What's workin' now ICE...

[delmuts]

panfried! go to pg 13 on this forum , you'll find the pictures corey is talking about.

[Matt Johnson]

I found a healthy pod of crappies relating to the soft-bottom flat in about 13 feet of water. I threw quite a few jigs at them and it ended up being the size 14 (4mm) Orange Wolfram Epoxy jig with a single euro that proved to be the ticket...

They wouldn't touch the larger jigs. I tried a size 6 Ratso but the crappies would race up to it and that was it. However, the weird part was that it worked wonders on the gills...

The gills would come screaming up for it and just devour the jig! No bait, just a plain size 6 hot pink Ratso.

The only thing the crappies wanted were those small profiled, horizontal jigs tipped with a single euro.

A crazy day on the ice, and some very unique behaviors. But then again, nothing would surprise me this winter...

[rosspj59]

Nice fish there Matt. Pretty suprising a big crappie like that would be so picky. Must be pretty small stuff they are feeding on right now. I was fishing some suspended crappies yesterday and a guy with a camera said the crappies looked to be feeding on some small bugs suspended in the water column. Could have been why they didn't want my genz worm too much. A little too big I guess.

[Rick]

Here's a 12.5" Crappie caught on a Gold Jigging Demon. I caught a few on the Wolfram jig and the Little Atom Optic Stealth as well with waxies. They didn't wan't euro larvae. The best size crappies came on the jigging Demon with a whole crappie minnow.

This 12.5" Crappie came over a mud basin that was close to 30' suspended about 2'-3' off bottom. Had to let the crappie minnow do the work of enticing on a gold jigging demon or very lightly jig a waxie to get them to bite (fast jigging or still with the waxie did not work).

[Corey Bechtold]

Nice fish everyone!!!

I went out Saturday with the kids in search of some slab Crappies. I wanted the kids to sharpen their skills in sight fishing. We fished with another friend of mine who has really been bitten with the "Plastics revolution". We were all using Power Tubes and Power Minnows. I was catching some smaller Crappies on one side of the lake while my frind was fishing another area. All of a sudden I get a call from him and he tells me he just caught a hog. He asked me to have the camera ready because he wanted to get a pic and release the fish ASAP. He cruised up on his 4 wheeler and showed me his catch. It was a 14" Crappie that hit a orange and yellow Power Tube on a 1/32oz pink jighead. We took a couple photo's and he released the fish to grow some more. Here is a picture of his catch...

We then headed down to the flat area he was fishing. The kids were set up in the house fishing while I took the locator and went hole hopping. Apparently Cole was watching the Power Minnow down the hole while Bailey was holding the rod. The house was closed down when all of a sudden I hear Cole yell "Bailey, you got a fish!". I hear the drag from the reel going a bit and after a few seconds I hear Bailey, Brooke and Cole start yelling that they had a fish. I asked what it was and Cole said "a Crappie". The lid flips open and I see Bailey holding a beautiful 12.5" Crappie. I ran over, snapped a couple pictures and we released the fish. Here is a shot of Bailey with her team catch...

The day continued with severeal other Crappies getting caught. I was using a new color Power Minnow and having good success with it. I fished it on a 1/16oz white jighead, Mitchell 310XG reel, and a 28"ML Lightning rod. Bailey was using the 28"L Lightning rod and a Abu Garcia Cardinal 100U reel with the same bait as me. I had 3lb Micro Ice on my reel and Bailey's was 2lb Micro Ice. We only fished for a couple hours catching somewhere around 30 fish. My friend stayed a bit longer and caught the afternoon flury of active Crappies. It was a great day to hit the Ice with the kids and I was really impressed on how paitient my kids were on this day. I look forward to getting out again soon and hopefully putting the kids on another Hot Bite.

