What's workin' now Ice...

[ozzie]

It was tough to become a plastic user but once I found Shrimpos and Ratso on the bait shop shelf I bought a couple packs and have become a better fisherman!!! They really work all I do is tip with 1 euro for scent and alot of the time you don't even need that!!!! I have caught crappies sunnies perch and walleye all with these plastics!!! Now I buy anything with a tail like Tehcniglo and others on the market and they all are very useful!!!

[MNMAV93]

hey ozzie, this is my first year out ice fishing and i ended up catching 5 blue gills today with the ratso, i didnt try the shrimpo just cause the ratso was working fine for me. i was using pink on pink #8 ratso and was fishing foot off the bottom and was having good luck. this was 15 fow.

nip

[ozzie]

awesome!!! the more you use them the more confidence you gain with them!!!! All my fishing partners use live bait (waxies,minnows,euros) they are starting to at least try the plastics and slowly starting to see the light!!!

[Corey Bechtold]

Here's "seeing the light"...

Here's Cole with a nice Crappie that hit his Berkley Power Tube.

Here's "What's workin' now"!

Cole and myself went out for a couple hours on Sunday and found a nice school of Crappies roaming a weedline. Most fish were relating to any standing weeds. If I was in an area where the weeds were laid down the fish weren't willing to venture out of the weeds to get the bait (too many predator fish around).

Cole managed three Crappies while I was still drilling holes! I looked over and saw the rod bending the first time so I watched while drilling more holes. I watched him drop his bait down, jig it then wiggle it, then set the hook on the Crappies! Using Fireline Crystal definately helped him get a good hook set. It was as if he just shuffled his feet across the living room floor and touched something metal. When the Crappies hit it was like he just got shocked.

Some of the gear we were using were:

Power Tubes (white) on a 1/32oz jighead. (as seen in photo)

Fireline Crystal 1lb test.

Mitchell 310Xe Spinning reel.

Thorne Bros 32" Panfish Sweetheart Outside.

And I have been really impressed with the new Vexilar FL-20!

Here's how I worked...

I pounded holes with my Strikemaster along the weed break and then came back with the Vex to look for standing weeds. I marked the holes by clearing some of the snow around the holes with weeds. Then I grabbed my rod and started hole hopping looking for fish. Luckily Cole took some of the "guess" work out of things by finding the fish right away!

Being mobile and staying on the school was key to our success.

Good luck everybody,

Corey Bechtold

[delmuts]

i think we need to see coles' picture on the front of a magazine , just like deitz!

corey. are those 1 in or 2 in. tubes?

[Matt Johnson]

Great report and pics Corey! Looks like the crappies are still biting in your neck of the woods

[tommyk]

Plastics, plastics, and more plastics. That is what is working right now for me. The last time I bought any kind of live bait was early December and those waxies never ended up seeing the hook. To me there is nothing more convienient than having a few tiny boxes with an assortment of plastics that never dry up, freeze, or need a changing of water. I like to use a slightly larger presentation to thin out the little guys. For the most part I will use the same size jigs for gills as I do for crappies.

I have found that trying different combination of color has been critical. A gold size 10 Diamond Jig has been my top producer as far as the jig head goes, same size in glow red works well at night, and threaded on that has either been a purple/blue flake Lindy Micro Mino, or a hot pink Little Atom Wedgee. And then there is my purple flake/black size 6 Shrimpo combo that I use when the bite is more agressive. The thicker Shrimpo/Ratso plastic holds up better through a fish after fish bite.

Depths of 12 feet or less have been producing the whole year for me with these areas ranging from small secluded bays, drops coming off land, or open water mud flats. Most fish have been bottom orientated except for one body of water where i had crappies coming through 1 to 2 feet under the ice over 7 feet of water. So basically check every inch of water before ruling out a spot.

Mixed bag from deeper weeds... (a few of my dads fish in there too)

Shallow water Crappies...

[Corey Bechtold]

1"ers delmuts.

Good fishing,

Corey Bechtold

p.s.

