What's workin' now Ice...

[juggs]

Wow is right, CB. That was one of the better ice outings I've had in a while. Two full days of fish catching was a blast!! Would you say it's an overstatement that jigging slowly and down sizing were the keys? Those fish weren't jumping out of the holes and had to be finessed most of the time. Corey is right about the flasher--fishing blind produced way less fish as evidenced by watching the anglers around us. In fact, there were more fisherman at first light than later in the day. Many of them couldn't entice the fish to bite so they headed out. Eliminating water, or holes, in this case, was much more productive and possible only with a sonar. My only regret is that the ice season is soon over. Hopefully, the fish will still be there for open water.

[snoozebutton]

A slow day of fishing yesterday but managed to get enough for a meal. Got most of them on a pink glow diamond jig with a few coming on a gold/purple ratso.

A pretty neat thing happened just as we were getting ready to leave. I had a medium sized gill I was bringing in and about a 10 or 12 pound northern followed it right up and into the hole. It's head just broke the surface when it backed off and drifted down the hole. That poor little bluegill didn't have a chance, one of us was going to eat him.

[Corey Bechtold]

Man, did I struggle this weekend. I went out Friday after work for an few hours and couldn't find consistent numbers of Crappies. There was ample numbers of smaller Sunfish and a few LMBass that would hammer the Power Tube but the Crappies were hiding well. I did manage one 13"er that I didn't take a picture of but I did get a shot of this Crappie...

Now isn't that bizarre . I don't know what that Crappie was thinking hitting that Power Tube but I think that fish might be a future monster!lol

Saturday I met up with a fellow FM'er and we tried something different. Deep water fish. Lake #1 was loaded with smaller fish but the larger fish were MIA. Therefore we decided to go to lake#2. We targed deep water fish and they were non-existent for the most part. We did find a couple fish as it was getting dark but the fish were very negative. Jigging spoons were the bait of choice since we needed to get down fast and have good feel of our baits. The bites I had were very light but the fish in the deep water were very fat. I wonder if the fish had been of a good feed prior to us getting out there. That would explain why some of the fish we saw on our electronics were not interested at all. It isn't that often I get to eat humble pie but I'll tell you this. It tasted like dump!

Today I took Cole out for a little while in hopes of putting him on a "sight fishing" bite. There were a few fish roaming the shallows, mostly Bluegills. They were very negative as well. Most of the fish would just slide in and inspect the jig, hitting the jighead more often than the hook end . There were some real good sized fish that were just sitting down in the weeds that had no intention of moving from their spots. Even the few Crappies we saw were just roaming around and the bait could slide down their sides and they didn't want to eat. One funny thing that happened was Cole and myself were hole hopping when one hole had a tiny Crappie sitting in the weeds(5"). I dropped down to it and it hit my jig. Cole was watching everything and as I lifted the fish up there was a big Pike that screamed past the Crappie. It missed the fish and my bait thankfully and Cole thought it was super cool! It would have been nice to stay out in hopes that there would be a peak in activity but we decided to go watch my Nephews hockey game instead. Here is one good Bluegill that Cole caught...

All in all it was a productive weekend even though the fishing wasn't spectactular. One can always find a positive in a negative. Fish don't always have to bite and having to work to get some to eat makes a better fisherman.

Good fishing,

Corey Bechtold

[Matt Johnson]

We found most of our fish relating to shallow structure, anywhere from 4-10 feet of water. Weeds were key, as we tried to focus on those areas. The crappies were shallower than the gills for the most part, where 4-7 feet seemed to be crucial for the larger slabs. The gills would come through in waves and oftentimes right in the weeds. The crappies on the other hand would come through a foot or two above the weeds and were highly aggressive.

Plastics worked very well. Ratsos, Shrimpos and Nuggies were the top producers, with red being the hot color. We tipped the Nuggies on either a Fatboy or an Optic Stealth jig.

We also spent a good portion of the day sight-fishing in 4-6 feet. Sure is a blast watching those fish slide in! We watched a few monster gills toy around for a bit before they decided to leave. Gets your heart pumpin everytime!

A lot of the fish are sliding up shallow now, and you can expect the shallow water bite to really pick up as the ice season tappers off. The fishing is only going to get better! Warm temps this week so it should be a very comfortable time on the ice! Enjoy the late ice bonanza!

[jimd]

MJ Where do these fish go after ice-out? I wold like to take my boat out as soon as ice-out. Do they stay shallow? Or do they go back to deeper water. I have always waited for the water to warm up (end of April) before I went and fished shallow. I live in the west metro subs and want to get started early this year.

[Matt Johnson]

Oftentimes you have find them in similar areas where you found them right before ice-out. Shallow bays that have green weeds can be good, or else look for them off the first break out from those areas. Dark, shallow bays that warm up faster than other areas are prime as well. Usually these are the northern most bays. I would also look to boat channels and other areas where you think the water will warm up the fastest. I've also done well on areas where you have any current or run-off. Spillway areas are also great, or areas where water is entering the lake...

