What's workin' now ICE...

[Matt Johnson]

Finally a chance to put a post up about the recent pannie activity...

I spent the last several days chasing down panfish for guide trips and for pleasure. The fish have definitely put on the feed bags with this warm weather we're seeing.

On Tuesday I found the fish willing to hold still, where I could just sit over the top of large pods of fish for literally hours before the the school would move on. It made fishing very easy. Both the crappies and gills would cruise through in packs, some of which were larger in size but the aggressive fish seemed to be more mid-sized. Crappies in the 8-10 inch range and sunfish in the 6-8.5 inch range. Depths anywhere from 9-13 feet and soft bottoms with scarce weeds. A whole mess of different jigs seemed to be working and I don't think there was any one magic presentation as far as a jig was concerned. Euro larva was the preferred method of bait though...

On Wednesday I found things to be slightly different, although not upsetting in any way. Only difference was that the fish's activity level sky-rocketed and they didn't want to sit still! We had to hole hop constantly to stay on the roaming schools of pannies. We punched about 20 holes and just kept moving from hole to hole, picking up about 6-7 in each hole before the school moved on. The fish were still highly aggressive and devoured just about anything you threw at them, but they were on the move. Same presentations as the day before and similar areas, although the 11-13 foot depths seemed more critical. One of my guide clients also landed a 37-inch pike that was probably close to 15 pounds! Sweet fish!...

Today brought about similar conditions as yesterday, except we could pick up a few more fish per hole before the school moved on. Usually it was about 10-15 fish per hole then the school would dissapear. Same aggressive techniques as the past few days and euro larva and smaller jigs were preferred once again. I also rigged up spring bobbers on all the rods to make detecting the bites easier, I believe it helped quite a bit when fishing outside and trying to feel for the bite. We tried working over some fish with jigging spoons, but they wanted the smaller jigs more.

Overall I'd say the last few days were productive. Not many trophy size pannies, but a lot of decent fish that provided consistent action. I would assume that tomorrow will bring another day of excellent fishing, especially since we're going to see a little weather system move through this weekend...

Here's a couple more shots from the past few days...

Outstanding weather to be outside! Only if this weather would allow for some ice making then we'd be set

[Corey Bechtold]

Great pics Matt and it's nice to see you're getting out!

I took off a bit early from work today to fish with Cole for a couple hours. I wanted to try some different jigs to see if the fish preferred anything else. The fish definately liked to look at the other offerings but didn't care to hit. So after a few changes we went back to what works. The same as yesterday except Cole was doing the catching as I tried to teach him how to coax finicky fish into biting. He did great and iced plenty of Gills and Crappies. The only thing I did different from yesterday was I used a SOS to see if it would keep the fish in the area. Lo and behold I think it did. A nice tool to take out on the Ice, especially if there is little to no structure in the area.

Here are a few pics from our "Catch and Release (a-thon)"...

Good fishin' guys,

Corey Bechtold

[Matt Johnson]

First off, Saturday's Ultimate Panfish League event was a lot of fun! Some nice crappies weighed-in and several decent size sunfish. Always fun to see a group of anglers chasing down pannies

Yesterday I took Bob Horn from Illinois out in search of crappies and gills. We hit a soft-bottom flat in about 11-12 feet of water that had stubby weeds lining the bottom. We found the school(s) of pannies and they were not looking to hold tight. Another day full of moving from hole to hole chasing down the infamous crappie and sunfish. This warm weather is sure increasing the fish activity, and I think we've also seen a slight increase in the size of the fish as this progresses as well. Crappies are still holding in that 9-10 inch range on average, but the aggressive sunfish are gradually getting bigger and the big boys are playing with the little guys. It's no longer a stack of little runts that are the aggressive ones, the bigger ones are joining in on the fun. A lot of nice size sunfish were caught yesterday and today. Bob landed a dandy pumpinseed that was really showing it's colors...

We used both plastics and live-bait on these fish. Again, the color wasn't a huge factor, but I found white/black to be my favorite. I believe Bob was cleaning house with pink...

