What's Workin Now, Fall...

[V-12 Merlin]

Nice pics, Corey! I especially like that monster Sunnie that your daughter Bailey caught, and the bass caught on an icefishing rig. Fun!

[united jigsticker]

The wife and I hit the water this weekend (it was our anniversary and she wanted to go fishing)

We found aggressive Crappies all over the depth spectrum.

The majority of the nicer fish were in 12-14 feet of water, but we also came in contact with plenty of decent fish in 15-22 feet of water, and also some decent fish in the 6-10 foot range as well.

99.9% of the Crappies were taken vertically jigging or free casting with a 1/32 oz marabou jig.

The 0.1% of the fish came on a skitter pop!

The fish seemed to prefer to hit the jig on the drop as opposed to still jigging.

What a great weekend!!!

[Corey Bechtold]

Well, I made it out on Friday and on Sunday to fish with Cole. I was hoping for some constant action to keep him interested and we were lucky enough to find that. Crappies seemed to be anywhere we looked. Docks, lifts, rafts, suspended over no mans land. They were good sized too with a lot of them over 11". The Sunfish were active as well which was a good thing for Cole. They were mainly small but offered plenty of action. Cole caught most of his Sunfish on a 1/32oz jighead and a White Power Tube. I fished mainly with a 1/16oz jighead and a Smelt Power Minnow. I switched colors often but found the natural color worked best. Later in the evening I switched Cole over to the Power Minnow to see if he could get on some Crappies. Lo and behold he sets the hook into something nice. A few seconds later I see he has a nice Crappie up to the surface and is trying to lift it into the boat. I saw the size of this Crappie and went for the net. I took a quick measurement snapped a few pictures of Cole's biggest Crappie to date. A hefty 13.5" Crappie! Looks like I will have to watch out for him in the future . Then Cole returned the brute back to the water and we ended the night.

Sunday afternoon I went out again and tried to search for some more big Crappies. I didn't see anything like what Cole caught but still some decent fish. They weren't as active and scattered as Friday but I did do better on numbers. They were more tight to the bottom and sweeping the jig and Power Minnow off the bottom turned them on. Cole again had the Sunfish figured out and he kept me busy unhooking fish all the time. It was a beautiful night on the water and I'll post some pictures from Sunday later.

Good fishin,

Corey Bechtold

[Corey Bechtold]

Here are some of the pics from Sunday's outing...

Good luck fishin,

Corey Bechtold

[buzzin for bass]

That's one impressive crappie. It looks like your son's hand/arm would easily fit in the mouth of that thing.

congrats.

[Corey Bechtold]

Wow, I am starting to hear crickets in this forum!

Well, I made it out fishing last weekend and found the lakes to have dropped in temperature and the fish were stacked up like cord wood off a steep break. Sunfish and Crappies were all mixed together and of course the Sunfish were the most active. I was fishing a small lake on my friends cabin. There were me and 2 friends trying to fish out of a 14' closed bow aluminum rowboat. Pretty scarry huh? Anyways, we had fun catching the mix of Sunfish and Crappies. Power Minnows, Beetle spins (no blade) and Power Tubes caught most fish. The Crappies were biting very light and the Sunfish were snappin pretty hard. I can't wait to see what the weekend brings.

Have a great weekend and good luck fishing,

Corey Bechtold

[delmuts]

waaaaaaaaaaait a minute corey! a beetle spin with no blade ???? care to explain ! ( was it son purpose or?)

[Corey Bechtold]

Just the forked tail grub body on a jig. Black with yellow stripes if I remember correctly.

Hope this explains it.

Good luck,

Corey Bechtold

[delmuts]

ok! i was picturing a beetle spin with the wire bracket , but no blade. thanks

[united jigsticker]

Took my Dad fishing today.

Looking for some Crappies to bite on a breezy sunny day.

Water temps were 57-58.

Crappies were in 14-26 feet, with the largest and best bite in 20-22 feet off the bottom.

Quite a few 11" fish, a handful of 12" fish, a 13" fish was boated, and an estimated 14" fish snapped the 4# line off in the midst of a netting effort.

Excellent action, size was awesome, and the company was great!

Good fall fishing!