[SwimRunFly]

Last night we were fishing 5ft or less in the middle of the pencil weeds. #8 plane blue hook and a minnow. Just let the minnow do his thing. On my other rod I was jigging with an small jig and wax worm to catch a few bonus sunfish and also caught a few nice crappies. My wife and I limited on crappies ranging form 11in to 13in. It is a great time to be on the ice, but with the warm weather predicted it will not last long. In that shallow water keep moving from hole to hole and stay quite. You are actually sight fishing in most cases.

Good fishing!

[Corey Bechtold]

I know what your thinking... how can there possibly be another post about late Ice fishing? Well, I was out yesterday ICE FISHING and I will have to keep you on the edge of you seat till I have time to give you all the whole report.

I'll be back,

Corey Bechtold

[united jigsticker]

I'm going to the store, and then probably in the boat tomorrow. The ice is out on some of my secret stash's.

Corey, you going with me?

---------------------------------------------

Heyyy Laaaaady!!!!!!

unitedjigsticker@I'vegotmailyaaaaay!.com

[Kyle Sandberg]

What, in the rain. Must've been what, three feet of water on top.

[Cyberfish]

Cory, me and Jack had a good last ice(i think) outing today on Big Sandy. here are a few pics, Jack outfished me good today, but I had fun and got some nice ones too after a slow start. There was plenty of ice but it is starting to melt around the shore pretty good...

[Corey Bechtold]

Man, what a crazy few days! I went to the Sports Show on Thursday and visited with a lot of good people in the fishing industry. Some very nice people I was fortunate enough to meet were Betty and Ned from "Crappie Town". They carry a line of Crappie baits called Bobby Garland and they really peaked my interest. I picked some up and headed north in search of Ice. Friday I fished with my cousin for Crappies and after locating the fish and catching plenty on 2" Berkley Power minnows in a variety of colors I decided to try the new 2" Baby Shad baits.

I started with the Electric Chicken color on a 1/32oz jighead. I started catching Crappies one after another. Every time I hooked a fish I started making chicken noises which had several anglers around me wondering what the heck was going on. My cousin was laughing and was a bit supprised with all the fish I was catching. After a dozen or so Crappies on that color I switched and proceeded to catch more fish. Some other colors that worked were: Snow White, Chart Pepper, Blue Sparkle and Double Silver Rainbow. They carried several other styles and when I went back to the Sports Show on Saturday night I purchased more! Some of the baits I can't wait to try on Open Water Crappies are their 2" Swimming Minnow, 2" Split Tails, 2" Slab Slayer and a few more I don't know yet.

Here are a few pictures from the day...

Crystal Lam 2" Baby Shad

Electric Chicken! Bock Bock

Crystal Lam Crappie

A great all around day

Good fishing,

Corey Bechtold

p.s.

Hopefully everyone had a great Ice fishing season!!!

[fisherdog19]

I just bought some plastics over at Gander that look exactly like those baby shads, but are made by bass assassin and are only 1.5". I am exited to give them a try.

[rangerforme]

Do they have a HSOforum for these baits?

[Corey Bechtold]

Try e-mailing Betty or Ned: [email protected]

They will be able to tell you where the baits can be purchased.

Let me know what they say.

Later,

Corey Bechtold

[fisherdog19]

They're made by Gene Larew, just do a web search for them.

[rangerforme]

Bobby Garland baits.

http://www.genelarew.com/bobbygarland/crappie_baits.html

[Corey Bechtold]

Can't wait to see the results of Cyberfish's and Juggs' Crappie outing!

Later,

Corey Bechtold

[Cyberfish]

Here you go Cory! I posted links to most of my pics to make it faster for people to load

Got into some nice crappies yesterday. Got all mine on one lure, a lindy fatboy jig with the tail half of my last stoni. I caught a dozon fish on this plastic and it is still ready for more action!

Nice specks

My old fish trap and my take home catch for the day

(deleted by cyb) Oooops almost forgot about the dead fish pic rule!

more nice slab pics...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v630/Cyberfish8/slabinhole.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v630/Cyberfish8/openwide-1.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v630/Cyberfish8/bigolslab.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v630/Cyberfish8/niceslab.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v630/Cyberfish8/parasiteinfestation.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v630/Cyberfish8/stonicloseup2.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v630/Cyberfish8/stonicloseup.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v630/Cyberfish8/stonislab1.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v630/Cyberfish8/stonislab2.jpg

[Cyberfish]

Here are a few short video clips of my last outing on Big Sandy.

I arrive at the lake with "Max Goldman"

First slab of the day

Crappie snaps his line but Max Juggs prevails!

Another nice fish...