What's working now Open Water '07

[Coach1310]

This weekend a group of us got into some big gills. We had a blast for a few hours on Saturday. All the gills were found in 3-6 fow amongst the bullrushes. This year the bigger fish 8.25-9.0 inch fish were relating more to scattered bull rushes than the big clumps like in past years. One other thing we noticed were the pumpkinseeds! If you flipped into the heavy stand of bullrushes you would always catch a female pumpkinseed while 95% of the bluegills were males! I had never seen such a division before. We used mostly small leeches on flu-flus or plain hooks. Plastics worked okay, but the live bait outfished them quite easily. Sunday, we went in search of some more catch and release of those brutes, but to no avail. It is amazing how fish do the "here one day, gone the next routine." I hope everyone else had as much fun this weekend as we did.

[Corey Bechtold]

Well, with all the seasons almost in full swing it's hard to divide the time for all species. I am still a die hard Panfish angler but lately the Walleyes have been getting the most attention. This weekend I hope to get back to Panfish and mainly want to search out some big fish!

I look forward to hearing the reports from others and hopefully I will have some of my own to share as well!

Good luck,

Corey Bechtold

[palisade1kid]

I know what you mean Corey.

It's been all walleyes since openers.

We did go for some slabs and gill Sunday for about 7 hours.

Boy did we find some dandies in the cabbage patches in 6-8 FOW.Several 13" females all spawned out & some 10 inch gills just about ready to burst.

[ole matty]

was out on lake last sat for some muskie fishing.. i had buddy and his 9 year old son.. he didnt catch much when we was muskie fishin so i took them to middle of pencil reeds. o man there r many nice sunfishes 7 to 9 inches n juicy! n few small bluegills n crappies as well...hope i can get back to more panfish fishing soon!

have a good day

[palisade1kid]

yup most of the nicer fish are out a bit in 6-12 FOW.Working reed edges have always been my favorite.

[Corey Bechtold]

Now that the main spawn spawn is over and the water temperatures are climbing the fish are starting to move. I have been finding them along weedlines with deeper water nearby. Shaded areas also have been holding fish. Overhanging trees, brush piles, milfoil edges and docks have been key.

Dad with a quality Sunfish.

Good fishing,

Corey Bechtold

[omni]

One big lesson learned this weekend: in murky waters (even when it's bright out) to use a light colored jig. I was hitting 8-9" crappies in the morning on a light colored jig (1/16th), the sun popped out so I switched to a black jig and it really really slowed down. Was about to leave but decided to try out a white jig and they started nailing again.

Another lesson learned, in the lake I was at 2" power minnows attracted the crappies (and a bass and a walleye), the second I switched to nightcrawlers the gills started nibbling and nothing else BUT gills. Very very annoying, so I guess I'm done with live bait this year, yay!

Power Minnows are amazing and outperformed night crawlers, 2" power grubs (black and white), power nymphs (tan) and power tubes (green). I tried 3 types of power minnows and all worked great: Perch/Black Shad/Chartreuse Shad.

[ozzie]

good report omni....one question were you fan casting, were you using this under a bobber or vertical jigging??? Just curious..thanks

[omni]

Quote:

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good report omni....one question were you fan casting, were you using this under a bobber or vertical jigging??? Just curious..thanks

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I fish out of a canoe and it's too hard to drink beer and do anything except fish under a slip bobber. I rotate between 2 sizes of the thill stealth, a rocket bobber, and a wave buster (depending on wind condition and on how far I have to cast). I like the sensitivity of the stealth the most but it's sometimes hard to see when it gets windy, so when the wind/waves pick up I switch to the wave buster, then when it dies down I switch back. If I need to cast far I put on the rocket (medium sized one), I'm very un-mobile to say the least. I also occasionally use the copper tipped center sliding thill bobber but the 3 above bobbers are all switchable without having to retie.

[ozzie]

thanks....

[Corey Bechtold]

Pretty quiet in here. Sorry I haven't been around much. I have been chasing Walleyes and Bass the last few weekends so I will have to get back on the Pannies soon!

My Dad has been having good luck on Sunfish the last few days. He said that there seems to be another spawning run by the Sunfish. As far as what's working, he has been fishing white Berkley Power Tubes under a float in shallow water.

