happening. This was at a new lake I found last week where I cleaned up on some very nice gills on crickets... (1st time I kept fish this year...kept about 15... I was hungry )

Anyways, after no bass I decided to chill out for a while in a what looked like a nice place for gills.... Sure enough they were there. Problem is I only had a couple waxworms left.

So I look around in the tacklebox & spotted some of that Berkley Gulp Super Bait that I bought last year. I fished with it once before, never caught anything so I put it away.

Not today though, they were tearing these fake baits up. I used a white maggot on a red hook under a small slip bobber.

Great thing about these is you can catch 5-6 fish on the same bait (if you're lucky)

I also had some mini-earthworms that worked just as well. Tear them in half & thread them on the hook like a regular worm.

(edit: I did C&R today, I have pictures of todays fish but last week my stupid digital camera broke....I have a disposable camera in the boat now (just in case) but will have to wait to share until I fill the camera)

So I'd just thought I'd post that these baits DO work and are a good thing to have in the tackle box "just in case".

I still believe a regular cricket will outfish anything for bluegills

[The Grebe]

I stole away to my go to crappie spot this morning, after I got the truck and the troops dispatched.

I gave it about 45 minutes of pounding with different colored feather jigs, tried a tiny ball jig with a gold hook and a minnow hooked through the lips, I even tried a

plain #10 wire hook and a minnie dorsal hooked.

One large crappie fell for the plain hook, 1# 2oz., one gobbled up a little yellow jig, 1# even and the 3rd. came in at 1/2 pound and that one took the ball jig and minnow combo. That was it, I got the 3 right away, missed afew and pulled the plug.

This evening, thinking it might be an evening bite, I lit out after work. Gave it about 1 1/2 hours and got 2 whoppers right away and then nothing.

I believe the fish are down there but they are being finicky...a couple of them will sacrifice themselves and then the rest get tight lipped...I'll rest em a couple of days and try them again....at some point in time it will be bing, bing, bing! Yeah Twins, shut out!

[delmuts]

i've been having the same thing on a local pond. catch two or three right away, then nothing. last night tried a CT paddle tail( one bump) ,rat tail( zero), tube( zero), then twister tail,(caught two, missed two)then a white hair jig tipped with a shrimpo plastic.( missed one) hmmmm ! CT! what are we missing ???

[The Grebe]

Del...You know, sometimes I don't think it matters what you throw at them, or how you present it, they are not going to bite! They will bite on their time and their time only.

When I was a kid, every once in awhile, we would swim out to the dock at Theodore Wirth Lake, well before the beaches opened and during a time when the water temperature and the air temperature, would keep your lips blue and your body bordering on hypothermia! We would have chicken skin so bad, all the hair on our bodies would be standing straight out and we looked like skinny blue cactus plants.

Anyways, we would bring drop lines and all kinds of different baits with us, lay on the dock and watch the schools of crappies underneath, some of them huge. We would drop everything and anything in front of them, minnows included, and I don't believe we ever got one out of there? They would come up to the bait and back right off? This happened a number of times over a few years and we gave up.

The years hav'nt changed anything except the methods of spying on the fish...last summer I put the Aqua View right into a school of crappies that must have been 4 feet thick, in 9 feet of water and do you think we could get even one? Nope!

We sat on them, tried off from the school, tried the edge of them, tried nearby good looking water, nada. We gave it about an hour and a half during prime time and decided to get them another day. I sure don't have the answer for those none bitters except to wait them out until they are ready?

[rosspj59]

I fished Peltier Lake sunday evening from 4-7 pm and caught a bunch of sunnies, some small perch and bass, and a couple small crappies. 1/2 dozen sunnies around 8 inches, most were 4-6 inchers. Nice weather and fish were biting. Seemed to be biting in a few areas of the lake from 3-10 feet of water. I used crawlers to get all of the fish. Twitching the bobber a bit seemed to entice more bites. There is not much for floating weeds out there so I was able to fish pretty shallow if I wanted too. There were a lot of people shore fishing around the launch area and fishing pier.

[The Grebe]

59...we hit Pokegama again this past week-end with less then desireable results, lots of little stuff, pretty windy.

But I have made up for it in one swoop, we went out this morning for an hour and a half before work and we nailed a bunch of crappies up to 1# 4 oz.

They are finally starting to hit a little more steadily, we got most of the ones we caught on a 1/32 oz. jig head with a crappie minnow attached, did'nt seem to matter what color, the minnow seemed to be the key.

I did get a few on feather jigs, but again, color did'nt seem to matter, they hit just as well on white as they did on yellow.

