What's working now Open Water '07

[Corey Bechtold]

What's working...

I fished with Cole and another friend of mine today for Panfish. We picked a lake that I was unfamiliar with but decided to go to work. Here's the lake conditions: Very clear water, deep weedlines (14-16'), baitfish almost everywhere we looked.

We found fish shallow and deep but the deeper fish were larger. We also tried a different approach to targeting these fish. I have only scratched the surface on this presentation but "Drop shotting" is now going to be one of my aces up the sleeve. This is a great way to keep the bait right in front of the fish's faces. It will work in shallow and deep water. We used several different baits on the hook today and almost everything worked. Looking back at the day I'd have to say that Power Worms wacky rigged on the hook took the majority of our fish. Mostly Gills with quite a few LMBass mixed in. The fish were hanging above the thermocline but adjacent do weedlines. Finding a point or a underwater hump also was a key to our success.

If you want to try something different for Panfish than I would recommend trying the Drop Shot rig. Who thought it was just a "Bass" fishing tactic?

If you can be sure to look for the upcoming Podcast with Deitz. We talked about the day today and hopefully it will help you catch a few more fish and have some more fun.

Good fishing,

Corey Bechtold

[ChemMechanicInc]

This weather will confuse the fish for sure.

I found alot of fish in the 17 FOW range, but I don't know that it will hold with 94 degree days ahead.

[Corey Bechtold]

Well, after the Podcast with Deitz I made it back on the water on Sunday after Church. We had a picnic on another lake that I was unfamilar with. While we were eating lunch and visiting Cole was wading in the water fishing with the drop shot rig. I had a White Berkley Power Tube on the hook and we all watched as Cole casted out and worked the bait back into shore. He was really nailing the Sunfish with this bait in fairly shallow water. After I finished eating I joined him for a little while and caught some fish. How we were fishing this method in shallow water wasn't all that different from the deep stuff. We simply threw out the bait and held the rod tip in the air and twitched the bait a few times till a Bluegill hit the bait.

Later some kids decided that they wanted to go out fishing with me so I took them out in search of some active fish. It didn't take long to find that there were lots of mixed Panfish hanging around the windy side of the lake along floating obstacles. We were fishing near a floating trampoline and catching a mixed bag of fish. Cole was using a 2" white Twister tail on a 1/32oz jighead. Anthony switched around from a Power Tube to the Power Grub fished on the same jighead and his brother Jordan used mainly Power Tubes in different color patterns. I was using the drop shot rig and a white Power Tube. We all were catching fish one after another. I caught quite a few descent Crappies while the other kids were catching everything from Bluegills, LMBass to Rock Bass. It was a very entertaining bite and we all had a lot of fun catching fish. Most of the fish were fairly shallow (4-6'). Finding shaded areas like docks, rafts, or standing weeds were keys to getting on active fish. The water was fairly clear like the lake the day before but with all the wind it was difficult to see the fish thus the fish weren't spooked by the boat hovering over them. I didn't pay attention to the water temperature but I know it had to be in the 80's. It was nice to see all the smiles and watch the excitment when the kids were catching fish. Several times I just put the rod down and helped them catch fish.

Jordan and Cole with a couple.

Cole's Sunfish.

Anytime you can get kids in the outdoors and help them learn about fishing and our resources is time well spent.

Let's keep the reports coming,

Corey Bechtold

[Borch]

Very nice!!!

What a great way to spend the day!

[Corey Bechtold]

Today after work I picked up my Nephew and headed to the lake. A good friend of mine also met us on the water and we decided to chase some Panfish. I was especially excited to have the opportunity to teach Andrew a little about fishing. We started the evening catchng lots of smallish Bluegills, Rock Bass and some Crappies. There was a window where the Crappies went absolutely crazy. We changed up baits a lot and had good success on Berkley Power Minnows, Tubes and Bobby Garland Minnow baits to name the hot baits. Color wasn't too important as the fish hit almost everything we threw at them. The presentations ranged from jigging vertical, swing fishing and straight retrieves. We mainly used 1/32oz jigheads on the baits. This was another lake that I was not familiar with but was suprised with the good average size of the Crappies. The lake was pretty clear and at the end of the evening you could see the Crappies hit the baits almost 6' down. There was a pretty destinct weedline that tapered off to deep water. I believe that this was key in getting the Crappies.

