What's workin' now...

[Corey Bechtold]

Well, with the Ice fishing season winding down it's time to start the WWN thread for OPEN WATER . I definately am starting to "get the itch" for some soft stuff.

One way to try and scratch the itch is to visit the Sportshow. It's always nice to put your hands on all the new gear and gadgets. The other day I walked away from there with a Berkley Series One spinning rod. I got the 6' ML one piece rod and outfitted it with a Abu Garcia Cardinal 101. I also bought some of the new style Realstix 2" Power Minnows. Look out Pannies, I'm comin to getcha!

I was able to talk to the nice people at Crestliner and see some of the new boats they have in their lineup. Man, it's very tempting to look at a new boat and picture myself in one, very....tempting...

Is everyone starting to get as excited as me for getting the "What's workin' now" thread off the ground?

I'm ready!!!

Corey Bechtold

[hanson]

Cut Mooneye or Goldeye, a couple fatheads on a hook, or cut sucker are really producing the fish at the moment.

Oh darn... I'm in the wrong forum again.

[CALVINIST]

Cory,

You gonna put a thumbtack on this sucker so it doesn't get away? It's a long season !

[Corey Bechtold]

Oh, I hope to keep this thread alive even without a sticky.

Nice to get a couple bites on this thread already. You guys must be getting the nervous shakes too.

Hanson, do you need a site map?

Later,

Corey Bechtold

[bnbrk94]

Cory, do you like a medium light rod for pannies in the spring or a ultra light? I was thinking of getting a ultra light rod this spring but I already have a 6'6 ml fenwick. Don't know what would be better? Thanks.

[markkstanley]

Light or ML works best for me when using slip bobbers. Better hooksets. UL or L if I am jigging or pitching depending on cover. I usually have 3 rods rigged so I can switch to whatever is working best.

Corey we need to get together this spring and find those 2lb crappie that have eluded me on Tonka so far. Maybe this year I will finally catch a crappie in Seton

[CALVINIST]

ok ice, melt! I'm done ice fishing for the season.

[Corey Bechtold]

Typically I like Medium Light rods for Crappie and Sunfish. I don't partucularly like rods that are too whippy. It seems that I miss a lot of fish because I don't get solid hooksets or feel the bites. I use the 6',6'2",6'6" and 7' Medium Lightning rods for Crappies, Sunfish and Walleyes as well. IM7 graphite is a good all around choice for fishing. I feel that I can use almost any rod for Crappies as long as it's not too fast at the tip. That new Series One seems to be perfect! I built a rod at a rod building class a few years ago (6'2" St Croix Avid) and it is a little too soft in the middle. I tend to miss a lot of bites and if I get a Crappie up to the boat and try to flip it in I loose a good number of fish for some reason. I switched over to my other rods and hardly lost a fish. Pretty wierd how that works sometimes.

Yea, we should try and hook up Mark. Shoot me an e-mail and we'll try to hit some spots as soon as the Ice is all gone and we'll see if we can find some fish and maybe a 2lb'er .

I'm so excited!!!

Corey Bechtold

[Mr. Pike1]

I can't wait either. I see some of the little channels are open on the metro waters. One of these evenings at dusk I am going to have to toss a line in to see if I can find some schooled up crappie or sunfish......

I am hoping by middle of next week I can launch my boat and do some testing of all the equipment and of course do a little spot fishing as well in the shallows.

Ice is nice but open water devine !!!!

[deacon]

Nothing is working now, need ice to get off lakes and a little warm weather.

[Corey Bechtold]

I hope to have an Open Water report after this weekend. Hopefully it's a good one but it really doesn't matter. I'll be in a boat!!!

Good luck,

Corey Bechtold

[Cyberfish]

Wow, no reports yet? Looks like I get to do the first one! wow I need to get a camera! I want to post some pics too.

I went out on a small metro lake to try my new float tube and chase some crappies. The bite was on! I started out with a cubby mini mite 2 ft under a mini stealth float. got bit on the first cast, tiny crappie! after ten dinks and a couple of fair sunfish I stepped up to a 2 inch power minnow chartruse with white belly. that kept enough of the smaller fish away so the big slabs could have a shot at it! They were agressive today some of them hitting the float instead if the bait! I got around 30 crappies, the biggest close to 15 inches!

