What's workin' now ICE...

[Captain B.R.K]

I knew when you said pictures to come shortly, we wouldn't be disappointed in them.....nice fish Corey!

[Matt Johnson]

Made it out fishing today and decided to chase down sunfish during the day and then I wanted see if the crappies were going to come out and play around dark...

We got out there around 10am and started out in about 12 feet of water over a soft-bottom flat in search of sunfish. We located a hearty school of gills right off the bat. About every 4-5 fish went about 8 inches or so. Not a lot of pigs but the action was consistent and there were enough decent size fish to keep a guy happy. I took a friend of mine with me and he had a blast watching those fish come through and bite on the underwater camera!

After about 2 hours of roughing up on a few sunfish we decided to search out a new spot. We later found ourselves working over some shallower water, in about 7-8 feet. Again, a soft-bottom area with very little vegetation. We found that breakline where it dropped from about 4 to 7 feet and worked the deeper edge. We landed some very nice sunfish, many of which were in that 8-9 inch range. Very hard fighters and relatively aggressive when they came through. We used size 10 Flutter Bugs tipped with a couple maggots. I tried dropping down various different plastics but the gills wanted a piece of meat. They were more than eager to approach the plastic, but not many takers. Even though we used Flutter Bugs, I would be willing to bet that those fish would have hit anything size 10 tipped with a maggot.

Most of the gills wouldn't come up past that 5 foot mark, and if they did they wouldn't bite. They wanted to stay within 2 feet of the bottom, I guess that was their comfort zone.

As evening rolled in (say around 4:30pm or so), we started catching a few crappies in those shallows as well, some of which were in the 13-14 inch range...

Very tall and healthy fish. They were more than willing to devour those size 10 Flutter Bugs, and I'm sure they would have hit larger baits as well. We broke off on several fish that I would assume were larger crappies as well. Nothing that ripped drag, just heavier fish that decided to max out our 2 pound test (or it could have been the Bill Dance hook-set ).

We left the lake around 6pm or so, and the fish were still biting, but we had to be someplace and had to leave. After experiencing that midnight run on gills a couple nights back, I would expect those fish would have entertained us in a similar fashion, but we'll have to wait and see on a different night...

Overall not a bad day to be out on the ice. A little windy at times, but not too harsh.

I'm hoping to make it back out there one evening this week again. Maybe those slabs will still be willing to dance, I'll have 3 pound test this time

[rangerforme]

It's a great day for me when I catch a 10 inch crappie, nice fish everyone. I still haven't topped the 10 inch mark this winter, I don't think the lakes I fish hold fish that big....

[Matt Johnson]

rangerforme,

Don't you fish the Chisago Area on occasion? I thought I saw your name in one of the posts in the that region in the past. Many of those lakes hold these slab crappies, maybe not a stack of the 13-14 inchers, but a decent amount of the 10-12 inchers. Branch out away from the crowds and work the nearby structure where you're catching the smaller ones, usually you can pick up a decent one or two doing that...

[rangerforme]

Nope, live in Prior Lake, biggest problem is I don't have a means of transportation on the ice so I'm limited to staying within walking distance of an access (right by all the all billion people). Been fishing Karls, Prior, Spring, Fish, etc, I don't think besides Prior these lakes have those size fish or at least not a lot of them.

[Corey Bechtold]

Spent the last few days jumping around up north. I had the privelage of fishing with Matt Johnson this weekend. Also got to fish the Ice Leaders event on Winnie. It was fun to meet up with a bunch of fellow FM'ers. It's always nice to visit with others that share the same passion for fishing!

Getting back to the "What's workin'", We fished weed edges adjacent to deeper water. There was a larger flat area (13'-15') where the Bluegills were roaming. There were plenty of Pike keeping the fish on the move so staying mobile was key. We fished Custom Jigs and Spins Ratso's, and some Little Atom jigs. I tipped my baits with some new soft plastics from Little Atom and had good luck with them. Color didn't seem to matter much but triggering the fish was. The key was to move your bait up above the school and make the fish chase. The bigger fish would follow to 3' under the Ice! The smaller fish would only chase the bait up a few feet.

Here are a few pics and I'm sure Matt will share some of the pics I took of him as well...

CPR'd

Later,

Corey Bechtold

[Matt Johnson]

Yep, Corey and I went on a couple adventures in search of the infamous 10-inch gill! Jeff Beckwith from Scenic Tackle was nice enough to spend some time with us on Friday. As did Bruce Mosher from Today's Tackle. Always a pleasure meeting up with some of the people who help support FM, not to mention both Jeff and Bruce are great guys!

