What's Working Now... Ice???

[Corey Bechtold]

With the old thread lost in cyberspace I thought I'd start it over again.

The last few of days I have had the opportunity to fish some different waters.

The first lake has little structure but has good weeds and a deep hole. A lot of people were camped out in the deep water while I was the only one to branch out away from the crowds. What I eventually set up on was a lump of weeds that jettied out from the straight weedline. The fish weren't active until sunset but after the Crappies decided to come out of the weeds and eat they could be tempted into biting. I was using Lindy TechniGlow Micro Minnows on a 1/64oz jighead I had painted white. I could have used a smaller jighead but I needed better control of my presentation to get the fish to come in and hit. What I saw on my Vexilar was the fish fluttering in the weeds and then they would slide out of the weeds and up to my bait. It had to be jigged softly and held still when the fish approached. The fish were 10" on average but for some reason fought like Smallmouth Bass!

The next day I fished a different lake with my Dad and Cole. We searched out some new areas for a daytime Panfish bite but where I thought they might be there were only a few Walleye's that were willing to bite. We relocated to a different area and started drilling holes. I ran the aerator while my Dad followed me with the Vexilar to check for the dropoff and fish. The first hole we drilled was apparently 15' deep when I thought it was supposed to be deeper. My dad said there were some fish down there and I had Cole grab a rod to see if we could get them to bite. My Dad dropped down and then something interesting happened. He thought his Vexilar was acting goofy because he lost bottom. There wasn't anything wrong with his locator, it was just there were so many fish in the school down there that the locator thought it was bottom! The school of fish moved and then it was actually 19' deep. We began drilling holes all over the place in search of the school of fish. Once we located them again and started fishing we found the fish to be Bluegills and Crappies together. I was using my new Thorne Bros 24" Power Noodle. The fish were so finicky that the soft tip was a must for detecting light bites withoug stinging the fish while they bit. My Dad was having trouble with his stiffer rod so I told him to take out his Power Noodle that I got him for Christmas. He started nailing fish and was absolutely stunned how much of a difference a rod could make for catching fish. We all had a blast catching the fish. Our presentations were pretty similar. Small baits fished slowly. Dad was using a small horizontal jig with a Lindy Techi-Glo Micro Minnows. I was using a Little Atom Optic Glow Stealth and a new Micro Nuggie tail. Both baits were kicking butt for us at first but as the night wore on the smaller profile Dad was using started working best. I handed Cole my rod while the bite was going good and I couldn't gdt it back!

It was a great day on the Ice with my Dad and Cole. My Dad said it was one of the best day's on the Ice he's had in a long long time. We talked about how important it was to have the Thorne Bros Power Noodle because without that tool we wouldn't have done nearly as good.

The next day I only had a couple of hours to go fishing so I headed out in search of a few good bites. I drilled a few dozen holes and found what I was looking for. Some standing weeds along a deeper flat. The Crappies were there and I had a few peaks in activity where numbers of fish came through and took my bait. I was using my favorite aggressive presentation for searching out active fish. A Berkley Power Tube fished on a 1/32oz jighead. As I fished the fish would come in multiples and hammer the bait. There were some bruisers in the mix and the new 2-tone tubes worked great. My best color happened to be Black/Chart Sparkle and second was Black/Pink. I ran out of time because I had a lot of colors to try out along with my conficence color White.

I'll have more to report later from yesterday's fishing outing but that will have to wait till later.

I hope everybody had a good New Year.

Good fishing,

Corey Bechtold

[Cyberfish]

I got out to ice some panfish this weekend tried a few spots, the bite was tough but I was able to finesse a few on plastics and micro leadheads...

Big mouth tiny bait

a couple of ice fishin buddies.

Yes, people are out in full sized SUVs and large shantys, oh my!

small speck

Gill

slab

[Corey Bechtold]

Monday I was able to fish some new water. I fished with Juggs and Catcherman. We hit some backwaters in search of Crappies. This is still relatively new to me because we're fishing a lot shallower than I am generally used to. Where we started fishing was only 2-4' deep and the fish are right under the Ice! Sight fishing is a blast as you get to see exactly what your bait is doing down there. It's also very exciting and somewhat freaky as some fish will flash in and hit like a rocket! The bad thing is that often the fish will miss the bait when they strike.

When we started the day it was somewhat dark so we weren't able to sight fish. I simply dropped the bait to the bottom and slowly raised the jig up. I banged a few fish right away until the sun was officially out. Some of the fish were nice sized too. Our presentations consisted of Ratso's, Shrimpo's, Purists, Optic jigs and various plastic tails. As the day went on the fishing became tough. There weren't too many fish around where we were fishing but there was one guy that was doing well on live bait. After he left we saw that he was sitting on an inside edge of a line of rocks that was probably an ambush point for the Crappies. We kept moving around and catching a few fish here and there. I managed a few fish before we relocated on a bait I picked up at Cabelas that really resembles the river shiners that are a forage base for the Crappies. I had to add a black tail to the bait to help mimic the black/green flash of the baitfish. One particular fish came in and inhaled the bait just as it dropped below the Ice. It was one of the most thrilling sights I've had this Ice season...

After we moved sites we fished some more lethargic fish. They were more plentiful than our starting point but still had to be coaxed into biting. The fish were 8-9" but I managed one Crappie that went 11.5".

All in all it was a fun day despite the cold frontal fish that were tight lipped. Sometimes the tough days make one really concentrate on their fishing and force you to make the right changes to get the fish to bite. Tough days make you really appreciate the good days.

Good fishing,

Corey Bechtold

[Cyberfish]

Hey, nice fish! how come you didn't get Juggs to snap some pics of you with em?

[juggs]

Because there are holes in the ice---magnetic holes!!

[fishcast]

On a small lake I fished the other day, I found active sunfish in 17 fow till they appeared to quit out there at about 10 am. I moved into the weeds which grew really thick to about 10 feet, and I fished the sparser weeds where it grew up to a couple feet off bottom in about 11 or 12 feet, and started doing real well again. My lure was a flutter bug tipped with bits of plastics and "pounded" lightly.

I have also fished some really clear lakes and done real well fishing crappies and a couple sunfish in open pockets of standing weeds in about 12 fow. It worked real well to sight fish, or use my fl-20 on low power with the 9 degree beam. I was using genz bugs and worms with assorted little atom plastics and riggings, the fish didn't seem to prefer one combo or another at the time.