What's workin' now ICE...

[Corey Bechtold]

Well, I made it out today to fish with a friend of mine. We decided to chase some bruiser Crappies and hit the Ice early. I wasn't expecting much with this massive cold front so I brought everything thinking I'd be fishing a tiny jig tipped with a spike or two. I started off fishing my trusty Power Minnow and was very supprised to see that the Crappies were active and hammered my presentation! We were fishing 8'-12' of water and found the fish to be on a feeding binge. I started off catching a few smaller fish, then watched a bigger fish race in and inhale my bait. It turned out to be a 13.75" Crappie!

My friend was also fishing Power Minnows and Tubes. He also caught several fish including a very nice hybrid Sunfish along with a 13.5" Crappie.

The bite as consistent for the first couple hours then the fish decided to turn more negative. I didn't feel like downsizing fearing the small fish would attack my bait too much so I stuck with the larger presentation. Later I found out why the fish turned negative, Pike! I hooked a good fish and battled it for quite a while. I had the fish right next to the hole a few times and was able to look at it's head and body. We both watched the fish swam past the hole. I couldn't get the head to start up the hole but that was ok by me. I didn't have to get my hands wet, cold and stinky as the fish finally unhooked himself. We guessed the fish to be about 8-10lbs.

The day turned out to be better than expected with several fish over 12". We could have easily decided not to fish because of the cold front and not so ideal fishing conditions but what we found was fishing is fishing and you can't catch anything if you don't go.

Here are a couple other fish from the day...

Hopefully all of you had a good weekend despite the not so ideal fishing conditions. I look forward to hearing what worked for all of you.

Good fishing,

Corey Bechtold

[rangerforme]

Corey,

How do you work you power tubes/power minnows? I've tried both short pounding jigs and big up and down movements and can't get the fish to go, they will come up and check it out and then head back down. Also, i've tried using power nymphs on like a little fatboy and have gotten a few. Personally I think the fish that i'm fishing are not the size needed to bite thos big plastics, I've yet to catch a 10 inch crappie on any of the lakes around Prior i've fished, but haven't actually fished Prior itself though.

[Matt Johnson]

The Optic Stealth jigs continue to produce for me. This morning I tried working over my usual shallow water bite, but to no avail. So, I headed out to the break and tried to find the transition... and wham!! The big gills were holding tight to that breakline. They were finicky, but I worked them over the size 10 Optic Stealth jig tipped with a single maggot...

They were relating to the bottom in about 17 feet of water. The Optic Stealth jig really allowed me to effectively target these fish. The reason for that is because they are small in profile, yet they drop quite and they have excellent feel in deeper water. Finessing those finicky gills in 17 feet of water was much easier with these heavier jigs. The sensitivity I had was very good.

I'm hooked (no pun ) on these Optic Stealth jigs. Great hooking percentage and outstanding action!

A few more shots from this morning...

[Stratosman]

Nice porkers, didn't make it out this weekend unfortunately. Looks like the cold might stick around a while keeping.

[Corey Bechtold]

Rangerforme, I usually fish these baits with a slight kicking motion. The tails on the Tubes pulsate nicely and it seems to turn the fish on. The same motion works for the Minnows as the tails just kick. I will also aggressively snap the bait to draw the fish in which works well.

I'm supprised you haven't caught the little ones. The other day we were catching some smaller fish as small as 5". Don't ask me what those little guys were thinking because I don't understand why they would try and hit something half their size?

Matt, those are some nice fish you cautht the other day. Good work! I will have to switch gears and get back to some Sunfish action one of these days...

Good fishing everyone!

Corey Bechtold

[outdoor ran]

Wydlewal and myself set out Sat. morning in search of some pannies. We first targeted a new lake for half a day. After punching around 50 holes without a mark we decided to move to a different lake not far from there. After trying 3 spots on this lake without a mark on the flasher we then decided to try one more spot about 100 yards from there. We drilled our holes in 10 feet of water we noticed fish marks from the bottom up to 5 feet. For the rest of the afternoon we tryed to get our jigs to the bottom but it was impossible with that many bluegills in there. We both took a nice meal and were guessing we landed somewhere between 130-150 gills. Lots of avg size with some dandys.

We were both using little red demon eyes with waxies. I've never seen a feeding fenzy like this before. I don't know if we just landed on a huge school or what. We never moved after that so its hard to tell. Once it got dark the flashers finally went blank and we could see the bottom on the flashers. We were like a couple of kids sitting there catching bluegills grinning ear to ear. What a blast!

[Matt Johnson]

outdoor ran,

Sounds like you had a great day on the ice! Always fun when you run into those thick schools of gills. And man do they fight hard on light gear! Sunfish are probably one of my all-time favorite species to target, year-round.