[friendlyfisher]

That sounds awsome Cyberfish. How deep of water did you find these fish in? And what time of day were you out there? Keep the reports coming. friendly

[Cyberfish]

They were really shallow some were hitting the float even, the biggest one was around 3 ft down. got most of the bigger fish around 4 to 6 pm...Gonna try again tomorrow evening, bring a friend with a camera hopefully, tho the whoppers seem to be camera shy! that 2 pounder woulda looked nice posted here, oh well

[ironman]

Just what I wanted to hear!! With the beautiful day on tap...I'm gonna give my fly rod a try for some of them shallow crappies. I'll have the light spincast along as insurance. I want to try out some new flies. Here's hoping that they are still aggressive...maybe I need to tie up some bobber imitations.

[Corey Bechtold]

Woolybuggers?

[Corey Bechtold]

Wow is about all I can say so far. It's been a great start to the season for me. Cole has really started getting the hang of setting the hook considering we've only been out 2 times. Brooke also got in on the action today and is quite the student of the game!

I can't wait to get all of them in the boat at once and see how they do. All I can say is that I hardly had a chance to fish myself today with all the unhooking and re-casting I had to do for just Cole and Brooke!

Water temps were 46-48 degrees on Saturday, 40-50 today.

Clarity was about 4' in areas.

Moon was 3/4 full.

Depths were between 4'-8'.

Fish were around emerging vegitation.

Sizes were between 10"-13".

Can't say what we were catching them on (I think can render a guess though ).

Here are a couple pictures from the day...

Cole with a nice Crappie

Brooke with one of her nicer ones

Brooke takes good pictures too

Good fishing and remember to practice Selective Harvest and/or Catch and Release.

The future is up to us,

Corey Bechtold

[Cyberfish]

Nice pics Cory! Wow those kids are turning into real fishmasters! I need to get a camera really bad! What kind of camera do you use. what price range am I looking at to be able to post nice pics on here?

[Cyberfish]

How bout Woolybobbers?

[Cyberfish]

Well, me and CALVINIST got out for a little crappie chasin last nite. no monsters but lots of nice fish. tried a few different lures, all seemed to work. beetlespins, in line spinners, jigs. the best bait for my was a 2 inch power minnow on a gold hook, no weight. just twiching it a foot below the surface.

[ironman]

Yup..I got some white, white/red and yellow buggers to try as well as the standard black. Went out on Monday..no luck with the crappies but did manage a ton of sunnies and one bass. The buggers didn't produce caught everything on a black nymph. Try again today.

[hanson]

Cyberfish-

Digital cameras have definitely come down in price.

I just bought a Nikon Coolpix 4600 this fall for about $140-150 from a large camera store on hsolist. It takes great pictures, is really easy to use, and very compact. You shouldn't have to spend a lot of money now days to get a good camera.

[Cyberfish]

Thanks Hanson! Is that the camera you post on here with? I should check em out! I hope they have em in the stores, don't really like to buy online. Are they weather resistent? I do alot of my fishing in a floattube or wading, or in the rain!

[Corey Bechtold]

Cyberfish, choosing the right digital camera can be tough. So many good choices out there. I have used a Fuji Finepics till Bailey dropped it on the floor and it quit working. It was a 3 megapixel and worked great for posting. Now I use a Canon Powershot A85 with 4 megapixels. It is a great camera but takes a bit of shrinking down to get the photo's to postable size. They also show every little detail or flaw because of the awesome detail. A good camera but maybe not a boat (float tube) camera. Camera's have definately come down in price and you should have no problem finding one for under 200 bucks. If you have any more questions you should check with some of the people in the Photo Sharing forum. There is a lot of good expertise in there.

Good luck,

Corey Bechtold

[Corey Bechtold]

A little late but I have a "What's workin' now" from yesterday.

I was able to sneak out early from work and do a little fishing with my Dad. We started on a new lake trying to find some fish. We found some Crappies shallow but they were small. After fishing for only 30 minutes we decided to jump lakes to search for some bigger fish and hopefully better numbers. We made the right decision because it didn't take long to get on the fish. The bite was very similar to the other day when I was out with Brooke and Cole. The Crappies did most of the work and they were good sized too. We were fishing about half way down in 5'-8' of water. There were a few times where shaking your float triggered some bites but for the most part just letting it sit was just fine. I had quite a few fish push the float up instead of taking it down today as well.

It was a real "Timing" bite as the Crappies went crazy for about an hour for us. After that they were still there but decided not to bite as aggressively. I found the fish tucked into some weeds and were a bit reluctant to come out and take the bait.

Here are a couple pictures from the day...

Dad with a 12" Crappie (CPR'ed)

Another Crappie that fell to a 2" Power Minnow

We'll see what the weather holds in store for us in the next few days. Hopefully I get a chance to get out to some different lakes and search out some trophy class Crappies!

Good luck and let's hear the reports,

Corey Bechtold