At the end of the evening Andrew had learned to hold fish, cast a spinning rod (which was impressive), set the hook and the correct way to handle a rod without getting tangled. I got more enjoyment teaching him a few things about fishing than catching fish myself (well...almost )

Here are a few pics from the trip...

What's with all the Rock Bass!?

Andrew with a nice Crappie.

Another nice fish.

Good fishing,

Corey Bechtold

[Corey Bechtold]

Friday I took the family out to chase some Crappies. We had very similar success with most of our fish coming off Power Minnows and Bobby Garland baits. We had some wind to contend with but the fish were still easy to catch. One way to detect bites was to cast past the fish and hold the rod tip at 10 o'clock watching the line as it bowed and the bait sank toward the fish. When the fish would hit you could see the line twitch and it was "fish on".

Here are the kids with some of their fish...

Bailey with a good fish.

Brooke with hers.

Cole with one of his fish.

Great weather this weekend and lots of good times.

How was the weekend for everybody else?

Good fishing,

Corey Bechtold

[ChemMechanicInc]

It was hot. Very hot. Really very hot.

100's of fish caught.

Well, maybe 99's of fish caught.

Let me tell a story of cutting open a Crappie to fillet it. And then the dog [PoorWordUsage]ed on the floor. Well, I thought the dog [PoorWordUsage]ed on the floor, but it turned out the awful smell was coming from the meat of the Crappie.

So with that said, I ask...Please bring rain, cooler weather, and some Febreeze Mother Nature.

[Skeets]

Quote:

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Bobby Garland baits.

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What are these baits??

Never heard of them??

Are these available to the general public, or are they only for the Bechtold family to use?

[Corey Bechtold]

Bobby Garland baits are made by Gene Larew. I found them at the Sport Show this spring and have had good luck with them. They have a good variety of colors that work well. They are very similar to Power Minnows but don't have any scent in them. They also seem to be a bit softer so I'd recommend using them with collarless jigheads.

Go to Gene Larew's HSOforum and click on the Crappie section. The baits I have had success with are the Baby Shads. There are lots of colors to choose from. Pick what looks good and put them to work. I've had success with the Electric Chicken, Crystal, Double Silver Rainbow and Pearl White.

Good luck,

Corey Bechtold

[The Grebe]

Yup, the nice sized pannies are still out there to be caught. Over the week-end, I took 4 separate groups of people out on 2 different lakes, one I had never fished before and everyone got fish...even at midday, with the sun glaring.

In the heat, they are becomming a bit more difficult, but if you work at it, trying different presentations and techniques with different baits, switching spots if they aren't biting, you will probably be able to develope something.

Granted, it helps to know something about the lake you are fishing, but to me, going on the hunt on any lake is a big part of the enjoyment of fishing....when you find em in bunches, that makes it even better!

[The Grebe]

Still there, still biting, but are getting so they don't want anything artifical...even my little feather jigs (Boo hoo)...but about a 3 foot long pike and an 18 inch walleye did! I'm sure it is different on different lakes.

The size of the crappies has shrunk by about 1/2 but the large sunnies are still active. Several sunfish between 9 1/2 and 9 3/4 inches.

[Corey Bechtold]

Very interesting, no artificial! My report is going to be quite the opposite.

I made it out on the water today in hopes of catching some good fish. The fishing was almost too easy but finding bigger fish was a trick. We caught almost everything that swims. The fish were almost everywhere we looked! We started shallow and had good luck for several breeds of Sunfish, some LM Bass, a Pike and Perch. To find the Crappies I had to search a bit deeper. We found the fish holding along the deeper weedlines in 12-19' of water. If we slid any deeper than 20' the fish disappeared. There were a lot of fish using the weedlines today and they were willing to hit just about everything we put in their faces. Here's a short list of what baits caught fish today...

Power Minnows (Smelt, Chart, Pearl white, Rainbow Smelt, Glow/Chart)

Power Tubes (White, Black, Pink/White, Blue/White)

Gulp! Jigging Grubs (White/Glow, Chart)

Gulp! 2.5" Minnows (Rainbow)

Bobby Garland Baby Shad's (Double Silver Rainbow, Patriot, another new color that I'll have to find the name later )

Bobby Garland Split Tail (Double Silver Rainbow)

Bobby Garland Slab Slay'R (Double Silver Rainbow)

Like I said, I tried a lot of different baits and had good luck on everthing. I think that the real key was fishing the baits correctly. We fished them on 1/32oz jigheads. On the Power Tubes we used collared jigs but on most of the other baits we used collarless. For the Crappies one needed to get the bait down in front of the fish and wait for them to take the weight off. Cole had one that missed his bait and when I saw the jig coming toward the surface after the miss I watched the Crappie race up and hit the bait! Most of the Sunfish bites were quite aggressive. They simply wacked the baits. There were a lot of smaller fish that would peck away at the bait but the bigger fish slammed our baits. Another key to our success today was paying attention to your line. Fireline Crystal is supprisingly easy to use but it is important to have it on a softer tipped rod so you don't rip the baits out of their mouth. When the Crappies would hit you could see the line go slack. I didn't have any trouble with 4lb mono but having the visual with the Crystal helped on the extremely light bites.

