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

[Kyle Sandberg]

Went out fishing last Monday. What an adventure. Cold, windy, and all else you could think of. Try going for some suspended crappies and it took 15 holes to find them but I eventually did. Thats all I saw of them. They didn't want anything. Only thing that got the to bite was holding the lure absolutely still. Even then they were tuff to trick into biting. I left that lake around three and headed over to a different and target fish that were shallower, after hating dealing with that deeper water. I ended up with pretty consistent action throughout the day with plenty of crappies and sunnies to keep myself occupied. I pulled up a couple larger crappies and a few keeper sunnies as well but the highlight of day is once it started slowing down as it got dark, the fish would only come up and sniff it. They wouldn't commit. But I finnally got one to go and I'm sure glad I stayed for this fish. It was a 14.5" crappie that weighed 2 pounds. It was absolutely awesome.

Here is the pic.

[Lusid]

K Dawg - must have missed it, but what did you use?

EDIT - Nevermind, I see a ratso

[Kyle Sandberg]

Yea. Pink and white glow ratso. Only my second time using them. Sure was fun.

[tjoutdoors]

This might be a stupid question as I haven't spent a lot of time looking but where do you guys get your lures? Specifically, where does one get ratsos, nuggies, marmooskas and the other artificials people talk about on here? I'm "old fashioned" I guess as I still just use little tear drops or ice ants tipped with waxies for crappies and gills every time out.

[Wookiee]

Fleet Farm, Sportsmans Warehouse, Gander Mountain and Thorne Bros. carries a lot of this stuff. I buy a lot of my stuff on line to make sure I get the colors I like. If you want websites just send me an email, it's in my profile, and I will hook you up, the shipping isn't that bad either.

[Lusid]

ratsos - was purchased at gander mtn, but i know Fleetfarm / cabelas has them.

marmooskas - was purchased @ cabelas - rodgers MN

[Lusid]

 Originally Posted By: K Dawg

Yea. Pink and white glow ratso. Only my second time using them. Sure was fun.

Dead stick(judging by pic) and how did you present the lure?

thanks

[Kyle Sandberg]

No, I was jigging them. How did you get dead stick out of the pic?

I would pound the lure until a fish showed up then I'd either raise it up slowly or quiver the lure in front of the fish.

[Lusid]

ooops, I was wrong, got my terms mixed up sorry.

thanks for the info.

[Kyle Sandberg]

no problem.

[Coach1310]

Hey K Dawg...quit gloating

Just kidding...nice fish!

Nice fish to everyone else as well.

[Kyle Sandberg]

Just glad you were kidding... may have had to lay it down on you this Saturday!

[tjoutdoors]

"pound the lure" meaning to jig it hard or something?

[Coach1310]

Basically it is a solid steady jigging, but not a lot of motion on your part. If you use the "Pencil grip" meaning you hold the butt of your rod just like you would hold a pencil, just a slight up and down motion moving just your hand, not your whole arm. Take into account what depth you are fishing and what kind of line you are using. If you are using mono understand it stretches so if shallow not much of a worry, but deep you need to account for the stretch so adjust your range of motion accordingly.

[ZEEK1223]

went out on thursday to a new lake, there were 5 portables sitting right next to each other. I didnt want to bother them so I went to explore. There were only 3 permanent houses on the lake, so not much to go by. I drilled a few holes near a 30 ft hole, and marked fish right away in about 25ft. The flasher was glowing like a christmas tree, but i could not get them to bite. the fish were suspended 10 ft off the bottom. must have tried 15 different lures including different color ratsos, then all of the sudden as soon as the sun hit the trees, it was one right after the other. only lasted for about 20 mins, but thats all it took to get my limit of nice crappies. Got them all on a glow jig with a pink ratso tipped with a red euro worm. A couple of days later I went out to the same spot, and marked the same fish, but they would not even give me a look. Has this ever happened to you guys? are they wise to the lure? I threw everything I had at them. what do you guys do in a situation like that?

[Corey Bechtold]

Sounds like the fish were on a feeding binge the one day. Maybe they had enough to eat or changed their preferred forage.