[protrapper]

We did some guiding in the Winni area this past week and did great on gills and crappies. We caught over a dozen gills bigger than 10 inches. All CPR fish. We got the big bulls on drop-shot rigs,& Hali- Droppers out deep. We tipped with larvae. Also some good sized slaba in the Bowstring area. Pounders, Bro bugs, Hali's and various others jigs and larvae did the trick. Fish were all very agressive. There was a good bloodworm hatch in one lake we fished also. Which is why the gills where on the feed binge.

Good Fishing,

Trapper

[outdoor ran]

Thats what we were thinking. Maybe some kind of a bug hatch. Something sure had them going nuts.

[wyldewal]

It was probably the best day on the ice i've had in many years. What suprised me was with all those Gills around we never had a flag from our tip ups. Maybe the northerns were just to full of bluegills. Great day is all I can say.

[outdoor ran]

Made a stop at gander this evening and armed myself with Demons, shimpos, ratso's and the nuclear ants. Going to give all these jigs a shot tomorrow at a big ole gill. I was thinking of gettting into the grubs but really didn't know what to go with. I'm so use to using bait, would be cool to get into using plastics without bait for a change.

[ASMOLEY]

I have never been much of a plastic guy but i used them the last time i went out and i the fish just bit a little softer on the ratso i had on compared to a teardrop with a waxie on it. I don't think i'm going to throw out my bait puck but i think the plastic in my tackle box is going to grow.

[CrappieJohn]

Ice brings with it some interesting tactics. No, you don't want to toss your bait in favor of plastics, though. Careful consideration has to go into plastic choices for teasing fish under the ice and even then you may have to add a euro or part of a waxie to get thengs productive.

I find that if fish are hitting just a fragment of a waxie or euro, the plastic will trigger them just fine going at it solo. If you notice nudges but no hook-up on a jig with just plastic, add something-just not much of something.

I usually prefer to fish my way into a plastics only senario too. I will begin my fishing each day with a search type bait, like a JB Jigging Eye or a Custom Jigs' Jigging Demon in #6 size, both with a waxie or euro. If I get fish, I stick with these as I like to fish a bit faster. If I get only lookers, I drop down to a more subtle presentaion, but will stay on the larger side, say a size 6 or 8 hook, and bait up. If I still get lookers and no hits, I go down in size yet again and maybe change from a horizontal presentation to a vertival style of jig, like a Ratso, but still tip it with bait. Say now I get the hits and fish, I let the bait I am using wear itself out so to speak. When there is nothing but a thread of that bait left on the hook and I still catch fish, then is when I will begin employing the plastic by itself.

If I should begin my day with, say, a Ratso in a size 6 or 8, I will bait it up. If the fish hit right away on this unit, I let the bait wear down to see if just the tail of the plastic on that jig works to get fish. If it does, I leave the bait off.

A person has to let the fish dictate what they want and then adjust their approach to catching them, so this process of elimination can be a long process or one where the first drop tells it all. Don't leave bait at home because the fish have been on a tear....things might turn the other direction too.

[Matt Johnson]

OK, a chance to finally post ...

I hit the ice with BDR on Friday for a couple hours to search for a few spots for Saturday's UPL event. We managed to locate several crappies. We worked them over in about 11-13 feet of water with a plain size 6 Ratso, no bait. A lot of crappies suspended out in deeper water too...

We also worked a few shallow areas in about 4-6 feet and managed a couple bruiser sunfish, but to no avail come Saturday. Although hanson landed one that went 9 1/8 inches. A very thick and healthy fish! We managed a couple that were in that 8.5-inch range.

We found our better fish in shallower, like anywhere from about 8-14 feet of water. We caught several crappies out in the deeper holes, but we didn't give those areas much time to see if the larger ones were there or not. We picked up one or two 10-inchers out there, so I would assume a person could sort through the school to find a few bigger fish.

Staying mobile was the key on the sunfish this weekend. It was usually a 1-fish hole before you had to move on. After you would catch one nice fish then all the littles ones would join the party and it was time to move to the next hole. The little perch seemed more than aggressive as well

For the larger sunfish we had to down-size in order to get them to bite. A few days prior they were hitting size 6 Ratso's but they wanted something smaller after that cold front moved in. Some of the bites were very light and they jig had to stay moving or they wouldn't hit it.

Sure was cold in the mornings, but by about 10am things warmed up and it turned out to be a decent couple of days on Friday and Saturday.

Sunday brought us to the 1st Annual "Catchin' Ice with BLC" event! What a great day on the ice!

We started out over a shallow area where we set up all the students and faculty. Say anywhere from about 6-9 feet of water. There were a lot of sunfish moving through, but with the cold front we experienced they were pretty tight-lipped. We still managed to pick off several decent sunfish throughout the day though, and we were contantly marking fish in most of the holes, it was just the challenge of getting them to bite.