Good fishin',

Corey Bechtold

[Tyler Holm]

9.25" Gill - Glow Red GoDevil

[Farley]

Caught 13 Crappies last night the smallest to come up the hole was 10" the largetst was 12". We were using small crappie minnows and the jigs with white glow worked the best. We were even getting them on plain hooks and minnows. Then, I hooked into what I thought maybee was the next world record crappie, but it was one of those pesky 21" walleyes. They bit from 1/2 hour after sunset untill about 9:00. Annandale area. I have pics but not on a digital camera.

[PikeBayCommanche]

Nice Fish everyone great to see everyone is having some success!

[Captain B.R.K]

No kidding, great pictures!

Corey- Hanson has your fish holder thingy abobber (can't remember the name of it) and told him to give it to you at Cool Cats this weekend!

[Corey Bechtold]

Ice Well !

Tonight was a tough bite for me, Cole and Brooke. We started the evening with nothing but Perch in every hole. After the sun went down there were a few Crappies roaming around. I had to do a lot of hole hopping in search of fish but the real trick was getting them to bite. Bites were VERY light. I used Scenic Tackle Go-Devils packed with larvae as a search tool for aggressive fish. If they looked but wouldn't take I would quickly drop a teeny Shrimpo tipped with a spike down the hole to get them to eat. Sometimes it can seem more rewarding getting reluctant fish to bite (just not when you have two kids along).

Can't wait to get out again and see what I can come up with.

Good luck,

Corey Bechtold

[markkstanley]

Tough bite for Calvinist and I last night. Tried Ratsos, Shrimpos, waxies, Little Atom plastics and minnows. Best lure early turned out to be red glow devil packed with waxies. Then bite switched to minnows. Red glow was by far the best lure color. Green glow did nada. If it wasn't for spring bobbers we would not have seen the majority of the bites. Nothing big to report but some nice 10" crappies came up the hole.

[CALVINIST]

They were the most lethargic bunch of crappies I had seen all season. Would hardly chase a thing. At least they were decent size, the ones we did catch. Going to have to give that morning bite a try for sure.

[Matt Johnson]

Well, found myself working much deeper yesterday and today than expected. I haven't targeted sunfish in less than 15 feet all winter, but that wasn't the case the last couple days on the body of water I fished. Yesterday and today I found all my nicer gills in 22-26 feet of water. They would suspend about 2-3 feet off the bottom during the day, and once 5pm rolled around you could pick some up higher in the water column.

What a frustrating couple of days though. My tried and true spots just didn't do what they should be doing this time of year.

My dad did manage to land one of the biggest gills of his life though, measuring in at about 9 5/8 inches...

He caught this one in about 22 feet of water with a size 10 Flutter Bug tipped with a maggot around 6pm lastnight.

Yesterday was a day of punching holes. I went through a whole tank of auger gas and half-way through a second tank! Must have punched several hundred holes between out group, no joke! They just weren't holding in their usual spots.

We did manage a few nice crappies in the 10-11 inch range once about 6pm hit. They came through suspended and were more than eager to bite.

Hopefully tomorrow and the rest of the week brings back a little "normalcy."

Turtle Lake UPL event in the morning...

[eyepatrol]

I was on a pretty good bite down in the Mankato area this morning. Started fairly early at 4:30am and was getting fish at the on-set. Today was a CJ&S day for me. Dead-sticked with a size 8 demon glow & minnow and jigged with a size 6 glow-red demon jigging spoon tipped with a whole minnow. Both were producing pretty well, but when I decided to tip the spoon with euros instead of a minnow, it quickly became one-rod action. Very, very agressive and my catch rate was significantly higher using euros. Crappies were from 6" - 12".

Tried an orange & chartreuse marmooska tipped with a couple euros, but that wasn't procuding well. Went to a plain size 8 black shrimpo which only produced a couple fish, so I then tipped it with some meat (waxie) and the sunnies couldn't resist. Very agressive also as many fish inhaled the jig to a point where you couldn't even see it. Sunnies were from 5" to 8", bot not more than that. 11fow at the base of a slope over a large mud flat. Crappies were 4'-5' below the ice, sunnies were 1'-3' off the bottom, and a couple times higher.