Today was very similar to yesterday. Fish were on the move and we had to continue to hole hop to stay on the pod. I'm really enjoying this warm weather in regards to air temp and fishing outside and fish behavior, but we could use a cold snap to help ice conditions. It's been a constant 7-9 inches for the last week or so, and nothing is changing. The wind picked up a little today but I think we're getting a little spoiled and we're taking all this warm weather for granted

I think tomorrow I'm going to try a new area and see if this activity is similar elsewhere...

Anyone land any big crappies lately? I can't seem to buy a crappie over about 11 inches right now...

[Corey Bechtold]

I got one over 11" today. I was fishing an area that had a lot of stunted Bluegills. They would drive a guy nuts nipping on anything small so I opted to up-size and see what I could come up with. Right away I had a small Crappie slide up and take my Berkley 1" Power Tube. The very next drop something decided to fly in while the bait was falling and smack it. It was a 12" Crappie! I put the fish in my Ice well because I left the camera in the truck . I kept on fishing and could only manange 1 more respectible Crappie (9.5"). I looked at how far my truck was away and decided to release the fish without getting a picture. Too bad, because it was a very tall/beautiful fish. I'll try and get out again soon and chase some Slabs.

Cole was very patient again today and had fun catching those small Gills. He's even getting good at taking off his own fish .

Good fishin,

Corey Bechtold

[megger8]

One other thing that I check is the lantern and make sure that I have plenty of tanks available. Also, for those of us that use them, make sure you have matches to light it!

[Jim Hudson]

Headed out to a new lake today in search of some crappie action. This small lake has a reputation of putting out some larger paper mouths, and I was pleasantly suprised with what I found. Not a lot of fish caught, but of all the fish caught, everyone was over 10". The biggest just pushed 14".

Fished a hard to soft bottom transition off a point that dropped into the basin. The crappies were relating to the bottom, only wanting to come up about 6" to inhale a size 10 Techni Glo Genz Bug tipped with a finesse plastic and a wax worm T-Boned. A constant pound was needed to get the fish to commit. Had to work for em, but the rewards were great!!!

[fishlakeman]

JKH, I found the exact same thing tonight, as I really had to pound it, and I was using the smallest thing in the book to get them to commit. I was fishing right outside a weedy point going into the main basin in 14 ft of water using a #12 Northland Tear drop with either a power wiggler or pink Gulp. I tried the deep basins, but only marked and caught dinky fish <4 inches. Overall though, a pretty successful metro outing as in 2 hours, I caught around 25 all in the 8.5 to 9 inch range, and one 12 inch beauty. I kept 6 in the 9 inch range for a meal. For those metro fisherman though, be careful!!! I put a leg through a 14 inch diameter hole that was cover by snow from the recent coating. And the ice is marginal at best, only finding 3 inches of good ice with about 2-3 iches of frozen slush.

[Matt Johnson]

Sunfish were abundant in the shallows but about every 10 fish was a decent one, had to pick through a stack it little ones. Sight-fished for them and saw numerous pike cruise through, always exciting. A lot of green weeds still present in a good majority of the Metro and out-skirt lakes. Fished anywhere from about 3-8 feet for sunfish today and every spot had green weeds. A lot of oxygen and nutrients in the shallows still, and the shallow water bite is still going pretty good for sunfish.

The crappies on the otherhand were a little bit deeper... or should I say a-lot-a-bit deeper Best crappie action today came in about 35-42 feet of water. Smaller fish were cruising the 18-25 foot breaks, but the larger fish were hovering over that deeper water. I upsized to a size 6 Ratso to weed through the smaller fish. No live-bait, just the plastic finesse tail. The fish were definitely schooling up and showed they wanted to play, but more often than not the fish would just race up to the jig and leave it alone. However, I did manage a couple slabs...

These fish were holding on the top of the school and were eager to intercept my offering of a tasty Ratso I believe going with the larger jig not only allowed me to more effectively fish deeper water, but it also allowed me to tune in on those larger fish as well. These Ratso's have some incredible action and not having to re-bait all the time made hole hopping very easy.