It was a great day to be on the water despite the cold front that came through and the chilly breeze that waa a welcome break from all the hot weather we have been having.

I hope everybody had a good weekend and found some willing fish too. Sorry I don't have any pictures but all the batteries were dead for the digital camera.

I hope to get out again this week and really work some of the new styles and colors of baits that I recently picked up.

Good fishing,

Corey Bechtold

[The Grebe]

CB... There could have been a number of reasons why the artificals weren't working for me, could have been like you mentioned, presentation...could have been location, we were fishing pretty shallow. The fish were there, but they wanted bait.

We didn't try the deeper water, that may have been the ticket to getting them to snarf the arties....I'll have to try that next time if they are uncooperatrive again.

Since last winter I have become more of a believer in artificals and I'll tell ya, for me, it beats rebaiting and having to retie hooks. Seldom do the fish that munch on the artificals, swallow it all the way down....you know they are there before they get the chance!

The fish do act a little different once in awhile though.....for instance, I got the 18 inch walleye on a waxworm!

[ozzie]

Fished anchored in 8-10ft and and casted over 12-18ft....set the bobber at 9-10 ft down and tipped a hair jig with a waxxie......crappies and sunnies were attcking the bait...even caught a walleye (10 inches)......fun times as we had a buudies kid out and he could not stop catching small to medium sunnies......the fishing is starting to turn around on this lake!!!!

[Grant Pearson]

anyone know where to find some bull 'gills and/or large crappies in Bald Eagle? what are they hitting on? I have my 9 year old cousin that's coming into town and wants to catch some decent sunnies and crappies, and wants to go to BE. Any help would be appreciated.

[The Grebe]

I found some interesting looking plastic panfish baits at FleetFarm and picked up a couple of packs of each.

I was supposed to be looking for something else, but when I couldn't find it, off I went to the fishing dept.

Well, this morning I got the chance to use the little plastic buggers in the river and was rewarded with among other things like smallmouth bass, rockbass, etc. 2 mongo bluegills.

Big orange breasted butterballs, "Buffalo Gills" they had the hump just behind the head...I've caught em longer, but I'm not so sure I've ever caught any that were wider across the back?

Those two fish were so thick, I started to chuckle...they definately have been eating well and living large! My son could hardly believe that a bluegill of that size could be caught so close to town.

It was great, the plastics worked the fish cooperated, my son and I had some good laughs, we left at 8:30 and were back by noon!

Gotta tell ya this....there was a spider web with a big funnel, going under the rocks. The opening was the size of a quarter, no small fry living in there!

I says to my son Brian, "Hey, I'm gonna see if I can get this big boy to come out so we can get a look at em?" I took a small branch and lightly touched the web and started a little vibrating like a trapped bug, but the spider wasn't interested.

I tossed the stick and started slowly walking up the hill. My son picks up the stick and lightly poked it right into the funnel, watching for the spider....I let out a big holler, "AUGGGH!!!!"

Man, in a nano second, he dropped that stick and his gear and was airborne for about 9 feet up the bank, all arms and legs! Looked like he was tryin to fly! I just about collapsed in a heap I was laughing so hard...I almost fell down the hill!

I asked him why he leaped like that and he said he didn't know? He said he had visions of that big spider launching out of that tunnel and up that stick right onto his arm. I told him that the spider probably wouldn't yell before he did it and busted out laughing all over again, it was great!

[Kyle Sandberg]

I am just rolling around in my chair after reading that.

[Corey Bechtold]

Good stuff!!!

Lately I have been experimenting with almost everyghing in my boat. I got some new Bobby Garland Hyper Tail Gurbs in Caramel color and they have been working good for the Pannies. They also have some newer color Baby Shads that have been kicking some Crappies. The Blue Grass color has been matching some of the little minnows I have been seeing swimming around in a few lakes. The Rainbow Smelt Power Minnows have also been working for me lately. The fish have been in several different locations. Deep weedlines have been the best but some fish still are holding shallow as long as there is some forage for them and some cover to ambush their prey.