Both crappie and sunnies were more than willing to chase down (or should I say up) my jigs.

On an interesting note, there were a few times throughout the morning hours (from 8:00 to 9:00) where my Marcum VXR would light up with all kinds of green marks and the sunnies (and a couple crappies) would come in thick. Wondering if this could have been either tiny minnows or micros? Do micros "swim" at all? Perhaps there was a slight underwater current pushing along? I'm not sure. Anybody have ideas about this?

bc

[redbandit]

Quote:

---

We did manage a few nice crappies in the 10-11 inch range once about 6pm hit. They came through suspended and were more than eager to bite.

---

It may be my inexperience talking but why is it when there's a tough crappie bite with fish following off the bottom that some come through suspended half way up the water colum and are eager to bite? At that point I've looked around a bit hoping to find the eager school but to no avail, just a sporatic suspended fish with the same appetite.

[Corey Bechtold]

Here's what happened for me this weekend...

Saturday I fished for Panfish in a few different areas. The fish weren't on their shallow haunts during the day so I started drilling holes all over the place. Finally I marked a group of fish suspended off the bottom in 38' of water. They were mainly Perch but I think that there were Crappies and Sunfish mixed too. As evening progressed the Perch became less active and I started picking up a few more Crappies and Sunfish. They were in the same holes as the Perch earlier in the day. Then as the sun was setting the fish started to make their move up shallow. The bite was ultra light and the fish were mainly small. I fished a small horizontal Your Bobbers Down (YBD) jig with a few spikes and Cole fished a YBD vertical jig with spikes. Both seemed to work good but the fish just weren't very active and being subtle with the jigging was what it took to get the fish to take.

Sunday I fished the UPL with Hanson and we did a lot of searching. We started looking deep but didn't find anything but shiner minnows along the bottom . We checked some break lines and mid depth flats. Nothing. Then we moved over a depression near shallow flats and weeds and BAM, fish! They weren't the most active either but we were able to get them to bite with some finesse presentations. Hanson was using Ratso's with a spring bobber rod and catching both Crappies ans Sunfish. I fished Power Minnows, Tubes and Micro tubes. I was looking for some bigger Crappies but couldn't up size any of our fish. I began sight fishing and witnessed how finiky the fish were. Using my eyes instead of electronics I saw several Sunfish approach the bait and peck at the sides or tail of the jig hardly ever getting the hook in their mouths. I did manage a few nice Bluegills on the Micro tube fishing it real slow. I did have a big Crappie come in with about a half hour left to go in the UPL. It came up to the bait and bumped the side of the bait. I let her spit the bait so I wouldn't spook her. Then she hit the head of the jig so I did nothing. Finally the fish sucked the bait in and I set the hook. The bait just slid right out of her mouth! She swam away and then a small Pike bolted in and hit. It was quite interesting to see how neutral the fish were acting. Especially because it was similar to how it was the night before.

I also hit a different lake on my way home on Sunday to see if I could get some bigger Crappies. There were some holes where the fish went absolutely nuts. Nothing huge but a few nice fish on the Power Minnow. The Sunfish were also very active as far as looking at the bait but not hitting. Right when I thought the fish would go on a rampage when the sun set they did just the opposite. They went neutral. Lots of lookers and few takers.

I tried to make sence of what happened this weekend and there was a few things that stuck out at me. First was a East wind (I know Tom might have something to say about this ). The other was looking at the peak activity tables. Very low peaks with little activity. If there is something to be said about this, it was very true this weekend. Sometimes there is nothing a guy can do but throw his hands up in the air and say that they just weren't "On". I'm going to take a closer look at this the next time I go out fishing and see if there are any other variables that jump out at me.

Hope everyone had a good weekend,

Corey Bechtold

[CrappieJohn]

Look at it this way Corey....you got home dry and alive. That being said, the fresh was good for you and so was the exercise. And your wife probably needed a time out from you. And not having a stellar day everytime out helps you appreciate the good days. And it is good to NOT catch fishon power minnows once in a while.