OK, Corey, Jeff, Bruce and myself found ourselves chasing gills over a break that had shallow weeds leading to a soft-bottom basin. We worked the edge of the weeds all the way down to the actual basin, where we found fish relating to both areas. We picked up a couple larger fish near the weeds, but the majority of the larger (schooled up) fish were roaming the basin. However, they were roaming high, say like anywhere from 3-7 feet below the ice in about 15-18 feet of water. Those bigger fish definitely preferred the higher water column. I don't believe I caught a single gill over 8-inches in the bottom 5 foot water column. All the larger fish were higher up. Once we got near the bottom then the smaller fish would ambush the jig and we didn't want those chips.

As far as movements up and down the break, I would say that things were relatively inconsistent when referring to morning to evening movements. Maybe a little more movement vertically, but not so much horizontally. Largest movements were caused by pike cruising though (of which there were tons!!!). Needless to say, we broke off several times

I dropped down a jigging spoon tipped with a minnow head, and I don't think I pumped it twice before a pike smacked it! No joke. Those things were everywhere! I targeted pike for about 10 minutes and landed 3 fish! However, being the panfish geek that I am, I quickly digressed back to gills

Lure choice like Corey mentioned was relatively uniform. Size 6 Ratso's landed several fish on Friday and towards the beginning of the day, but as the day progressed we switched over to smaller profiled jigs. The Optic Stealth Jig from Little Atom was a big hit on the gills! We tipped these with both maggots and plastics, both techniques worked well. Little Atom's line of plastics is very nice as well. A wide-variety to choose from, and in some excellent colors. I know Corey did well with the Nuggies (I believe that's what's pictured on his jig that's in the mouth of the pumkinseed in the picture above). Those Nuggies have some outstanding action! They will get used again in the future

Sunday was a similar day, with similar results. A lot colder outside, but that didn't seem to hinder the fishing at all. Although we had to hop in the portable to warm our hands up from time to time. Nonetheless, the day went rather well and Corey managed several of those monster pumkinseeds that were mixed in with the gills.

Over all it was a pretty successful panfish outing. The gills were willing cooperate, and the company was OK as well Always a pleasure fishing with Corey, this guy knows his stuff! And he definitely has a knack for catching pannies on plastics through the ice! I learned a lot from him this weekend.

Here's a few more pics from this weekend...

Now back to the Metro and Southern MN lakes!

[Matt Johnson]

The shallow water bite continues. We fished anywhere from about 7-9 feet lastnight and today and the crappies were coming through pretty consistently. Most fish would come through about midway up the water column. I started off with a pink glow size 6 Ratso, no bait, and that seemed to do the trick during the hardcore flurry. But once the flurry ended, I switched over to a pink/white size 8 Ratso in order to finesse a few more of the negative fish (and to tie into a few gills ) Needless to say I stuck with the size 8 pink/white Ratso the rest of the time we spent on the ice. Fish ranged anywhere from about 10 to upwards of 14.75 inches.

A lot of water our there today, and our holes from lastnight were 2 inches wider tooday With the warm weather and aggressive-natured fish we had to stay moving in order to stay on top of them. We punched about 20 holes over the shallow flat and we would work each other until the fish moved on. Usually we could pick up 2-3 suspended crappies out of a hole before school moved on. The sunfish were all over, and they stuck closer to the bottom.

Overall it was a good day on the ice (water? ). Fishing outside was comfortable, and the company was good as well. My buddy Jeremy Cole joined me out on the ice, as did harvey lee (aka "gill master" ). We had a few laughs too

Here are a few pics from lastnight and today...

First fish on the new spot!

Sundown crappies - black and white

Jeremy Cole with a couple nice slabs

Warm-weather crappie

Fell victom to the size 6 Ratso

This one decided to hit a pink/white size 8 Ratso

Gotta love late ice in January

I would expect tomorrow to be a similar day for anyone hitting the ice. This warm weather has really stirred up the activity level of the fish. I'll be out on Lake Minnetonka for a Metro Get Together. Best of luck this weekend!

[Corey Bechtold]

Great report Matt, and great photo's!!!

I chased Panfish (mainly Crappies) on different lakes this weekend and found some things to be very consistent. Even though we are in the middle of winter ( ) the fish haven't exactly piled in their typical deep water haunts. With all the warm temperatures and lack of snowcover on the lakes there is still plenty of oxygen and food in the shallows for the fish to enjoy. I have been finding my fish on weed edges anywhere from 8'-15' of water. It seems that Crappies have been active and have been right under the Ice.