Hopefully these fish are still willing to play tomorrow, gotta take the parent's out fishing in the morning

[delmuts]

matt. when you step up to the #6, what size jig are you using that on ? thanks !

[TNFL]

What type of clarity are the lakes your fishing?

[lilman]

Matt-

Sorry I missed your call, my phone has been messed up since i dropped it in the hole yesterday.

You out on the lake you planned to be on? I swung through there after the morning bite and my report was the same.

About 20 gills to sort through before you got a nice eater. I was anywhere from 7 to 23 feet of water. I was running Tiger Jigs, power nymphs, Jammin Jigs Ant, and a dropper rig off a glow devil.

I was off the lake at 5ish, everyone was heading out to fish crappies, and I was walking in because I went through a 125 count of waxies and a box of maggies.

Red and blue was working for me too.

When I was in deeper water the bigger fish were at the top of the school, smaller ones were on the bottom. I was putting it right in front of the big one's noses and would hope they would inhale it before the little ones would chase 8 feet up to get it. Towards evening the bigger fish were moving in a lot more.

You notice all the bug activity on the LX-5? Where I was at, it was just clouded up because of them. Maybe I was just on a bug hatch.

[Corey Bechtold]

Nice to see everyone is finding some fish!

I made it out today to fish for a while after work. I started with about 14 holes and started searching with a White Berkley Power Tube. It didn't take long to find an active hole. There were Perch what liked to come within 6" of the bait and take a peek. Then, when I jigged it they shot back down to the bottom. I jumped a few more holes and voiala, Crappies!!! I couldn't get my bait even close to the bottom when they would fly up and slam it. The bite was fast and furious for about 30 minutes. Then as the sun started to set they turned a bit neutral. I changed over to a glow Shrimpo from Custom Jigs and Spins. The Crappies wanted the bait hovered above their faces for a bit till they would commit. Most of the Crappies today were in the 10" range with only a couple making 11".

There were also a few Bluegills mixed in with the Crappies and I managed a few in the 8" range. If I would have changed a bit earlier to a smaller vertical jig like a Charmer or Glitter Glow from JB's I'm sure I would have smacked up on them.

It was a fun, short outing to chase some fish and hopefully I can get out again this weekend to search for some sumo Slabs tomorrow!!!

Good luck this weekend,

Corey Bechtold

p.s.

Remember to practice Selective Harvest.

[Matt Johnson]

del,

I just used the standard size 6 Ratso jig head already pre-rigged, which is a size 6 hook...

[Captain B.R.K]

Corey- could I get your e-mail address?

Thanks,

Brandon

[Matt Johnson]

I made it out again today and this time I brought the parents along

My mom came up big with a nice white crappie!!!

I wish I would have turned the flash off so everyone could see the brilliant markings this fish had. It was incredible! Very distinct lines and a bold black dot on the corner of the gill plate. Definitely the highlight of my day was seeing her land that big 'ol slab!

Later on in the evening my dad and I worked over a large pod of suspended fish and managed a few more nice whites...

My dad seemed to find the larger ones, while I found myself struggling to catch a crappie over 10 inches To make things short... my dad got the big fish award

Always fun watching the parents land fish. My dad has the spring bobber concept down now and he put a whoppin on those fish!

Joel Nelson even made the trip over the Cannon Falls to spend part of the morning with us! Thanks for the donuts and muffins Joel!

We used size 6 Ratsos again today when running from hole to hole, and once the evening rolled around we hunkered down over a school of crappies and caught them using size 10 Maynards Flutter Bugs and size 10 Fatboys tipped with maggots. Fished in about 35-42 feet of water and almost every fish was at least 6-7 feet off the bottom or higher when they came through. Gotta love those suspend crappies

A little colder out there today, it felt good We need a little of this colder weather to get the ice back up to par so we can create more.

Enjoy the weekend!

[rangerforme]

Corey,

What kind of jig do you fish your power tubes on?

[Corey Bechtold]

Matt, I guess it runs in the Family!