Love me yet?

[Corey Bechtold]

Love and hate sometimes . You definately hit the nail on the head with the "not having a stellar day everytime out helps you appreciate the good days". It definately makes a guy look at the variables that can change the outcome of the fishing trip. There are times when there is just nothing else a guy can do to make the fish bite. I have found this to be especally true on the Mississippi river in your area.

And yes, I did try something other than Power Baits. Spikes, Larvae, small ratso tails, etc.

Keep it up wiseguy (lol),

Corey Bechtold

[CrappieJohn]

When are you going to be ready for some more "river" lessons, Corey?

[Corey Bechtold]

Man, I'm always ready!!! Can't wait till the rain shaves some Ice off the lakes. (sorry Matt )

Lets go!!!

Corey Bechtold

[Matt Johnson]

Experienced one of my better days on the ice today. I guided a guy on a free guide trip (that I donated to the Pheasants Forever banquet) and we got into a fast and furious mess of crappies and sunfish! My dad came along and he is still talking about it!

We got on the ice around 7:30am and the crappies were cruising a mid-basin in about 12-13 feet of water. We worked them over with size 6 Ratso's and they were very aggressive and roaming high in the water column. Nothing over 12 inches, but a lot of 10-11 inch fish...

We played with the crappies until about 10am and then we ventured out in search of gills.

We mananged to locate a healthy pod of sunfish in about 4-7 feet of water, right amongst a thick patch of weeds. We had to fish deep in the weeds in order to hook-up on the fish. Our goal was to find a few gills over that 9-inch mark, and we managed one that went about 9 1/16 inches. Everything else was under 9. Quite a few in the 8-8.5 inch range, so we did get a little tug from a few of the gills.

Around 2pm we decided to go back and play with some crappies again. Sure enough, they were still holding in the same spot, and we had a field day until about 5pm when we decided to head home...

It's always fun to see my dad get excited over a day of fishing. And I'm glad things worked out the way they did. He was grinning ear-to-ear the whole ride home

A great way to kick-off the late-ice season!

[Corey Bechtold]

Good job Matt! Sounds like things are starting to shape up for a good late Ice bite. Nice pictures too.

Good fishing,

Corey Bechtold

[Rick]

Way to go Matt! It's always fun when you hit the crappies and gills like that.

It's also awesome you getting out with your Dad!

[32 degrees]

Now that walleye season is over I finally got out and after some crappies and gills. Little did I know at 5:00am on Saturday morning what I would stumble upon. I had decided to try a "new" lake in every sense. Never fished it and had no idea where to start. The info I heard was that thier might be a few crappies worth finding.

Well, by 5:30 I was set up on my first spot and catching crappies. The problem was they were on the small side, 5-8". So around 8:00am I decided to move. With no lake map and no clue how deep it was I just started driving. There was a neck down area right before the northern-most part of the lake that opened up into a small bay that looked promising. So I drilled a hole, set up and looked down. It was about 5.5 FOW. I saw 4 fish. I thought they were bass, then I reconcidered and decided they must be crappies. My #12 red glow jig brought one up close. The fish rolled to get in better position to strike. I caught a good look, I could not believe my eyes! GIANT BLUEGILLS!

Before this weekend I had never caught a 10" bluegill. Well, I ended up catching 8 over ten with two of them going 10.5". The small ones were over 9"! Some nice crappies also came through Sunday morning, the biggest was 13". All the fish I caught were released to fight again. There was a small window to take advanage of these fish. They came and were gone before I knew it. I searched, and searched, but only was successful in the morning in that one area. It was truly a memorable weekend. One I will not soon forget. Thankfully I remembered the camera! I just hope I can find them again!

[Corey Bechtold]

Good job!!! Especially on releasing the bigger fish. We talk about it a lot on the site about how important it is to release the bigger fish and it's nice to hear people are starting to do this. The future is looking brighter!

Good fishing,

Corey Bechtold