What's workin' now Ice...

[rangerforme]

I 2nd the fireline crystal, although i lost like 6 big crappies the first time by setting the hook way to hard, all you have to do with that stuff is pull. Can feel everything though.

[Mr. Pike1]

Wow, I have had my share of the 12-14 crappies but the 15" plus are approaching the tropy class.

Great to see all the photo's. I will be out this weekend it the Little falls area targeting walleye and panfish. I am hoping to have some panfish success on one of the little farm ponds that know one fishes and on occassion you find them chock full bull sunfish and slab crappies.

Corey, I am guessing you are fishing waters in Northern part of the state

[Cyberfish]

Wow Corey those are total whales!! nice Job!

[hanson]

Quote:

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Hanson- That 11-12" crappie would happen to have come from a lake north of Deer River would it? The spot looks really familiar.

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Hmmm... You better e-mail me and we can chat.

[Corey Bechtold]

Thanks for all the replies everyone. It was an awesome day and I can't wait to do it again....

I couldn't help myself so I went out again to see if I could get my dad on some nice Crappies. Wednesday was definately better but there were still some nice fish caught today. It was fun having my dad come fishing with me since we don't get to spend much "Father and Son" time anymore. I was happy to see him trying the Power Tubes and catching fish to boot!

Here are a few pictures from the little stint today...

Me with a 14.25" Crappie.

A tanker Bass that couldn't resist the Power Tube!

Solo shot Crappie.

Solo shot Bluegill.

Dad's Big Bass!

I hope everyone is having fun this Ice fishing season.

Good fishing,

Corey Bechtold

[Coach1310]

Hanson- You've got mail!

[tweedlap]

Corey B,

Do you run a backer line with the 1# Firline? If you do please share.

Thanks,

tweed

[Matt Johnson]

Quote:

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Do you run a backer line with the 1# Firline?

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I'd definitely use some backing with the Crystal. It takes up barely any room on the spool. Add some mono backing to help fill it up, this way the line will come off the spool better and won't coil up as much either...

That 1lb Crystal is some cool stuff. A lot of positive comments about the larger pound tests as well. Several guys are using 6lb for walleye and really seem to like it...

[tweedlap]

Matt,

Thanks for the info. Now I hope I can see good enough to tie a knot with the stuff. It is finer than hair!

Thanks Again,

tweed

[The Yeti]

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[The Yeti]

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[The Yeti]

Darn it.... I can't get the pic to post!!

[The Yeti]

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[The Yeti]

I give up.!!!! Anyway... It was a nice fish..

[delmuts]

tweed. if you don't already wear glasses; get a pr. of the cheap reading glasses and keep them handy.( this was a tip i learned from a good friend) for $2 ea. i have a pr in many of my storage boxes for open water.

[tweedlap]

delmuts,

Great suggestion. Thanks.

tweed

[hanson]

I made it down to Team Otter's FM Get Together on Lake Tetonka this weekend to do a little panfishing.

First thing I noticed on my drive down was the wind. Holy smokes was the wind ripping from the West/NW. The wind doesn't just blow on its own so there was some kind of cold front pushing through with a major pressure change to go along with it.

The way the fish were acting once we were fishing proved my hypothesis. They were cooperative but biting extremely light and finicky. The word from a few guys that fished the previous night was the bite was amazing. Hmmmm... good bite before a front comes through, that doesn't sound odd does it?

We were actually fishing fairly deep (15-18') in a deeper water area that pushed in shallow. The gills were on the move today. When you would get on a school, they were thick lighting up the bottom 3-4' of my Marcum. If you were fast enough, you could get 3-4 fish out of the school and then they moved on. So a guy had a couple choices, auger holes and chase the schools around, or sit in one spot and wait for them to come back. I did both and found the sit & wait approach was actually more productive.

Fish were "average" sized for gills, perch, and the occasional crappie. I did not catch any fish that were pigs, just a lot of nice fish.

