What's workin' now Ice...

[RonZych]

Moved my perm. fish house to a new location on the lake. Sent down a lime shrimpo and the sunfish went gaga over it. I didn't have time to fish so Saturday wil be the big test. I need to get to vados for some pink minnows

[uwecsteeple]

Shrimpo was the key for me this weekend too, I used a jiggin rap to attract some fish. As soon as they showed up, I sent down the glow white shrimpo and there was a fish on. I did try the ratso too, but without much luck. I wonder if there was much freshwater shrimp in the lake?

[Corey Bechtold]

Glad to hear some of you are getting out!

Last weekend I managed to hitch a ride with Borch and we went to a get together in search of Panfish. It was also nice to meet up with some fellow FM'ers and put some names to faces. We were rewarded with a great day of fishing with great people! We started the day by drilling quite a few holes in search of aggressive fish. A lot of hole hopping was necessary for staying on active fish. We finally located the active pods of fish in shallower water (7-10'). We used a variety of baits to catch the Crappies and Sunfish. I started searching with Berkley Power Tubes and found some active Crappies. Then I down sized to a horizontal jig tipped with a glow colored Lindy Techni-Glow tail to try and get the Sunfish. Borch fished Little Atom Optic Stealth's with different plastic tails and had good success as well. Using horizontal jigs seemed to catch both Sunfish and Crappies.

I used a few different rods and fishing lines. What I found worked best for the Sunfish was Berkley Micro Ice 1lb test. I don't know if the line diameter was absolutely critical as the Fireline Micro Ice 1lb worked just as good. The key was watching the line for any slight bend or kink. The Crappies would attack the baits while the Sunfish would just sit under the bait and barely suck it in.

One funny story I had from the excursion was Borch and I were working some holes when he hooked into a good fish only to have it snap him of after a short battle. Later on (approximately 30 min.) I was fishing the same area when I hooked a good Crappie. After I pulled it out of the hole I noticed something orange and yellow glowing in the fish's mouth. While unhooking my jig I asked Borch if the jig he lost was a orange and yellow Optic Stealth tipped with a Little Atom white Nuggie. Sure as heck I caught the fish he lost earlier! I don't know what the odds would be of that happening but it did.

Here are a few more pictures I took from the day...

Like I said, it was a great day to be on the Ice! Most of the Sunfish were 7-8" with a few reaching 9". Crappies were nice too with the average size being around 10" with several between 11-12" too. Several jigs worked but the kew was targeting holes that had fish off the bottom. If they weren't sitting there when you dropped the jig down it was time to hit a different hole. We easily drilled 50+ holes till we found the areas the fish were holding in. If we would have just set up and waited for fish the day would have been a bust. Staying mobile and giving the bicept a workout with the locator was key element to our success.

I can't wait to hit the Ice again and see what I can find.

Good fishing,

Corey Bechtold

[hanson]

Nice Report Corey! Looks like you guys had a blast!

That spot looks pretty familiar.

[harvey lee]

I know that spot you were fishing. Its one of my favorite places to go for pannies in the winter.

Good job Corey

[RonZych]

Very nice fish Corey.

I went out yesterday evening and it was just nuts out there. The sunfish were hitting the lime shrimpo like crazy. I also brought in a 30" northern full of spawn on that same shrimpo with 2lb test line.(released) That was fun. 6ft away I had a fathead on a rattle reel that got a little mouthing and thats it. lol About 6:00 the crappie moved in and all I needed was that same #10 shrimpo with a waxie. The minnows caught fewer fish. The word must be getting out on my spot because there were about 5 portables and a wheel house that moved within about 50yds of me.

By the way.... I ended up getting an LX5. I got a real good price $445.00 tax included. Its what changed my mind. My favorite setup is to have the fine line on, zoomed and narrow transducer. WOW

I have to remember to bring my camera. I'm going Saturday next. Then Sunday.

[Matt Johnson]

Spent most of the day today chasing pannies... and it was one of those days where only one tank of auger gas wasn't enough

We started off fishing shallow break in hopes of hooking into a few early morning slabs. On one of the first drops we tagged a nice 10-incher or so... but that must have been the only fish in the entire area We moved out towards some deeper water and worked a steeper break leading into a 16-foot basin. We found a school of fish relating to the basin area but they we all small for the most part. Both crappies and gills were holding together in these areas.

Next move was towards some still-standing green weeds. We found some gills, but again, only a few that were decent. It seemed as if the larger fish were just not grouping up. A few decent fish here and there and that was it. It was time to fire off a stack of holes over the basin and look for the cruising pods of fish...

We found a nice basin in 12 feet of water leading from both shallow and deep water, which had a nice soft bottom... and the basin held fish! And lots of fish! This time good sized too. We managed to pluck away at about 50 or so crappies in the 9-12 inch range as well as several nice gills that pushed that 9-inch mark.