Good job today! My mom only likes to fish when it's 75-90 degrees, sunny, and the fish have to be biting or she hangs it up.

rangerforme, I use a standard jighead. Some of the ones I like to use are from Scenic Tackle (collarless or Angel eye). I have also modified some myself by taking a plain leadhead, laying them on the side, hitting it with a hammer to flatten areas for painting eyes, white basecoat/yellow eyes/black dot, and clearcoat. You don't have to get too fancy . Just go with a 1/16oz jig or smaller and you're good to go.

Good luck,

Corey Bechtold

[Corey Bechtold]

Took Cole and Brooke out for a while today in search of some larger Crappies. Decided to try a new lake and things were looking bleek for a while till I started sight fishing in 12' of water. About 6' down I saw some small Sunfish, then they disappeared and I saw a flash of white. I told Cole to set the hook and he reeled in a very scrappy 11.5" Crappie. He held the fish and Brooke held the rod for the picture.

I was a little shocked but went out and pounded a bunch of holes in the area and started searching with my Berkley Power Tube. The Crappies were on the prowl and I managed quite a few fish over 12"! Brooke and Cole assisted me on several catches and we had a ball till some other anglers came out and started making too much noise. The bite ended before the sun set so we called it an early day. All fish were CPR'd today.

I hope to get out tomorrow and search for a 14+ incher.

How has everyone else been doing lately?

Corey Bechtold

[Matt Johnson]

Outstanding Corey! However, didn't you know that fishing wasn't supposed to be fun?

Great pictures and awesome fish! Good work!

[Captain B.R.K]

Matt and Corey,

I'm interested to learn a little more about your tackle assortment you have for tackling those bluegills and crappie. I have a mix of Lindy Genz worms, Bro Bugs, and Fat Boys. I also have a mix of Custom Jigs and Spins Rat Finkee's, Shrimpo's and Demon's.

I guess I should be out on the ice a little more than I have been lately, before I go asking the question. I just want to be more prepared for my next adventure.

Corey- you said something about power tubes?? You fish these in the winter? Where would I pick up the jigs and bodies for a combo like this?!?

Thanks Guys

[Corey Bechtold]

Captain, ya darn tootin I fish Berkley Power Tubes in the winter. I figure they were working right before Ice up so why wouldn't they during the Ice season? Usually the Power Tubes work best late in the season but the main reason I started using them earlier is that this year has been a wierd so far. The fish are acting like it's late Ice. There is a lot of runoff entering the lakes and there seems to be ample food and oxygen for these fish in the shallows. Don't get me wrong, there are still piles of fish out deeper right now but I am targeting larger fish that seem to be relating to the shallows. You should be able to get the Power Tubes at Fleet Farm, Gander Mt, Reeds, Sheels or any other fine sporting goods store.

Today I went out with a couple friends in search of some trophy class Crappies. We all used tubes and we were catching Bluegills, Bass, and a few Crappies. My friend caught a 14" Piggie towards evening on a tube bait. Here he is with his fish prior to the release...

Right when it was time to leave I had a hot hole for Crappies. I caught every size Crappie from 6" up to my biggest which was 13". I also lost a good fish right before we left that felt really nice . I guess the fish was going to be camera shy ...

The big Crappies are roaming in packs and it's kind of a hit or miss game when dealing with these Slabs. A little luck along with being in the right place at the right time with the right bait is critical when hoping for fish like these.

Hopefully I get a chance to get out next week and target some more trophy class Crappies.

Good luck,

Corey Bechtold

[Matt Johnson]

Brandon,

I'd say you're definitely on the right track and many of those jigs you just mentioned are in my everyday arsenal as well.

Fatboys are an excellent choice if you're looking for a nuetral jig (something that will work for aggressive and negative fish). They are small enough, yet they fish heavy and allow you to incorporate both finesse and aggressive techniques. You can also tip them with maggots, a minnow, or plastics.

The Ratso and Shrimpo continue to be some of my better producers, and on a consistent basis. With all the colors and sizes available, you can really fine tune your presentation and match the desired forage and action. I've been using the size 6 Ratsos and Shrimpos lately for weeding out the larger crappies, they also work great when fishing deeper water and looking for a slightly heavier jig when running and gunning.