[Matt Johnson]

Great reports everyone!

Good Fishin,

Matt Johnson

[Corey Bechtold]

Well, here's my weekend report. I had the Big 3 with me and we fished on Saturday. The wind was cold and the kids hunkered down on the floor of the boat and covered up with blankets. They had fun despite the cold weather and entertained themselves while I froze and fished. I had a difficult time at first as I couldn't find the fish anywhere. It took some time till I noticed pods of baitfish and schools of active fish in 22'-25' of water. The fish were relating to the bottom and wanted the presentation motionless. Being very subtle with the jigging the Crappies would just sit on the bait and hang on. It wasn't till later in the afternoon when they started to slide up the break and I started seeing fish suspended. These were some more active fish and they had no problem taking the 2" Power Minnows. As the sun started to set I saw more fish showing up in 12' of water and Bailey lowered the OVS 560 down to see that they were Sunfish. The kids had a ball watching the fish as they would come and inspect the camera. I wish that I had 3 different monitors so all the kids wouldn't fight over the screen!

All in all it was a great evening on the water and it was also nice to get on some fish. Here is what I found out about the day.

Water temps 59-57 degrees

Clarity good

Crappies on the bottom early sliding up at evening

Power Minnows on a 1/16-1/8 oz jighead

4 lb Monofilimant

6'ML Lightning rod with an Abu Garcia Cardinal Center drag reel

Hope to get out again this week to see what happens.

Good luck,

Corey Bechtold

[Matt Johnson]

Great report Corey! Sounds like the kids had a good time too! I think I've been to that spot before

Good Fishin,

Matt Johnson

[Yellow Dog]

Corey -

I have trouble finding Power Minnows. Are there some stores in the south metro that carry them? Fleet Farm? Gander?

Also, are they scented?

Do they make a smaller profile...say one inch?

Thanks!

[CrappieJohn]

Yellow....

FleetFarm or larger Ganders should be able to fix you upon these minnows. If you want a smaller profile/length try the Exude micro shads. And yes, both of these products are scented.

[Corey Bechtold]

You might have a hard time finding them right now. A lot of stores won't re-order them till after the Ice fishing season. You might want to order some from Cabelas if you can't find them anywhere near you.

They don't have a 1" Power Minnow yet. If I run into the need to have a smaller profile but still want a minnow style bait I will simply cut off a hunk from the front of the bait to shorten it up a bit.

Good luck,

Corey Bechtold

[Corey Bechtold]

Brrrr, I made it out tonight after work to see what I could find. The lake appeared to have turned and was rather clear amd most of the weeds were laid down. The fish were scattered and the only fish that were consistent were the Perch. I did find some smaller Crappies later in the evening suspended a few feet off the bottom in 15-20 feet of water. There also were some Walleyes mixed in with them. I also caught 2 decent Walleyes in between the Crappie bites. With the fish being so scattered right now I anticipate that they will be schooling back up in a few days.

Hopefully we have some more nice days left so we all can get out and take advantage of the Fall bite.

Anyone else having any luck?

Corey Bechtold

[HawgTide]

Corey, I was wondering what happened to you. I never see you on the Bass or River threads anymore. I thought you must have choked on one of those hushpuppies, since I hadn't heard from you since you wanted that recipe. Looks like your having fun with the Panfish. Anyways, don't be a stranger.

[Corey Bechtold]

Yea, I have been laying off the Bass lately. Those hushpuppies are great! Thanks for sharing your recipe.

As for the Panfish, I had a chance to chase them this weekend with Cole. We found a pretty good Sunfish bite in shallow water. I tried the Power tubes and minnows but found them to prefer the hair jigs more. I didn't have any live bait with so I opted for Gulp and Power wigglers. The fish didn't seem to notice the difference as they inhaled the artificial. I had a great time teaching Cole how to set the hook when a fish would barely move the float. It didn't take long and he was doing it all by himself. The day was a success as we caught plenty of fish along with a few decent fish too. Cole has also started asking a lot of questions about Ice fishing already so I think he's getting excited about the upcoming Ice season.

I hope everyone had a great weekend and I look forward to hearing your reports.