The crappies were devouring 2-inch Power Minnows and size 4 Ratsos. Neither of which were tipped with any live-bait. The crappies came through about 4 feet off the bottom, while the gills held tighter to the bottom. A few gills came on the larger presentations, with the Ratso being the largest preferred.

In the end all the holes and moving paid off as we found the aggressive school of larger fish. At one point I honestly thought the day was going to be a flop as far as decent fish was concerned. The wind and sudden rise played its toll, but we stumbled across the school that actually wanted to eat

Jeremy with a nice crappie taken on a size 4 Ratso

This one fell victim to my 2-inch Power Minnow

Overall it was a fun day. A little frustrating and challenging at times, but hey, that's fishing I guess. Tomorrow is supposed to be similiar as far as temps go, but without the wind. Should be a great day!

[harvey lee]

Wheres the red vest Matt? I thought you would always be fishing in it. Also, nice slabs.

[Team Otter]

Nice lookin' fish Matt. You just can't stay away from Southern MN, can you?

[Team Otter]

Never mind. I forgot you had The Cold Rush today.

[snoozebutton]

Did real well on a shallow small lake near here today. The best bait was a pink glow diamond jig tipped with a waxie. I only had one with us and my wife was getting a little crabby because she wasn't doing too well so I let her use that and I went to a size 8 gold and purple ratso and did pretty well with that too. A lot of smaller ones but we kept a dozen between 8 and 9 inches. One 10 inch crappie and one 12 inch bass that are still swimming in the lake.

[TNFL]

Caught sunnies over the tops of weeds in 15 fow. Orange jig head with orange ratso body tipped with half a waxie. No waxie no bite. Full waxie, waxie ripped off the hook by smaller fish, then no bite without waxie.

[ole matty]

Had my personal best 87 crappies few in 8 to 10 inches raanges 2 12 inches and one 13n half inches on metro lake. All on jighead n plastic. I m plastic addict now!

[Matt Johnson]

Windy... windy... windy!!! Wow, what a day on the ice! The fishing was somewhat productive, only if we could do away with the wind so we could have hole hopped a little more effectively. Everytime I would go back to a hole I just fished it would be blown over. I'd punch a group of holes and I couldn't even fish half of them before the other half was lost.

The fish were aggressive though, so it made it worth the while at least. The effort didn't go to a complete waste. Just had to punch less holes and be more specific on where we fished. Sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn't.

We started off hitting those basin fish again. They slide out deeper just a couple feet. Now they were in 14-15 feet instead of 12 feet. Bottom content was the same, it just seemed as if they wanted to find some new scenery.

Started off working them with 2-inch Power Minnows, but then found out that the size 6 and 4 Ratsos or the Little-Atom Nuggies worked a little better. Most of the fish were crappies. Ranging anywhere from 6-12 inches. Nothing too big, but still a good time. Those 12-14 inchers eluded us today.

Fished from about 8am-3pm. Might have stumbled across a better a bite as the sun hit the trees but our stomachs started to growl The wind-burn on the face didn't help all that much either

Tomorrow is looking to be a similar day weather-wise, might have to go out and give it another shot depending on how this snow accumulates. Could be pulling "shovel" duty for the elderly neighors if it doesn't quit...

[Wookiee]

On Friday went out on a metro lake in about 22 fow and nailed the sunnies and crappies. The jigs of choice were a #10 optic stealth in pink and white and a pink diamond jig #12 both tipped with a white nuggie. They were fished about 8 feet down for the bigger sunnies and 18 feet down for the bigger crappies. The fish were stacked from the bottom all the way to 8 feet loving seeing that on the lx-3.

[dreaminofjumbos]

Hey Matt,

Is this the spot you put me on last week. I fished it a couple of days last week. The weather was alot different, but I really got into the bigger fish very early, and right before dark. By the way this is Joe. Oh yeah and thanks for the info I owe you one.

[Corey Bechtold]

What's workin' now??? 4 Wheel Drive!

Yep, I made it out after work to try my luck for Crappies. The lakes are a little tricky because of all the snow. With even more forcasted the next few dayw things are going to get really interesting!

As for the fishing, it went great! I started off drilling a few holes shallow then moving them deeper. The Sunfish were around when it was light out but once it started getting dark the Crappies took off! I ended up drilling a few more holes out deeper so I could effectively look for roaming fish. Not all holes held fish and most of the fish I did mark and catch were relating to scattered weeds. I fished horizontal and small tonight as the Crappies seemed to be a bit negative. Most of the bites were light and watching for line movement was critical in putting fish on the Ice. I really like Fireline Crystal for this because it is easy to see if a fish takes the weight off the jig. Also, this line helps nicely for positive hookups. Even with lighter action rods. A real key to my success tonight was moving around and only fishing a hole for a few seconds if fish were present. The Crappies I caught tonight were relating to the bottom but there were quite a few that were suspended off the bottom. Sizes ranged from 9" to 12". The bigger more aggressive fish were more suspended than the smaller ones. Bites were light and using the locator was critical as usual. There were a few guys I overheard talking about the poor fishing to some other anglers. They blamed it on all kinds of different things... "They haven't come in yet", "looks like they aren't biting tonight", "they just aren't interested tonight" and a few more excuses. Fact is, staying mobile, reading what your locator is telling you and paying attention to how the fish react to your presentation can make a tough day good. I managed around 20 Crappies in an hour while I heard those other guys whining about only catching 2. We all have tough days when the fish don't seem to want to bite but staying positive and doing a little more work out there will pay off in the long run.