Nice pictures and report Tommy K!!!

[Matt Johnson]

Tommy is on the fish! Nice slabs buddy!

[bgreen82]

only live bait has been working for me so far. been getting on the fish with minnows and waxies, then when i am nice and confident i make the switch. been trying some microshads, 1 1/4" power nymphs, some south bend various plastics and even a few gulp maggots. im just not getting a bite comparable to the real thing.

[Matt Johnson]

The morning bite yesterday was fairly decent. Went to the lake with the weather reading about 20 degrees. Lasted for about 2 hours Then the weather turned south and the wind decided to come out and play.

Fish were relating to shallow structure, both crappies and gills. Found a stack of pannies off the first break in about 6-8 feet holding on the soft bottom areas. Gills hugged the bottom while the crappies held about a two feet up when they came through. Intercepted them with a size 6 Ratso, then switched over to a size 10 Flutter Bug once they started slowing down.

Once the front slid in we made a move to a more distinct basin allowing us to hunker down over a pod of fish roaming a small area/piece of structure. Depths ranged anywhere from 7-10 feet here, with 9-10 feet being more productive.

By about noon or so the fish were much less willing to chase and attack a bait. They were more than willing to come up to it and sniff it a little, but the inhalers were few and far between. Light biters that's for sure.

Managed a few nice gills, but most were smaller. Crappies were also nothing to real brag home about. Didn't see a single pike or bass cruise through all day, definitely interesting.

Doesn't look like warm weather is on it's way either. Possibly a day of low 20's this week, then we're going to have more cold next weekend. Time for finessing

[bgreen82]

Quote:

---

Possibly a day of low 20's this week, then we're going to have more cold next weekend. Time for finessing

---

matt, what kind of finesse tips would you recommend? small, small jigs or ice flies tipped with something or plastics or what.

[hanson]

Hey Matt-

I got talked into heading up to Rush Lake on Saturday and could not get any "bigger" fish to bite. Small, small fish was the name of the game everywhere.

I fished a few shallow water areas that you are familiar with and caught more 4-5" bluegills than I cared to catch. When I finally had something on with weight, a 10-12" bass would pop out of the hole.

I stayed well after dark near some community crappie spots and 4-8" crappies were the name of the game. I got (1) 10" crappie and my fishing partner Manny (blacksportsman) caught one beast of a crappie that must have been lost on its way to Red Lake, it was nearing 13".

My only regret for the day was not being more mobile. It was brutally cold and the wind was not fun at all. Fishing in the portable was a necessity and I utilized the "camping out" approach as well. All went to h*ll when I ran out of propane slightly after dark. Brrrr...

I first started out downsizing my presentation with a small Ratso. Guess what? Small fish. I got sick of sorting through small gills so I upsized to a larger Little Atom Optic jig & Nuggie plastic combo. Guess what? Small fish. Those darn little 4-5" crappie were inhaling that 2" plastic. Big appetite I guess.

In hindsight, I could have stayed a lot closer to home (Medicine) to catch fish that small.

Sunday was better though! Catfish were biting well on the H-Chain and we pulled nearly 30 through the ice and my buddy lost another 10-15! It was his first time so I cut him some slack with losing so many fish.

[hanson]

Quote:

---

matt, what kind of finesse tips would you recommend? small, small jigs or ice flies tipped with something or plastics or what.

---

- Small CJ&S Ratso (size 10)

- 2lb Fluorocarbon line, I'm still loving P-Line

- high quality Spring Bobber like the St Croix or Thorne Bros springs

Thats kind of my "go to" when the fish are not biting for other people.

Too many people are still fishing panfish with bobbers. Gotta ditch the bobber and go to jigging with a spring bobber where you can feel and watch for the bite.

[Deitz Dittrich]

I somewhat fished wtih Matt much of staruday and found much of the same he did.. I was trying slightlydeeper water than matt was. I tried some plastics but that was not workeing.. smaller jigs #10 Marmooska with2 eurolarve seemed to be the best I could come up with. I did manage a 20" walleye on the rig... I go with 2 lb Gamma florocarbon..