Power Tubes have been great as of late as well. Some of the brighter colors/s have been taking some nice fish. Chart/Shad, Orange/Yellow and White have been good.

The Trout Power worms have been taking a lot of fish as well. I have a few colors and they all seem to work well. The natural colors look like the real deal and Cole has really liked using them.

Gulp 1.5" Swimming Grubs have worked too. Chart and Glow have been the colors of choice for both Crappies and Sunfish. Again, collarless jigs have been better for these baits.

I have fished several different lakes lately and they all seem to have different qualities. Water clarity has changed a but finding good weedlines with deeper water have been holding better fish. As for fishing line I have been using a lot of Fireline Crystal for the sensitivity and solid hooksets. 4lb Mono has got the nod from time to time where I swim the jig a bit more. The mono allows the bait to fall a bit slower which entices a lot of strikes.

To get the fish out of the weeds or cover I have opted for longer rods with more fast tips and heavier actions. I love to fish Panfish but most of my rods can easily be used for Walleyes. I like Medium actions for a lot of situations. It helps when lifting the fish out of the water.

Water temps on the surface have been dropping a bit lately with the cooler temperatures at night so I think a lot of the Panfish and others will start migrating towards the shallower water.

Good luck and let's get the reports coming,

Corey Bechtold

[The Grebe]

Boy, I'll tell ya, this past week-end sure wasn't productive as far as the panfish were concerned, not for us anyways!

But, but,did we have fun? You bet we did! My wife and my two sisters were in the boat and it's a good thing I'm still pretty agile, cause they had me hopping from one end of the boat to the other!

It was about 3 hours of unhooking fish (Mostly small ones) baiting hooks, tying hooks back on, untangling lines, hoisting anchors at each end of the boat...I'm sure alot of you know what I got myself into?

But man, it was fun and I'm not even sure I caught a fish? Maybe one or two? The girls had a he11 of a good time and they kept some fish to contribute to the evening fish fry.

We had more laughs in one outting then alot of folks have in a year! We even did the parade wave when we came slowly through Wahkon...streets were lined on both sides with people waiting for a parade.

But I digress....the fish would take nothing but bait. I never caught a single fish on artificals. My brother and my nephew were in another boat and they experienced the same thing....the only thing they got on the fake bait was a little mental walleye.

Another group and I went back on Saturday and we did even worse, but still had a good time, culminating with a good laugh when we got to the boat ramp.

Again, gotta tell it quick, the ball games about to start...a trio backs their 14 footer down to the water, hits the dock....retrys and gets the boat in the water...but not far enough, pulls out and the boat is still wedged on the trailer and just about stands on end...one guys hollering.."Stop, stop!"

They finally get it into the water, park the truck and clamber into the boat. The motor wouldn't start and this guy's arm is moving like the needle on a sewing machine, pulling the cord.

Finally the motor starts with a big puff of smoke and the guy hits a full throttle hole shot and blasts right into the concrete ramp!

It was raining, we were cold, but we were laughing like a bunch of hyenas...couldn't help it...but, we were laughing with them, not at them....yeah, right!

[Kyle Sandberg]

Grebe, I just enjoy reading your posts. Thanks for taking the time to write.

[The Grebe]

Dunka!

[Craigums]

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Gulp 1.5" Swimming Grubs have worked too. Chart and Glow have been the colors of choice for both Crappies and Sunfish. Again, collarless jigs have been better for these baits.

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What is a collarless jig? Are these fished with just a cast and reel motion?

[Corey Bechtold]

A collarless jig just doesn't have the barb on it. This way the bait doesn't have to push up over the barbed area. The baits then last much longer.

They can be fish any way you like. I have been swimming the bait but jigging it will work too.

By the way, I made a mistake, the Gulp baits are called "Jigging Grubs" and they come in 1.5", 2".

Good luck,

Corey Bechtold

[Craigums]

Do you mean minnow grub?

[Corey Bechtold]

Nope, the Minnow Grub is different. The Jigging Grub is like a small twister tail. They come in a nice variety of colors. Black, Chart, Pearl White, Watermelon, Pumpkinseed, White Glow, Smoke and Yellow. My best luck has been with the 1.5"ers.

Good fishing,

Corey Bechtold