Bro Bugs, Genz Bugs and Worms... they all have their place and time and I've done well with each one.

Right now I'm hooked on blade jigs like the Maynards Flutter Bug and Arnolds Fairy Jig. These jigs provided outstanding action, both for attracting and triggering fish. They fish small, yet they pack a punch! They are my new go-to jigs for both crappie and blugills.

To be honest, my jig box for pannies looks like a paint-by-numbers I guess you could call it an addiction, but I prefer to call it an arsenal Some days I'll tie on over 20 different jigs to find exactly what the fish want. What works one day might not work the next, and some days it might just be something as simple as a different color, or even a different size in the same color and style of jig. Fish can be wierd at times, there's no doubt about that.

Brandon, I can tell you this though, I've fished with you, and you're a much better panfish angler then you think. It doesn't take a whole lot to prepare yourself for finicky panfish. Going light and understanding the spring bobber concept can pay off in dividends. Yes, there are outstanding panfish anglers who never use spring bobbers, but as a general rule of thmub, spring bobbers will help those who need that extra edge when coaxing finicky fish, and as well as know, pannies can be the epitome of finicky

One of the biggest ways to increase your success is to increase your "senses" to the underwater world. Often times its not the lack of biting fish, but its the lack of the angler seeing the bite. Whether its setting the hook too late, or not even "feeling" or seeing the bite, many anglers just plain and simple assume that the fish are not biting because they're not aggressively striking the bait. Throughout most of the winter these panfish will bite very light, and many of these bites go unnoticed by anglers who are expecting to feel the hit. Its just not going to happen on most days. By rigging up a spring bobber, downsizing your jig, and by focusing on maggots and plastics instead of minnows, you can increase you success on the ice when targeting pannies. I might use minnows 2-3 times all winter for pannies. When the time calls for a minnow, I can usually get by just fine by using a plain plastic.

Locating these fish is more than half the battle most of the time, and once you locate a pod of fish, its time to find out what they want. To be completely honest, there IS something that will trigger those fish into biting. Sometimes it might take a while to find out what it is, but there is something that will work. Hooking a minnow upsidedown and through the tail on a plain hook might be the solution, or wacky-rigging a micro noodel on a Marmooska could be the ticket, you never know...

I'll tell ya what, we'll get together one evening during the Winni ICE Series event and I'll grab my panfish arsenal and we'll go through several options. Corey will be there as well and it'll be very insightful to get his input on this too (I'm saying this because I want to learn Corey's secrets as well ).

Sound like a plan?

[rangerforme]

Matt,

Do you use the spring bobber rods much? Right now I use HT signature(polor lite) 36 inch rods that I do pretty well with, but I'm wondering if you can still pound a jig pretty well with that bobber tip? Seems like you'd have a more mushy presentation in those regards.

Thanks,

Paul

[Matt Johnson]

I use spring bobbers often. In my opinion, the spring bobber will allow you to get a better action out of your jig while jigging. This is because it provides some cushion and actually causes the jig to act more naturally because it absorbs some of the shock. These panfish are feeding on micro-organisms right now and they are used to honing in on these tiny movements. Even subtle quivers and shakes are picked up and noticed by crappies and sunfish from a distance. However, I can still get the pounding action desired for attracting these fish to the area while using a spring bobber, and the action is less erratic which can be much more positive towards fishing success during the winter months.

It might take a little getting used to before you find the right jigging techniques that incorporate the desired action from the jig, but once you figure out the various sequences, I can assure you that it will make a difference under the ice.

All the hopping and dancing of the jig can turn away even nuetral-aggressive fish, its just not something they're used to or something thats natural in the water. Sure it will work sometimes, but once midwinter hits and these fish go through their doldrums it can be tough to entice those finicky fish with hops and bounces, instead it needs to be quivers and shakes.

The hard aggressive strikes will subside, and the realm of the "light bite" will return once again

[Corey Bechtold]

Matt pretty much hit the nail on the head. One thing I would suggest is go sight fishing or watch how your lure acts in the hole before you drop it down. If you have an underwater camera that is another way to really see what the jig doing down there.

Good luck,

Corey Bechtold