We were fishing in about 9 feet of water and we did'nt get one fish suspended, they were all right on the bottom and you had to intice them with a slow retrieve.

You know I do believe that crappies are becomming my favorite target fish, summer and winter? They sure are fun!

[delmuts]

i trieed a little lake near here this morning, hoping the crappies had started moving in. tried a char twister tail first; one small dump. tried a CT ratail; nothing.salt and pepper tube; zelch.a white shrimpo body on a 1/80 jig; nothing. a black shrimpo body; one nice crappie that got me into the brush,one gil, and one little bass. that's it.

[The Grebe]

Del...Thats how they were working for me, for the longest time? I feel that if you can get one or two, they are there, they are just being finicky, thats why i kept going back, I figured they would turn on and they did.

I could'nt get a thing on twisters, or tubes, not on Pokegama, nor at our present fishing spot? Switched up and "Bingo" feeesh on!

Since you are south of where I fish, maybe another week or so and the same thing will happen down there, the fish will turn on and the spot you are fishing will light up?

[rosspj59]

Grebe, glad you found some nice slabs, way to go! I enjoy catching the paper mouths year round too, but walleyes get in the way in the most of the open water time. Come hard water its crappie time. I wonder why they would prefer live bait over plastics/feather/hair jigs, must have something to do with the forage in the water right now.

[Corey Bechtold]

I made it out on Sunday with blue hair Brooke , and Cole. The fish acted like what a few others have been noticing. Fish were scattered and once I found them, caught a few, they moved again. The key to catching more fish was to stay mobile. Also staying vertical seemed to produce more than the cast/retrieve method. Fishing with floats was a waste of time for me as the fish bit short and light. Although the fishing was a bit slower than the last few times out the quality of the fish was good. Brooke and Cole were learning some tricks from me and they began to catch some Bluegills along with the Crappies. They had a great time and we enjoyed another great evening on the water.

Once again Power Minnows caught most of the Crappies. Chart/Pepper, Pink/White baits threaded on a 1/16oz Scenic Tackle Angel Eye jig. A few Sunfish came off the White Power tube and a 1/32oz White jighead. Depths the fish were relating too was the 6'-12' edges of the break. Water temps were in the 70's again and clarity was not that great.

Here are a the kids with some of our catch...

Brooke with the Blue/Purple hair she got while at the Lynx game with Grandma. (Grandma can't be trusted anymore )

Cole a little too excited about his Crappie

Good Luck,

Corey Bechtold

[Matt Johnson]

Great pictures Corey! Any chance of dad having blue hair in the near future?

Cole just has a way with the camera huh

Good Fishin,

Matt Johnson

[CrappieJohn]

Corey....

I was just looking at that blue hair. It looks to be a perfect color for some hair jigs. Now if you have three kids and send them to Grandmas house for this weekend for some more make-overs, maybe all you will need to bring with for fishing other that the rods and a handful of leadheads is the kids and some thread. You need to think positive here.

[united jigsticker]

So da' jigsticker got out on da' lake last weekend for his birthday.

I found alot of fish in 17-22 feet, but they would not bite. I found alot of fish in 14-17 feet as well, but they were small Crappies.

I found fish in 9-12 feet, and they were aggressive Crappies of acceptable sized proportions.

I vertically jigged them, and freecasted them, catching fish at times on 20 consecutive casts.

I got my 10 year old daughter on some fish too, with the ability to get one on, hand her the rod, and get a fish on another rod by the time my wife got the fish she just landed back into the water.

Good fun to get her into fishing.

So....Yeah....duh' later August fishin' is pretty good ya' know.

kripes....and I survived another birthday...

Oh...by the way....I'm 24 now....and I said my daughter was how old???

KRIPES!!!!!!

[delmuts]

hey!! the boy has some( ok, a little hair) he could bleach his and have white too!!!

[delmuts]

i just went back and saw corey has three kids!! what other color option could he use??

[Corey Bechtold]

Too bad the coloring was only temporary. The bath tub is the only thing that is blue now . I don't know what other color combinations would work well? Maybe I can get Bailey to go with a Pink and White option and have Cole try Rainbow Silver Fleck . Also, I don't think I'll be trying anything crazy like that anytime soon!

Lets go fishing,

Corey Bechtold

[Tyler Holm]

Corey,

I think she has already acquired the female instinct to match. Blue hair, blue life-jacket...

The wife just gave me the run-a-round about not matching again last night and it made me think of this.

[Corey Bechtold]

We're not color blind, we're just making a new fashion statement!

Get 'er done,

Corey Bechtold