My dad and I hit the evening bite in a deep hole(30 foot) and caught a lot of crappies. Some pretty good sized as well... All on a Go devil spoon in glow red.. I did go with the new fireline crystal in 2 lb.. but ended up missing a lot of fishon the hook set... went to the mono again and stopped missing fish... I'm not sold on the super lines for icefishing yet. I do like it for walleye and jigging rapala type lure or any lure that swims like that.. but just for jigging, it hasn't been my fave.

[Corey Bechtold]

Cold front fishing...Doesn't always mean bad fishing.

I made it out a bit this weekend. Friday I got an early start before the front moved in. The fish were very willing to bite and they sould chase down big baits. I was fishing Berkley Power Tubes while the other 3 guys I was fishing with were using minnows, larvae and wax worms. They had all 6 lines wet while I hole hopped with one rod. I had even given them a head start fishing as I punched holes all over the place. After the aeration was over I settled down over my first hole where I went 4 for 4 with 3 nice Crappies (11.5") and one 8.5" Bluegill. I looked back at the other guy's and asked how they were doing and they said "They don't start biting till around 2:00." I went on fishing all around them catching fish in nearly every hole. I probably caught 10 fish till they landed their first fish. The guys started catching a few fish here and there on live bait but most of their fish were small. Bluegills were mostly small and the Crappies weren't nothing to brag about either. I went over and checked on them from time to time to see how many fish they had. All I saw was 11 8-9" Crappies along with some 7" Bluegills. This is with 6 lines in the water after 3 hours of fishing! I had lost count of how many Crappies I caught (somewhere between 40-50) with most of them being 9+". Those guy's were getting upset with me because I wouldn't catch their fish for them. Depths where the fish were was 20-26' of water with the fish being suspended. Berkley Fireline Crystal 1lb, Mitchell 310Xe Spinning reel, Thorne Bros 32" Outside rod, 1/32oz white jighead was the combo that was doing the damage this day.

Saturday I met up with some fellow FM'ers and they were on some fish in 45' of water suspended. They weren't very willing to bite but when they did there were some nice Crappies and a few mixed in Sunfish. I opted to do some shopping for some Ice fishing gear in stead of looking at fish on my locator that didn't care to bite.

Sunday I made a trip out to the lake I fished on Friday. I took a friend of mine who wanted to get on some Bluegills. We found them again suspended over a deeper basin in the lake. They were very eager to rise up and intercept the bait on the drop. They were hitting anything from Shrimpo's, Pounders, Genz bugs or other various horizontal jigs. Tipping with bait (either waxies or larvae) didn't seem to make much of a difference. They were pretty active despite the cold front conditions. I went out again in search of Crappies and they still hit the Power Tubes. My biggest was a hair over 13" and they all went back. The color was glow/silver fleck or white fished on an 1/32oz white jighead. Considering how cold it was I fished the Fireline Crystal outside on my Thorne Bros rod and it performed well. I really like the feel with this line and it really helped when the fish were biting light. It did freeze up a bit on the reel but not any more than mono. I think I would take the sensitivity and have to pull the line off the spool from time to time. Micro Ice still worked great when I tried it outside but I had a tougher time feeling the bites.

Two other things from the weekend. I had recently bought a Fish Trap Scout and I got a chance to break it in. I really liked how this shelter fished! Very fast and light even with all my gear. Loading and unloading was a snap! Pulling it was a breeze! This is a phenominal one man house.

The other was my FL-20. This unit has been great! The flat screen is a awesome feature. No more dumping out water! The night viewing and low power settings are also very nice features. The two zoom settings (6',12') are also easy to use and understand.

Glad to hear some other reports from the weekend!

Good fishing,

Corey Bechtold

[Matt Johnson]

Oftentimes finessing doesn't have to incorporate a down-sized jig, it could just mean a change in jigging action. Slowing down the action of a larger jig can sometimes work wonders when the fish turn finicky. We've been brainwashed to down-size when the fish turn finicky, but I personally don't think there's a concrete answer and usually I find myself sticking with the same size jigs, even when they turn finicky.