Later,

Corey Bechtold

[Corey Bechtold]

It seems that everyone must have "Buck Fever" or something. If everyone gave up on the open water fishing they may be missing some of the best fishing till early ice. Cole and I found some Sunfish on Sunday roaming the shallows. We targeted them with flu-flu's tiped with Power wigglers. Tried a few larger baits to try and up-size our catch but had best luck with the forementioned. I hope to get out again soon and see if I can locate some Slab Crappies. Unfortunately the time change has made it difficult to sneak out after work. Lets see what this weekend brings for weather, maybe we will have a few more good ones left? Anyone getting out yet or have the boats been winterized?

Good luck,

Corey Bechtold

[delmuts]

down here, i've been fishing a small pond.( yes the boat is put away)the gils are a constant, but the crappies are/can be tough! i tried yesturday morn. lots of gils, but the only crappie action i had ; was right after i started fishing i had one grab my float and try to swim off with it. no other action from them. i've gone to using the CJ&S shrimpo and wedgee on a 1/80 lead head.( i was using flu flus but keep loosing them to brush!!) tipped with a waxie. i tried up grading to a 1/64 and a 1/32 head jig. nobody wanted them. hmmm! i did have to resort to opening/enlarging the bend/gap in the small jig. just couldn't seem to keep a crappie hooked otherwise.i did have good luck a couple of days ago using a pink and white tube, but they wanted nothing to do with it yesturday.

[Corey Bechtold]

Well, I had a tough decision to make last night, Walleyes or Crappies? I was able to skip out of work a little early so I made the choice to chase some Crappies. It's been a while since I have looked for Crappies but I cruised around looking for the fish in their early Ice spots. What I found was that they were there probably waiting for Ice. There were pods of baitfish that were being chased by the loons which made my searching a little easier. They were in 18-22 feet of water close to bottom. They seemed to be hoarding food that was near the bottom. Catching Crappies was fairly easy as all one had to do was drop the bait down to the bottom and lift it up every once in a while. Often the Crappies would pick up the bait off the bottom and by the time I closed the bail and reeled up the slack they already had the bait. I also ran into a brief window where the fish would fly up off the bottom and intercept the bait as it was falling down. That really got me excited for Ice when I was able to watch the whole thing on my locator! While searching for some other early Ice areas I found a transition line on my locator that seemed to hole good numbers of fish as well. There was a small line where the bottom went from softer bottom to hard. It also seemed to have some rubble as well. Looks like I will have a few areas to check out when Ice comes.

Here's what worked last night...

18-22' of water

Berkley Power Minnows and Tubes in any color

1/16 oz jigheads (white)

Water temps were 48-46 degrees

Trying to keep the bait still and keeping the line vertical triggered these fish into biting. I also tried some other baits to no avail. I hope to get out again in the boat but we'll have to see what Mother Nature is going to do...

Good luck,

Corey Bechtold

[grab the net]

I made it out yesterday also, found the slabs in 28 feet of water. 1/32 plain jig head with a crappie minnow worked best. Large schools of fish, most about 4 feet off bottom. Distinct class sizes. Lots of fish in the 6-8 inch range, then you would find a bunch of 11-13 inch fish. Needed a slow presentation, with the minnow hooked through the dorsal fin, through the lips just wouldn't do it. Vertical wasn't the answer either, a very slow troll with the trolling motor. Hard to keep the bait down there in 28 feet, line would just tighten up, no tick in the line. Good fun, it was my last trip in the boat, in the back garage now. Do believe those fish will be there when the ice goes on, vexilar battery is charged.

[The Grebe]

We hit one of our crappie holes in the river yesterday, but they had a couple of the locks open and the water was just to fast.

All we managed before we got rained out was a couple of little slimers and one mongo perch about 12 inches. Good lookin fella he was....a pike or a muskie must have thought so to, because this one also had teeth marks on it.

If the weather does'nt get to nasty and they shut off the water, I think we will give it a couple of more trys, before we start messin with the jig sticks.

[Corey Bechtold]

Sounds like you guys found some fish anyway. With this cold snap we are going to have a hard time getting out in a boat again Oh well, looks like it's time to start getting ready for ICE .

Good luck,

Corey Bechtold