I just picked up a bunch of Little Atom tackle so I was giving that a workout today. Little Atom Optic Stealth in white/pink tipped with a White Nuggie is what I worked all day. That color combo was working alright so I got lazy and didn't change things up at all. I did have to tip my jig with a Eurolarvae to "seal the deal". I couldn't get a good plastics only bite going but they seamed receptive to a piece of meat on there. I'm still shocked by the size of some of the gills that would eat this. 4" bluegills were eating a 1 1/2" long piece of plastic. Kind of crazy.

Anyway, here's a couple photos of a typical crappie for the day. I had a few nicer ones early but didn't take any photos.

[Stratosman]

Hit a small WI lake on Saturday with two friends and found a finicky bluegill bite, there was a mixture of sizes but the nice ones were real nice, largest was 10 1/4" with the majority of the larger ones being 9" +-... depths were around 9-10' silty bottom on fertile lake that max's out at about 15'. Even though the bite was sporadic, 10 fish per hour was about the average per guy. Only a few crappies this time, with nothing for size. I changed jigs a few times throughout the day and noticed no real preference for style, green was the color however, and nothing would touch any plastics, just too negative, one or two spikes was the ticket.

[Corey Bechtold]

Just as Matt suggested. One should always use mono backing for Fireline or else the line just spins around on the spool. If you didn't want to use line than just tape a section of line down to the spool before you start.

As for tying jigs with Fireline I have had better luck than with fine diameter mono. It seems to show up great with little light.

Good luck,

Corey Bechtold

p.s

Good job Hanson! Also liked hearing that others are having success for Pannies!

[hanson]

Quote:

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Good job Hanson! Also liked hearing that others are having success for Pannies!

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Corey-

That was really my first panfish outing for the year. Gotta hit the ice again soon after results like the other day.

Still waiting for a couple lakes near me to freeze a little better and then game on!

My panfishing is improving and improving every time out. Couple tips & tricks & Bam! Success!

[jigging-matt]

Fished a small private pond on Sunday and had very good luck on Sunday. Much like previous posts, the sunnies and crappies were very active and you could chase them or wait for them to come back to the hole. They were about 3-4 feet off of the bottom in about 13 feet of water. They loved the diamond jigs. Absolutley had a blast. Can't wait to get out again.

[Ole the Guide]

I went out Wednesday and clobbered the crappies. I had my camera down and thought I'd try a crappie tube with no bobber (like I fish on open water). I dropped it down and thought, "Hmmm, this probably isn't going to work!" Then all of a sudden, Bam, they went crazy on that tube. I must have caught 10 in about a half hour's time. I didn't have anything on it, just a plain tube. It made a believer out of me.

Has anyone else used that presentation through the ice?

Ole

[The Grebe]

I've been working my way toward it, I have bought a variety of plastic panfish presents and I've had some success on them...I have some other 'spearmints' I want to try once I find the time to get out fishing...I'm sure I'm going to get the plastics more involved.

[Matt Johnson]

Found some pannies relating to the shallow weeds today, anywhere from about 4-7 feet. If we found the green weeds then we found the fish. Crappies were going the first couple hours after light and then the gills we scattered throughout afterwards.

The bite was pretty finicky most of the day. This cold spell is something unique, so I don't think the fish were used to it

Little-Atom Nuggies worked well, as did Size 10 Shrimpos. Also landed a few fish on maggies and size 10 Flutter Bugs.

This cold weather should help the fishing once things stabilize. And I know it's definitely helping the ice... it's about time!

[Gordie]

went out to my house tonight and forgot to pack more waxies only had half dozen in the box when they ran out thought I was done but tried the head and body parts of crappie minnows and had real good success catching bigger gills and crappies than with the waxies. I also forgot my backpack with all my hooks and at least I had four jig sticks rigged with a green ant , minni moon glow, and two other jigs not sure what there called but northerns took them from me anyway. I think tomarrow I will pick up some plastics and leave in the house for just that emergency.

GOOD LUCK EVERYONE!!