What's working now Ice 07-08!!!

[cRaPpiEMaN8265]

good job fellas i will be out there tomorrow... gotta cure the itch badly now! spoolin up the ice rod as we speak! by the way corey you gave me the 28" thorne rod. im very mad just kidding i kinda like that cuz now i can use it in the shack too! just got the abu garcia 300u reel to, man is it an awesome combo!

Good Luck Fishing,

Ryan

[Kyle Sandberg]

I'm goning out on Sunday. Can't Wait!!!

[cRaPpiEMaN8265]

we will be out there romorrow! report back on sunday for you all!

Later,

Ryan

[fisherdog19]

Got out tonight, a good 5-6 inches. Caught one crappie at around 4:45 and then my wife called and told me she couldn't get out of work early to pick up the kids so I had to go . Oh well, there's this weekend with the wife and kids out of town .

[PerchPounder]

couldn't get them to take plastics but they sure loved those wax worms. Started with the usual collarless jig and a wedgie, but quickly had to switch it up and use some live bait.

[Corey Bechtold]

The other day I was able to go out fishing and was pleasently supprised with what found. I didn't know anything about the lake we fished so it took a lot of holes to find the fish. The lake was deep and didn't have much for structure but there were a few groups of suspended Crappies roaming the basin. Most of the fish were fairly aggressive and once the bait was wiggled in front of them they would take.

Ratso's or Optic jigs tipped with Ratso tails did well for the Crappies. I even used some Berkley Powerbait Spikes to add some scent and action to the jigs. They were great and they will definately be in my arsenal this Winter!

We drilled some more holes and found a small flat area near the deeper water. There were some good sized gills hanging around and with a little switch in baits we picked a few off. One bait that I was very happy with was the new Berkley Gulp! Waxies. They really matched up great with a Fiskas jig.

The fish became a little more finicky so I made another small change and switched over to a black Ratso. It really did well on both the Sunfish and Crappies.

It was a great day even though we really fought the cold and deep snow. The lake had 6" of Ice but with the weight of all the snow the water would sneak under the snow making it difficult to stay mobile. It was a fun day and it was a lot of fun to be on such quality fish.

The fish on the right has a Gulp! Fish Fry trimmed down and that worked very well as well.

The key depths were 13-20' down in 28-35' of water for Crappies. The Gills were hanging out in 14-17' of water along the bottom. The Crappies ranged from 8-12" while the Bluegills were 8-9.75". We released all the Gills and kept only a few 10" Crappies for a meal. I can't wait to get out again and work a few more lakes.

Good fishing,

Corey Bechtold

[rockman]

You really weren't kidding, when I talked to you at the Thorne Bros. booth at the Ice Show, about using the Berkley products.I had to bail out of there after I retrieved my wallet. Nice pics,and nice fish,needless to say.Getting my stuff ready tonight.I hope to add to this forum with a similar report soon.Thanks for 'wetting the whistle', a little bit.

[Corey Bechtold]

Try and stay warm rockman! I forgot to give you my e-mail address so here it is...

[email protected]

Good fishing,

Corey Bechtold

[cRaPpiEMaN8265]

Nice fish corey! gald to see you could get out on the hard stuff... I forgot to report on the crappie sunfish forum from last week so i am just going to throw a few pictures out from last weekend.. As you will see not many fish were caught and the conditions were brutal. there was 30Mph sustained winds and we got about 7 inches of snow on top of that(Last Saturday and Sunday) still good to be on the ice though.

[mage] [/image]

http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd92/frenchguyfry/p_00056.jpg[/image]

one of the few fish caught...

Headin back in on the snowmobile after a long hardfaught weekend...

Good Fishing!

Ryan

[Corey Bechtold]

Good stuff Andy! Did you get to use that Panfish Sweetheart?

Talk to you later,

Corey Bechtold

[Jim Hudson]

Hit the ice again today, where bull gills were the main target. Fish were pretty tight lipped and schooled very tightly, the big 'gills anyhow. 25' of water was the ticket, right on the lip of hard to soft bottom. Shallower or deeper found dinks throughout the time we fished. #10 TechniGlow Red Fatboys were the only lure that these fish would touch, turning their fins up to anything else. And strangely enough, the fish would only go for waxies on the hook too. You put Eurolarvae on and again they would just sniff. Tough day, but we did manage a few good ones.