Let's have some reports!

Good fishing,

Corey Bechtold

[lotsofish]

I took the kid out and his friend on Sunday and we hit the sunnies and crappies pretty good. We were out from 6:30 - 9:00 and probably caught around 50-60 fish combined. The fish were hanging out on a shallow flat area in around 5-7 feet. Crappie minnows caught both and small leeches on a jig were awesome for the sunnies.

[The Grebe]

We were out today and got into both sunnies and crappies...in 3 feet of water mind you! Nice fish, up to 10 inches on the gills and up to 12 inches on the craps.

We mixed up the presentation, some of the crappies came on a small minnow and a plain hook, 1/32 oz. feathered jigs, a few on one color, then a few on another, a few on twisters and then back to the beginning.

We picked up a couple of the gills on artificals, but what they really wanted was a chunk of nightcrawler and thats what we gave em!

We kept some and threw some back and a couple of the tank sunnies we got out of the shallows, had eggs in em.

We also picked up a couple of nice slot walleyes right in with the gills.....they were partial to crawlers also!

[Borch]

I was out last Friday up north and found big gills both on the beds and relating to the weed edge outside the reeds. We caught them on leeches, crawlers, micro power tubes and ratsos.

Lots of fun!

[Corey Bechtold]

Today I went along with my brother-in-law on his pontoon. We had 6 kids that wanted to catch fish but the fish weren't very willing. The kids had a hard time keeping their lines in the water as they expected a fish to be on the line as soon as the bobber hit the water. Cole did manage a few fish on Berkley 2" Power Minnows in the Black Shad color. I will have to get a picture up of the Crappie he caught later.

How was everyone else's weekend?

Corey Bechtold

[ChemMechanicInc]

100's of fish caught.

100's of 100's of fish caught.

100's of 100's of 100's of fish caught.

100's of 100's of 100's of 100's of fish caught.

They were mostly 8".

Mostly.

One was 13".

Some of them were Bass.

Some were Sunfish.

Some were Crappies.

No Pike.

No Walleyes.

No Rockbass.

No Eelpout.

No Catfish.

One was a bullhead.

Quite a few got off at the side of the boat, but I didn't include those in the count.

We threw them all back.

We actually gently placed them all back into the water; throwing them could harm them, and that'd be sad.

100's of fish caught.

100's of 100's of 100's of fish caught.

100's of 100's of 100's of 100's of fish caught.

I should just say that 1,000's of fish were caught.

Maybe that'd take less space.

We caught them all on small plastics suspended under a bobber in the 3-5 foot depth range in the weeds. We tried deeper and shallower but we really only got 100's of fish caught in the 3-5 depth range on small plastics under a bobber.

The sun was shining, but the water was dark, murky, and green. The top of my head is bright red from the sun that was shining while 100's of fish were caught.

I forgot the hat.

Ooops.

We caught them fish on a lake near Buffalo MN between the shorelines out from the birch trees.

The wind was very calm and we didn't anchor, not even once did we even think about putting in the anchor, well my dad did but he didn't because the wind really wasn't blowing that hard so we didn't put down the anchor because the wind wasn't moving us much.

I had a snack and a soda about 2pm, but then it was right back to fishing because the action was so 100's of fish caught

I want to get back to 100's of fish caught today but the sprinkles make me wonder if lighting is coming and that could be dangerous, yeah, it could be, so be careful you guys...getting struck is no fun, well I don't know, I've never been hit, but I hear it hurts...that's what the weather man said anyways, well, I guess we should listen to him, but he rarely is right about the weather so maybe the lightning would just tickle a little like a 9 volt battery on your tongue.

[rubber duck]

Are you ok?

[Kyle Sandberg]

Umm, sounded like a good day. You wouldn't mind sharing what lake you were on.

[CrappieAttitude]

So Chem, How many fish did you catch?

CA

[snoozebutton]

Did pretty good today in shallow (about 4 to 5 feet.) Tried a beatle spin, a jig with different plastics but the best method was a size 10 diamond jig with a little piece of crawler.

Sorry, we didn't catch 100s and 100s, maybe 50 or 60.