This weekend I was able to get out on the Ice. One day the bite was fantastic as the fish were hitting large baits. 2" Power Minnows were a great option to get the larger Crappies. Then the next day the fish went the other direction. Small was the key and having a soft tipped rod was a must. I used a black head jig with a red Ratso body or Gulp! Waxie to entice those finicky fish. A great reason to be versatile.

The highlight of the weekend was getting my whole family out on the Ice together. It was a short outing but that worked best since the kids have school in the morning. The Crappies bit pretty steadily on Ratso's and small Lindy Whip tail plastic tails. Hole hopping was key and the kids did a good job. Cole had the touch as he worked over fish after fish. I didn't get a picture of him with some of his fish because I had to go over and take some of Bailey and Brooke with some of their fish.

Cole works over some fish.

Brooke's Crappie with Bailey's help.

Bailey and a good fish.

It was a great weekend with exceptional weather. I hope you all had a chance to get out and enjoy!

Good fishing,

Corey Bechtold

[Matt Johnson]

Spent a good part of the weekend out on Tonka guiding. Ran through a tank of auger gas on both days but ended up finding fish a on few spots each day. The target was crappies for the most part. Sorted through a bunch of smaller ones but eventually tied into some larger fish. The deeper holes held a lot of fish but it ended up being the shallower weeds that held the more consistent numbers of larger fish. Depths from 9-13 feet seemed to be key. Fish were caught on size 8 Ratsos, pink head and white body. They would hold tight in the weeds and then slowly rise out to take the bait. About 2-3 feet of weeds on the bottom is what we focused on.

A great weekend to be on the ice weather wise. Not much wind and a lot of warm temps!

[ole matty]

crappies was so aggressive last friday evening at metro lake. was using white diamond jig with white ratso body. when i jiggin a lil they wldnt took it as i poundin it they wld came n attackin it. it was fun but not much of sizes to them mostly 6-8" n some 9-11". yesterday bluegills was pretty aggressive. same techinque as crappies. light jiggin no taker. poundin jiggin they wld attacked it. some 7-9" bluegills..still lookin for 10" gills...

[Corey Bechtold]

It was a great weekend on the Ice. The fishing was good but the company I had was better. As far as "What's working now" there were some old standby's that did the trick. Horizontal baits like Ratso's or Lindy Micro Minnows. Using spikes was optional but at times the Bluegills showed a liking for one or two on the hook. The Crappies were aggressive and readily attacked the baits. The key to icing those Crappies was to use a soft tipped rod or spring bobber so the "up" bite could be detected. Thorne Bros 24" Power Noodles worked great for this. My Dad caught a few beauties today along with this 12" fish that got CPR'ed...

Way to go Dad!

I think that my Dad is getting good use out of his Christmas present. lol

Key depths for the fish was 12-17' of water near a shallow flat. Seeing the fish hanging around these flats means that the late Ice bite is going to be here soon.

Good fishing,

Corey Bechtold

[Matt Johnson]

Corey, your dad must have caught that one lastnight? The crappie master himself

My dad and I had the chance to fish with Corey and his dad most of the weekend and he hit it right on the head. The evening bite for the crappies was very good and we came across a few schools of fish that we very aggressive. However, even though they were moving through fast and willing to take the jig, a finesse rod of some sort definitely paid off. I used both the Power Noodle and spring bobber. However I prefered the Power Noodle as the night wore on and it got colder out...

Should be a great late ice period!

[Corey Bechtold]

It was a brief aggressive bite again but we didn't wait around until "prime time". Cole had school on Monday so we had to scat early.

Things will definately improve with the Late Ice period fast approaching. The true test will be trying to find time to chase those aggressive Panfish.

Good luck,

Corey Bechtold

[Matt Johnson]

 Originally Posted By: Corey Bechtold

The true test will be trying to find time to chase those aggressive Panfish.

Isn't that the truth

[Icefisher23]

What are you guys using right now for crappies?

[Kyle Sandberg]

Ratsos, shrimpos, power minnows, and at night a small minnow under a float.

[Coach1310]

Ratsos, forage minnows, plain hook and minnow, power minnows