On Friday the holes on the lake would toilet bowl and the clarity was pretty minimal. That didn't stop the Crappies as I had good luck on Berkley Power Minnows. It didn't take much jigging to get the fish to inhale the bait. It seemed that they would slide in and hit the bait on the way down. A few times my bait would just disappear off the locator as a Crappie would intercept the bait on the fall.

The same rules applied on Saturday but it seemed that the bite really took off when the sun peeked out for about 10 minutes. After the sun went behind the clowds the bite quit. I stayed with the Power Minnows, just went with a brighter color to allow the fish to find my bait.

Today I was sight fishing on a lake that has good water clarity. Seeing the bottom in 10-12FOW was common. The fish acted the same as Friday and Saturday. A slow falling bait was too much for the Crappies to handle. I even had a 8.75" Bluegill hit my Power Tube when it was only a foot under the Ice! Seeing that fish fly in and slam the bait was a riot. Not too much for a battle when it was almost in the hole when I set the hook! Later in the afternoon the Crappie "on" switch was flipped. Looking down the hole reminded me of mosquitoes in summer. They were swarming the bait! I tried all kinds of different jigs/plastics but still had my best luck on Power Minnows ans Power Tubes. Color didn't seem to matter either. My biggest fish of the weekend was 13" and fell victim to the Power Tube on a 1/16 oz jighead. Watching that fish inhale my bait was a total rush!

I hope to get some pictures up from this weekend as soon as I can so bear with me.

How has everyone else been doing?

Corey Bechtold

[Captain B.R.K]

I got out to an Alexandria area lake this weekend in pursue of some crappies and bluegills. I was on that lake, where you turn right by that big oak tree and then......I can't remember anymore

Saturday my buddy and I started out shallow, around 7-10 FOW and couldn't find anything. We moved out into a little deeper water, 12-15 FOW and found the bluegills off the bottom about 2ft. They were so active that they wouldn't stay in one place to long either. We made swiss cheese out of the ice and did a pretty fair job of staying on top of them.

We used any panfish jig in size 8 with a couple of maggies threaded on. Lower the bait down down about 2 feet in front of them and thumped it! No pictures though, left the camera at home...go figure right Anyway nice bluegills all afternoon.

Sunday we decided to bring my buddies dad to our new haunt and found that our holes were wide open. This winter has been crazy We set-up shop and found the bluegills, but not as active as yesterday. Thank goodness for the spring bobber! Very light bite today. I thought the weather was about the same as yesterday, maybe a tad cooler. Whatever the case, we did catch fish but not as fast and furious as Saturday.

LOTS of fun regardless chasin' those big gils!!!

[Corey Bechtold]

Looking forward to the next outing!

Good fishing,

Corey Bechtold

[Juan Grande]

Corey,

Nice pics! I'm jealous that your four year old has caught more crappies in his life than I have and I'm almost 30.

Are you looking to adopt? Maybe I'd actually catch something then...

John

[lilman]

Corey-

How do you like the mitchell reels? What was your reasoning for going with them?

[Corey Bechtold]

I love the Mitchell reels. The key to using them during the Ice season is to take off the cap opposite the reel handle and squirt a little Abu oil or some WD will do fine. This loostens up the grease they pack in there from factory. The reels have smooth drag system and they are dependable. I also like the larger handle. There are a lot of good reels out there but I like the customer support that Pure Fishing has. If there is ever a problem they stand behind their products.

I also like the new style 100U and 300U reels from Abu Garcia.

Good luck,

Corey Bechtold

[delmuts]

at the rate the little guy is going, he'll be guiding before he is a teenager!

[Corey Bechtold]

I'm nervous that Cole will be out-fishing me soon!

I hope that all my kids keep up with fishing. It should help keep them out of trouble as they get older.

Good luck,

Corey Bechtold

[Juan Grande]

Guys,

When you guys are chasing panfish during the day, do you usually go shallow and look for weeds?

I fished this particular lake last weekend that I fish quite a bit in the summer. I went to a few spots where there are usually thick weed beds and well defined weed lines (during the summer) and there was no weeds and no fish.

If the weeds die off in these spots, is it safe to assume they die off everywhere on the lake? If so, what should my Plan B be?

I headed off with the Marcum and checked a bunch of predrilled holes that were still open from other fisherman. I found some schools of smaller sunfish and perch on some mainlake flats (15-20'). What would attract the fish to this spot?

John

[CrappieJohn]

"Weeds".... is a pretty generic term for different forms of plant life. Each lake will play host to specific weeds in specif areas and water depths. These plants can be temperature sensitive and may die off when the water reaches a certain temp upward and some are more cold tolerant than others.

I fish an area of river backwaters that harbor huge shoals of lily pads when it starts to get real hot, like in July and August. By the end of August though the heat has taken it's toll on these and they are gone along with the fish we caught while they were still green and present.