Slow falls can oftentimes trigger a strike when the fish are negative. Quick drops will turn fish away, but a slow, constant fall can get a reaction from even the most negative fish. I would also focus on keeping your jigging quivering at all times. Don't let it sit still, because that will give those wary fish a chance to examine it and then shy away. Now, this doesn't mean pound the jig, but instead just a steady quiver will do just fine. Watch for any chance in line movement which can indicate a strike.

I would also toss a spring bobber into the mix if you haven't already. A great way to slow down the jigging action as well as indicate a strike.

I also like jigs with blades on them (other moving parts). These mechanical jigs seem to work well when finessing pannies. Also look towards plastics to play an important role. Euro larvae is my bait of choice too, if bait is needed.

With all this being said, I still wouldn't neglect the option of down-sizing. It's always best to be prepared for any situation, so having an assortment of jigs is important. Sometimes it does indeed take a 1/100oz jig with half a maggot to coax those finicky fish into biting.

I'll be dropping down size 10 jigs as a mainstay right now, but I'll also have size 6's rigged up, as well as a couple 12's...

[The Yeti]

I know the Shrimpos and Ratsos are what alot of people use, but I bought some plastics called a YZ Lure by Jig a Whopper. Man did those things work well this recent weekend. The sunnies and a few crappies, loved it! Little different body shape than the other plastics. I'm sold.

[Deitz Dittrich]

I saw those the other day as well... didn't buy any.. I did end up getting some tiny tails by Lindy.. I like the looks of them, I touch more meat to where you put the hook on em... I gave em a try last night, and the crappies sure liked them.

[uwecsteeple]

I was lucky enough to use a portable Sat. and got out on a north St. Paul lake from ~2-7pm. Decent crappie and bluegill action until ~4 on a small jiggin rap with a waxie on the treble. After 4 the bullhead moved in and we picked em up with a genz worm with a wedgie and waxie. Too bad the sunnies action only lasted till ~4.

[RonZych]

Went out on saturday evening from about 7:00 to 8:30. I was in about 17ft of water in a lake that gets maybe 19ft deep. Turned on the graph and the crappies were there as usual. .They hang near the bottom and wait for something to come down to them then the hungry ones move up to eat. At first I used a blue ratso/glow white plain jig and caught the aggressors right away. Next tipped it with a waxie and caught a few more. I ordered some nuggies and tried the pink then the blue and caught fish on both. Finally tried the bare glow ratso jig head I was using with a waxie and caught fish. I used the ratso jig head with all the plastics. They all seemed to work about the same.

I tried a friends fl12 also. That screen sure is bright. I didn't know you could dim it. That would be easier on the eyes. I also had my clearwater classic. I couldn't even tell it was on. The fl12 was kind of loud. Otherwise they both worked great.

I'm still torn on which one to buy a fl20 or lx5.

Ron

[RonZych]

Corey, do you have an e-mail so I can ask you a few questions?

Ron

[Corey Bechtold]

[email protected]

[RonZych]

Went out yesterday. 16ft of water.The sunfish were hungry. They were hitting any small presentation. I was using a white shrimpo sometimes with a waxie attached. They were right on the bottom but would not hesitate to swim up 3ft to get the bait coming down. The crappie moved in about 5:30. I didn't have any minnows so I tried a fiskas horizontal jig with a waxie, a blue ratso and a white glow head ratso with a blue nuggie and waxie attached. The latter was what the crappie wanted the most. It was goofy looking but had alot of meaty presentation to it. Next time I'll have some crappie minnows. The crappie were off the bottom about a foot or three.

Going back out Friday.

By the way Corey, it is going to be the Fl20

Ron

[Corey Bechtold]

Congatulations Ron! That is a great piece of equipment. I'm sure you'll love all the features. I know I really like mine!

Good fishing,

Corey Bechtold