One thing I am noting this year already, is that even though we are in first ice conditions, this year will be a bit tougher for really good bite up here in my neck of the woods. A really cold and windy fall with now a foot or more snow on the ice has pushed a lot of fish off normal first ice locations. Just a quick tid bit on that, in case you are in a funk looking for fish this first ice season.

[Kyle]

Keith,

Would ya want to help me with those goals too?

[Coach1310]

Finally made my first trip of the season. Found quite a few fish. Lots of small fish relating to the thick weeds in 8-10 FOW, but found the nicer fish roaming scattered weeds in 12-14 FOW. Saturday a buddy fished a pink and white gill pill all day tipped with euros and never had to switch. Sunday they didn't want it at all. I tried numerous horizontal jigs to very limited success. I settled on one of the smallest jigs in the box... a green "Flirty Girty" not sure if that is what they are called still, but they used to be anyway. Crappies were much more aggressive than the bluegills, but I did manage enough for a meal. Also landed a few bonus fish.... 3lb Largemouth and a 5 lb pike.... it was just nice to be out!!

[TMF89]

Was out today in 8-10 feet of water. Marked fish on the bottom consistently, but no takers. I was using a red shrimpo with a euro larvae.

[cRaPpiEMaN8265]

Went out to Peltier Sunday and found some fish in about 14FOW dropped down my white ratso and bam the action was nonstop for about and hour or so when it was about4 o clock. So i grabbed the other rod dropped down a buckshot spoon and "poofed" the bottom up. I saw more fish on the graph so i dropped down a white nuclear ant and bam bam bam nonstop for a while again when i finally had to leave... I caught about 30 crappies and went home with 3 9 inch crappies and 4 sunfish between 7 1/2 and 9 1/2 inches... Good end to the weekend after being skunked Saturday on Lake Pokegama. By the way there was 5 inches of ice out about 100 yard on Peltier. Sorry no pics this time...

Later,

Ryan

[Corey Bechtold]

Shhh! The new 2-tone Berkley Power Tubes are working.

Pictures and a report to come later.

Good fishing,

Corey Bechtold

[ole matty]

how do u exact fish those tubes? i had use tubes but in summer it work great in winter never caught any fish on it... do u pound the tube or slightly jiggin or pause?

[Corey Bechtold]

When I fished the other day I decided to try out the new 2-tone Power Tubes. I rigged a few rods but didn't need to switch because the Black/Chart sparkle tube did the trick. The second hole I went to had a few fish in the area. I dropped down the tube and twitched it t times to get a Crappie to come in to the bait. I raised the fish just like I was fishing a small plastic and the Crappies just slid up and hit.

I didn't have to move too much but found the fish were relating to the bottom near a flat in 10-12' of water. There was a distinct weedline at 8' and the Crappies were roaming the edge.

It was a lot of fun while it lasted but the bite really slowed right after sunset. The cold finally got to me so I wrapped it up and headed out Christmas shopping.

Good fishing,

Corey Bechtold

[Grant Pearson]

awesome fish!

[Matt Johnson]

Corey, you need to give the new Berkley Atomic Teasers a try. I think they're going to be dynamite for crappies through the ice!

[Corey Bechtold]

They are on my list of "things to try". There are also some Gulp! baits that I think will kick butt as well.

Later,

Corey Bechtold

[The Grebe]

1st and 2nd time out...tried several types of plastics that I have been looking forward to trying out on the winter crappies since last summer! The winter crappies weren't interested, at least not on the lake I was fishing!

You had to have meat! A lively minnow, made more lively by constant movement was about the only thing we could get them to hit on. We didn't get many, but the ones we got were hogs!

We had one monster that was shaped like a plate...was a hair over 12 inches long, but it weighed 1# 7oz. on the digital! It looked like it had been inflated with air! But alas, it to was one that fell victim to a lively minnow.