[Corey Bechtold]

Cole and myself went out for a few hours yesterday and had a great day for numbers of fish. We caught mostly small Sunfish but most fish were very aggressive. Cole was able to watch the fish come up and hit his bait. It wouldn't have mattered what bait was on the hook because the fish were in "attack" mode. These little Pirrhana like fish would absolutely terrorize Power Minnows. Cole was using mainly Power Tubes in the Orange/Yellow. I asked him if he wanted to try something smaller to get more fish in the boat but he really liked lifting the Sunfish out of the water by the tails of the Power Tube. They wouldn't let go of the tails and he brought in a few fish without being hooked!

It was a blast watching Cole fish and I hope to get out again soon to try and up-size our catch.

Good fishing,

Corey Bechtold

[The Grebe]

We got into the panfish again yesterday, caught a bunch, let a bunch go. Crappies were running alot smaller then the last time we were out to the lake, 10 inches being the biggest.

The crappies we were getting in 2-7 feet of water, some tucked right up against the bank. As usual, they mostly all came on little 1/32 ounce feathered in various colors.

Every once in awhile a sunnie would snarfle up the jig, as did a couple of small walleyes and a 5 pound largemouth.

The sunnies ran up to 10 inches again, the larger ones being a little harder to come by. Tried the real deal nightcrawler chunk against the gulp worm and let me tell ya, the fish know what is live and what is memorex!

We were on the lake by about 5:30 a.m. and we were off at 10:45, loaded and headed home before it got to hot. Those pannies are fun!

[Corey Bechtold]

Last weekend I was able to get our fishing in the heat with Cole for a day. We wanted action and found it. With water temperatures reaching 80+ degrees I thought the fish would be deep. I started shallow and was suprised that the fish were holding near weedlines in 4'-8' of water. They were pretty active as well. While it was tricky finding a true pattern as we had to dodge a few passing T-storms our persistence paid off. We started with our conficence baits (Power Tubes and Minnows) Cole wanted to try some new baits I picked up. They were Berkley Gulp! 1.5" Swimming Grubs. Earlier this year we had some success with the black Grubs today the color of choice was the glow white. Cole started slamming Bluegills, Crappies, Largemouth and Rock Bass.

While I was catching some bigger fish than Cole he was outfishing me with numbers! Cole was unhooking a fish when he said "Dad, maybe you should try one of these baits". Well, I had to break down and put one on. We were fishing them on 1/64 and 1/32oz collarless jigheads.

I would strongly recommend using collarless because you will get more fish/bait using them.

Here's a little tackle list we tried throughout the day.

Berkley Power Tubes- White, Chart/orange

Berkley Power Minnows- Smelt, Perch, Black Shad, Chart/white

Bobby Garland 2" Minnow- Electric Chicken, White pear;

Berkley Gulp! 1.5" Swimming Grub- Glow white, Pearl White, Chart

Next time out I plan on throwing several other brands/styles/colors of baits at the fish. I'll be sure to report what's working.

Good fishing,

Corey Bechtold

[jakemcarroll]

I was just out last night and could not keep the sunnies and crappies off the line. Nothing big but a couple of the pumpkin seeds were nice. The were right on the weed lines at about 2-3 feet in about 7-8 FOW (pretty murky water). I fished with a float and a jig with any pink plastic I had and they couldn't resist. After that slowed I threw a beetle spinner on and they hit that time and time again, what a great night! Best of luck to the rest of you over the weekend! My fiance and I must have caught 20+ fish in just over an hour, and I could have caught more if I didn't have to take all hers off the line, ha ha ha

[The Grebe]

They are still out there boys! We hit em in shallow water again, some right up against the shoreline. Got one of the biggest gills I have ever caught...getting crappies in the 1 pound and over range, that explode out of the shallow water like Largemouth bass!

Starting to become a believer in artifical bait! My old stand by, a 1/32 ounce feather jig is my go to bait, but we have been nailing the larger fish on all kinds of different imitations.

A worm, crawler, or a minnow will get ya some, no doubt, but we have found that the fish taken on the live bait are more numerous, but smaller. Once in awhile we will pick up a biggie on the live bait, but ya lose alot of hooks and have to retie. It pays to have the old standby in the boat though, cause some days it's live bait or you go home empty handed.