Hopefully everyone will be able to get out fishing despite the deep snow. Keep us updated on "What's workin' now".

Good fishing,

Corey Bechtold

[CALVINIST]

Despite the encroaching winter storm, me and my brother decided to head "up north" and fish a couple lakes in search of some big panfish.

Lake #1 (Wednesday) we got into a mixed bag of fish. They weren't agressive, so we had to work for 'em. In the bluegill department, I caught a personal best 10.5" beast . Mitch had never seen one that big before, man was he in awe! He went on to catch several in the 9.5" class, all personal bests for him, but couldn't hook into one @ 10". Mitch is a seasoned fisherman, but has never targeted gills specifically before, but he swears he had a great time and would do it again.

We also caught a variety of other fish while fishing for the gills...a couple nice crappies, some small perch, a 17" walleye, a LM bass, and some stinking tulibees. No pike, which is a surprise. All these fish were caught on a small ratso.

We fished lake #2 thursday, which, if you hit it on a good day, is killer for slab crappies. We met up with a friend of ours, Keith, who ties his own crappie jigs, called, "T.H.E. jig", which means "Totally Hot Everyday". these jigs are very small profile calfhair jigs of excellent quality. We fished these without adding any meat. Needless to say, the fish were very very finicky. We caught all our crappies on Keith's jigs/system which he touts as being effective on negative fish. In fact, he said he would rather teach someone to fish T.H.E. jig on a day when the fish are negative. Anyway, we caught only 7 slabs, nothing HUGE, in about three hours before the weather drove us off the lake, but I was impressed with his jig and the system he incorporates. I got some of his jigs, so I'll have to experiment to gauge their effectivenss, which I think he is right on.

[Corey Bechtold]

Nice report CAL! Any pictures of that 10.5"er?

Good fishing,

Corey Bechtold

[CALVINIST]

Quote:

---

Nice report CAL! Any pictures of that 10.5"er?

Good fishing,

Corey Bechtold

---

Sadly, I couldn't get my camera to work , and I still have a hard time sleeping at night because of it ! What a tragedy.

[Corey Bechtold]

Looks like you'll just have to go out and catch a bigger one!

Good fishing,

Corey Bechtold

[Corey Bechtold]

Wow, what a weekend! I was fortunate enough to be invited to do some fishing with Jack H (aka Juggs). We had Friday and Saturday to fish one of Jack's favorite spots. There was quite a bit of competition in this area but most of the anglers were fishing blind (no locators). This would be fine on most days but the fish we found were in a little deeper water and needed to be coaxed into biting. Having a flasher was the only way to search out and find the active biters. I was really supprised to see how light the fish were biting. I started using a rod without a spring but later switched because the fish were barely taking the bait. We had to down size our presentations as well. I also fished a small horizontal jig with a Lindy Techni Glow tail and had great results. Color wasn't a major factor but I did have better luck with White (confidence color ). Going light and going slow was another key factor. I fished 1lb Micro Ice and Jack was using 3lb Micro Ice line. I stuck with mono because the fish needed to be able to suck the bait in without feeling any resistance. There were times when the fish wouldn't even move the spring bobber! Most of our fish were hanging in the 6-8' water the first day and were roaming around quite a bit. The second day the fish were even more spread out in the same area but I found a some fish to be a bit shallower than the previous day. Later in the afternoon more active fish were found in the shady areas along the shoreline.

Some other keys to our success was staying mobile. We talk about this all the time but it was definately the way to put more fish on the Ice. We would walk around and wait to see fish on our locators before starting to fish. Jigging aggressively wasn't the trick to getting them to bite. Raising the bait ever so slowly and then holding the bait motionless before the strike was how we got them to take.

Every time out on the Ice can be a whole new ballgame. Being able to adapt to the feeding conditions of the fish adds challenge and exitement to this sport.

Here are a few pictures from this weekend's fishing adventure...

Me and a nice 12.5" Black Crappie

A 13" White Crappie

Juggs with a nice one.

One more good fish.

Great fishing ,

Corey Bechtold

[Cyberfish]

Nice fishies Corey! wow you sure have a goofy lookin friend though!!

[clamtrap]

nice fish corey, do you plan on coming down south again this winter?

[Corey Bechtold]

If I was planning a trip down south sometime soon I would probably have to bring my boat . Man, is that Ice starting to go fast!

How has it been going for you lately?

Shoot me an e-mail: [email protected]

Later,

Corey Bechtold