I haven't given up on the plastics, I plan to try them on every trip out this ice season...they worked great for me last summer and hope they do the same for me this winter....2 trips does not a season make!

[Corey Bechtold]

What's working now??? Here's a list of what's been catching a lot of fish for me lately...

Custom Jigs and Spins Ratso's

Lindy Micro Minnows

Little Atom jigs (Optic and Optic Stealth)

Stren 2lb High Vis gold line

Thorne Bros 24" Power Noodle

Cabelas Prestige spinning reel (was on clearence for 29 bucks)

Berkley Gulp! Waxies (Pink or White)

Berkley Power Spikes (White)

Berkley Power Tubes (White)

This past weekend we had to do some searching for Gills and Crappies. I definately gave my Aerator (Strikemaster ) a good workout. There were Bluegills hanging in the shallows and finding the standing weeds increased productivity so having lots of holes around the vegetation was needed. After fishing the shallows I started moving deeper and was glad I did. I found a deeper flat that had some roaming Gills on it and there was some size to the fish too. The deeper water fish required good electronics and a sensitive rod so I searched out the productive water with my FL-20. I used the 19 degree transducer to search then switched to the 9 degree to zero in on the fish. Having the Thorne Bros 24" Power Noodle also helped me detect those "sipping" Bluegill bites. It was a blast catching those fish as they acted like freshwater Halibut!

The second day was the search for Crappies and search we did. I had to fire up the Aerator again because of my friends auger issues. I went to town looking for the fish in deeper water. After 30 or so holes it was apparent that a move was necessary. I dragged the Trap along with my gear and relocated. I found some fish nearing an inlet from a different lake. Again the fish weren't stationary so it was necessary to keep mobile to stay on the active fish. I nearly ran my Strikemaster dry drilling holes but the effort was rewarding as we got on some good fish. The key pattern was fishing the 24' flat adjacent to the shallower ledge. Horizontal baits worked best again for us.

The last day of the trip we decided to hit the Gills again. We made some lacation changes but found the fish close to where they were the first day. Towards mid-day I relocated and searched out some new water. I thought there were a lot of Perch down my holes but the marks on my flasher seemed a bit larger than Perch. They were really finicky so after a while I downsized to a tiny horizontal jig tipped with a single Gulp! Waxie. On the way down I saw a fish racing up to the bait. I thought it was possibly an air bubble rising up off the bottom but it was quite large. Suddenly the target slammed into my bait. I set the hook snd started the battle. I thought I might have hooked into a Bass, Pike or Walleye because of the way it was fighting. I started backreeling and lightening the drag so I wouldn't snap the line. As the fish neared the hole I started getting excited because the water was starting to go up and down in the hole. I was expecting a toothy critter but suddenly I saw the fish. It was a huge Bluegill! I took a quick measurement and saw the fish was just shy of 10.75". What a battle and what a beautiful fish. The fish is back in the lake to hopefully be caught next year and maybe it will top the 11" mark.

Good fishing,

Corey Bechtold

[fishcast]

Thats an awesome bluegill! I haven't caught any sunfish near that big through the ice but in my pond I have caught sunfish up to 10.5", and they do put up an awesome fight!

By the way Corey, thanks for the real informative posts. Its helped give me some new ideas to try and areas to start out the search.

[Jim Hudson]

Been putting the hurt on some crappies as of late.. Hitting inland waters on days I have off of guiding here on the big lake..

Basically, the fish are devouring anything and everything in front of them.. Stacked thick over the basin and schooling through.. On the nicer days, you are able to hole hop quickly and stay right with them.. But now with the cold snap, hunkering down a bit and waiting for them to pass through again is working as well..

The preferred bait, is a glow fiska, 4mm.. Tipped with a Little Atom wedgie, usually the new glow red color is the best choice.. But white was working well too.. Lures fished 2 feet or so above the school would find fish rushing and devouring the bait.. Springs made it much easier to see the bite, on the upward swing of the crappies sucking in the bait. Good stuff.. Looking forward to a few more days of this fishing...