[Matt Johnson]

I've actually been doing better in areas with soft-bottoms that have little weeds. Short weeds here and there are all that I'm seeing in these areas. Seems to me like the pannies are cruising these flats chasing micro-organisms and possibly bloodworm (if they're even that shallow). I've found the shallow water fish to be more aggressive right now too. Locating large schools of fish over the deeper holes is easy, but they seem to be much more negative, or smaller in size. I haven't fished much deeper than about 11 feet for my aggressive pannies lately, both crappies and sunfish...

[Juan Grande]

Matt,

Do you use an underwater camera to identify what features the fish are holding to? I'm slowly getting better at reading my flasher, but how can you tell if there are scattered weed clumps in the area?

Maybe I need to get an AquaView so I can figure out what's going on down there.

[Deitz Dittrich]

I hate to answer for matt..But yes he does have an underwater camera.

Underwater cameras do not work on all lakes. Water clarity does play a fairly large roll in how affective they are. I too have an underwater camera(Aqua-Vu Scout XL) and use it. THe things you can learn about fish behavior is amazing, it will teach you how to read your flasher better to the point that you won't use your camera as much, but will still use it. The only real disadvantage to a camera is how long it takes to set up. A flasher you put your trasducer down the hole and your on.. a camera takes a min or so more...

[hanson]

Juan Grande-

There are many ways to determine if there are weeds or weed clumps in the area you are fishing.

- With your flasher. When you are fishing near or in weeds, they will show up on your flasher as a weeker signal.

- With your eyes. When fishing shallow like Matt is, you can look down your hole on relatively clear lakes and see what is down there.

- With your camera. A camera will be able to give you the ability to see weeds around the area you are fishing.

I would say most of the time, if you auger enough holes in an area, you can pick out the pockets of weeds or the weedline by moving around and using your flasher.

[Matt Johnson]

To be honest, I rarely use an underwater camera while fishing, only when scouting out new spots or when guiding.

You flasher can tell you if there's weeds down there, and that's my mainstay for determining that. By seeing green and orange lines faintly scattered above the bottom on the screen, I can determine if there's weeds present. Same with seeing small clumps of grass or weeds. The flasher will show me those yellow/orange lines for about the bottom foot or so, which tells me that there is some sort of vegetation down there (assuming those marks are not fish).

After playing around with you flasher for a little while, you'll get the hang out it.

Having an underwater camera will help a lot though. There is no guess work with the underwater camera, and it is an excellent learning tool to have. It not only allows you determine what type of weeds are present, but it allows you to see how your jig performs to various jigging techniques, as well as how fish directly relate to your presentation, among other things.

And with all the choices out there for underwater cameras nowadays, a person can get a very nice camera for less than $300. Both MarCum and Aqua-Vu have models under that $300 price tag. The MarCum OVS350 is nice, same with the Aqua-Vu Scout and Scout XL. There are several options out there.

But to answer your question, if I can avoid using an underwater camera I will. I like to constantly stay on the move and dropping down an underwater camera can take a little set-up time. Dropping the transducer of my LX-5 down the holes takes literally seconds, and within those seconds I'll know what I'm dealing with.

But, the underwater camera will help with locating scattered clumps and such (where a flasher won't be as accurate), so it defintely has it's advantages, I'm not going to argue that...

[Quackaddict9]

Okay a little off topic here, but I have a Aqua-Vu ZT and have had it for little over a year. I was on this lake drilling holes looking for schools of crappies/bluegills and found a big school with the camera then about 1 hour before dark, I couldnt really see anything, I thought oh its getting dark so that must be why. Then I went out on the same lake on Wed. around 4 15 and dropped my camera and couldnt see anything, but just under the ice I could see really well and out of the water. It was cloudy out and no sun.. would that be why or do you have some ideas what could be wrong with it? I told myself it was just because it was cloudy and no sun. Thanks for your time reading.

I have been doing pretty good, even caught my biggest blue gill yet, 8 1/2" blue gill and went back down. I watched it inhale a crappie minnow, that was sweet, the bite on that lake is light and watching on the camera was the key. I have a Vex comming in, cant wait!

[Juan Grande]

Thanks for the tips guys. A new camera is probably out of the question anyway, I just got a new auger so that's my fishing toy for the year.

I got a little frustrated the last time I went out because I drilled a grid of about 30 holes to cover this bay that I fish a lot in the summer and didn't mark one fish. Seems like all my money spots in the summer are empty in the winter. Then I go to spots that are traditionally dead water in the summer and mark fish. So much for becoming familiar with a lake.

John