After the event (around 3-4pm) we moved out to a different shallow water area and managed to smack-up on a few crappies and larger sunfish. Nothing fast and furious but we did see several crappies in the 11-11.5 range come through the ice (many by Corey Bechtold ) and quite a few sunfish in the 8-8.5 inch range as well.

I would expect the action to pick up as things warm up today and tomorrow. We're going to see another cold front move in later this week, so if possible things will be slowing down again after that moves through...

Enjoy the week!

[Corey Bechtold]

"Many by Corey Bechtold"...Yea the Crappies were very interesting on Sunday. The Sunfish were tricky at times as well. The main key to having success was keep moving! Most of the fish would be sitting in a hole for only a few seconds. Getting your bait down to them as quickly as possible was another key. The fish seemed to be foraging on different aquatic life on the flats. As the day progressed the fish seemed to slide out a bit deeper. It took a little concentration to decide which way the fish were moving to try and stay on top of them. Having plenty of holes to fish meant a lot of time was spent augering them in search of the roaming fish.

I used Berkley Power Minnows and it was nice to see they worked on a totally different body of water than I am used to fishing. The clarity was poor but the fish reacted to the Power Minnows very well. The Sunfish also were in the same areas as the Crappies, just lower in the water column. While the Crappies were more suspended (4-6' down in 10-12' of water) the Sunfish were more bottom oriented. We were able to get them to chase the bait quite a ways off the bottom using Maynards flutter bugs tipped with larvae and size 6 Custom Jigs and Spins Ratso's. Being subtle with your presentation also aided in more hits. Hanson did very well with a spring bobber while he fished his Ratso.

It was a great time on the Ice as usual this weekend despite the not so friendly cold front that was throwing snow and stiff winds at us. The fish are still biting good during all the unstable weather. A person just needs to grin and bear it to get out on the Ice and try their luck.

Good fishin',

Corey Bechtold

[lilman]

What I have been noticing for perch, sunfish and crappies alike is switching over to red more and more and tipping them with a half inch of the Gulp red trout worms and pounding it into the bottom, then quick snap up about a foot, kicking up silt with it and when I have the camera down, they flock to it and inhale it.

I believe we are starting to get into the best part of the year for blood worm hatches and this is duplicating them to a near t.

I also have been downsizing too for the walleyes and when one comes I have been really "kicking" the lure around, usually to keep the perch from hitting it before the walleye does. I really like using a camera this time of year when I am targeting jumbos and eyes at the same time.

[bmc]

I went out today in search of big gills, but was suprised to land on an awesome crappie bite! I fished from about noon to 3pm and landed around 30 crappies, most in the 9" range, but had a 10" and an 11" too. Only had 1 gill that was 8.75". I've never had a day crappie bite on this lake, so I was suprised to say the least. I fished a mid-lake hole, about 28' deep and found them suspended off the bottom 5-10'. As the day wore on the fish got more tight lipped, but for the first half hour or so, they were hitting the bait when it was still free falling 3' above them, on just about every drop. I live for days like today.

Brian

[Dan Thiem]

Good job lilman. Nice pictures and good advice!

[delmuts]

corey; would you contact me please! i am having a hard time finding the 2in. power minnows. del

[Corey Bechtold]

Sorry about the delay delmuts. If you are having problems finding the 2" Power Minnows check out Fishermans Factory Outlet. They should be able to hook you up. They probably aren't on their HSOforum but if you call them they will let you know what they have.

Let me know what you find.

Later,

Corey Bechtold

[delmuts]

i got bored waiting for a reply! the factory outlet don't carry them, but i did go to the main web site and used the contact us . the gal i talked to gave me a number there that i can use to order! i was waiting to hear from you before i called them . i want some of the 2 in. for this spring! thanks!

[ASMOLEY]

I found a similar lure at Gander Mtn. There power minnows made by Storm.

[panfried]

Corey, How do you rig your power minnows? Regular ball type jig heads or some other sort? If so what sizes do you shoot for. I am interested in giving it a try sometime. Thanks for the info.

[ASMOLEY]

Made it out yesterday with some mixed results. I had to change jigs a few time before i really got the crappies to hit. Caught 8 crappies 9-12in and lots of perch and one nice gill almost 9in. My Dad was fishing 15 ft. away and only ended up 3 crappies.(I guess thats what happens when your to stuborn to listen to your son ) It was a really light bite caught all my crappies except 1 on a shrimpo tiped with a euro larva. Started out with a jigging spoon with several waxies on it and you could see them chasing it on the vex but only the perch where aggresive enough to hit it. Then i downsized and the crappies started coming up the hole. We fished from 2-7 and once it got dark the fish just dissapeared. It's only going to get better from here on!

[Corey Bechtold]

panfried, I use roundhead jigs or darter types. I have also modified some of my roundhead jigs and painted them myself. If you look at some of my Power Minnow fish you should be able to see the setup I use. Try switching colors around until you find the combination that works for you.

Sorry it took so long to get back to you,

Corey Bechtold