Confused after a day of fishing

[MNbrewer44]

Hows it going everybody?

I had today off so I decided to try a new lake in the metro area. It was a ok day of fishing with some things I found to be unusual. I was fishing in 23' of water. I started off by using a genz worm tipped with euro larva. As soon as I dropped my line in my marcum light up like a xmas tree. I was so excited about the sheer number of fish I was "calling in." but after a half hour I still had no bites. I would watch the fish come up to the bait and then slowly drop about 1 foot below it and just sit there. I tried dead sticking, small, slow, fast, big jiggin motions but it was still the same thing. I switched colors and size but the fish would still just sit under it and watch it. I then tried just about every lure in my tackle box and the same thing. I also had crappie minnows with me and used them with the same results as the euro larva. I noticed when I was tying a different lure on, the fish would slowly start to leave the area. As soon as I dropped a line down they would all come back. What would you guys do in this situation? Anything I should try if it happens again?

Also I was using 3 different rods throughout the day two with 4lb Pline and one with 2lb Pline. The line didn't seem to change a thing.

One last weird thing too. All of a sudden a green/red line would come up from the bottom and go straight up to about 5 feet under the ice and then disappear. When it was going up it was moving fast, about 3 sec to move from 23' to 5' under the ice. Any Ideas on what this was?

Thanks,

Brian

[MuleShack]

 Originally Posted By: MNbrewer44

As soon as I dropped a line down they would all come back. What would you guys do in this situation? Anything I should try if it happens again?

Inactive fish (or not hungry fish...or disinterested fish)on the screen for a half hour to an hour and the situation doesn't change, i would be moving (or at least drilling holes) shallower and then deeper and check for activity on the graph. If you find more fish, see if they act the same way...if so, repeat step one. It may seem fun to be sitting on top of fish, but i find it only fun it they are biters. I would be moving to find some thing that is hungry.

just my opinion.

[mnvikings1]

I would bet you were fishing on Bald Eagle Lake. I have had the exact same stuff happen to me. After 2 or more hours of trying everything, I got one of the buggers to bite a small, plain, short shank hook with one waxie on it, hooked once just behind the head. What was it you ask.....or what were the fifty lines on my vex??? It was a 4 inch crappie, stunted and stiff as a board from being pulled up 25 feet. I figured as much, but it was good to actually see it so I knew for sure.

[MNbrewer44]

MuleShack~

I did do some hole hopping. I went as shallow as 7' and as deep as 35'. The low 20's depth not only had the most fish but the fish in this depth would at least follow my bait up when I would slowly jig it up and away from them trying to entice a bite. Fish in other depths seemed to just swim by. So maybe I just didn't hop enough holes!

Brian

[MuleShack]

Yea, sometimes it pays off and other times you just get tired .

Some times i end up back at the place i started if it is getting too late to start to scout a new area. Otherwise I'll just go to another part of the lake and start over.

Besides I do a lot of desk duty for my job so I use this as a way to get some excercise while out

[jwhjr]

 Originally Posted By: MNbrewer44

One last weird thing too. All of a sudden a green/red line would come up from the bottom and go straight up to about 5 feet under the ice and then disappear. When it was going up it was moving fast, about 3 sec to move from 23' to 5' under the ice. Any Ideas on what this was?

I've seen air bubbles do this, but they usually come up through the hole.

[Powerstroke]

Sounds like there were far fewer fish than what was on the marcum. I've found that using braids and flouro tends to hold air bubbles on the line and will create false returns on the flasher. This gives the impression that there's more there than really is.

It also sounds like some air bubbles too. The only fish I've ever seen climb 20-30ft in a few seconds on the flasher is a Lake Trout and thats in 80ft of water. Usually its some sort of air bubble or floating debris form the lake bottom.

THe only other thing is whether there were other people around you. There may have been some interference from other flashers. If I'm getting weird flasher marks I will bump the IR to see if I can cancel it out.

Something else I try is lowering the transducer in the hole. Vexilars tend to have "ringing" in the hole that creates extra flasher clutter. If I lower the ducer in the hole to just below the ice and the extra interference usually clears up.

I'm not saying that there weren't fish there cause it sounds like you were working the flasher perfectly.

[hanson]

Welcome to the world of metro panfishing. There is a good chance those fish will bite, you just weren't fishing small and finesse enough. 2 words- spring bobber! But if you could confirm that they were 2-3" gills or 4-5" crappies, I'd just move anyway and not waste my time.

[NyQuiLlama]

If I can't get them to bite I go with a TINY tungsten marmooska jig tipped with half of a spike.

My guess is that they weren't hungry, that's all. Imagine eating a full thanksgiving meal and then having somebody dangle a McDonald's cheeseburger in front of you with a giant treble hook running through it. Would you take a bite? Now a single sliver of pumpkin pie on a florocarbon line with a tiny hook embedded in it... that sounds more appetizing!

[Deitz Dittrich]

Really hard to say what I would have done in that situation... Kept changing lures til I found one that would work... Smalller and smaller and lighter line.

I'm also going to agree with some of the above posts.. the fast moving object was probably a methane bubble from decay on the bottom of the lake.

[Powerstroke]

 Originally Posted By: hanson

Welcome to the world of metro panfishing. There is a good chance those fish will bite, you just weren't fishing small and finesse enough. 2 words- spring bobber! But if you could confirm that they were 2-3" gills or 4-5" crappies, I'd just move anyway and not waste my time.

Ain't that the truth. Even with the spring bobbers we were missing hits this weekend on Med. Lake.

Last friday I was fishing a great metro lake for pannies. In 12ft deep I could see the bottom and the fish and even watching them inhale the lure we were missing strikes.

[Chode2235]

Yeah, my advice would be to go small. Small, small, small. Just a plain hook or even a unpainted jighead with a small larve on it.

I have had the same thing happen before, and I end up moving. You should be able to find some more active fish. Or come back in the evening. The evening bite is usually better.

Most of the lakes in the metro that I have found, have good sized schools of small crappies. Tough to get them to bite, and not worth a lot when you do.

At least you were getting some good practice at using your electronics to find fish, right?

[DARTER]

That's funny

 Originally Posted By: NyQuiLlama

If I can't get them to bite I go with a TINY tungsten marmooska jig tipped with half of a spike.

My guess is that they weren't hungry, that's all. Imagine eating a full thanksgiving meal and then having somebody dangle a McDonald's cheeseburger in front of you with a giant treble hook running through it. Would you take a bite? Now a single sliver of pumpkin pie on a florocarbon line with a tiny hook embedded in it... that sounds more appetizing!

[sjburnt]

.

[broman]

Get yourself a long skinny net that fits down the hole. Scoop, empty and repeat.... problem solved.

Nah, I agree with some of the others. Remeber the spot, move to another for a while, then come back to it later, maybe near sunset when the action starts to heat up again.

[efgh]

The same thing happened to me 2 or 3 weeks ago fishing off ceder point on Francis during the Otter run, markum showed a lot of fish 3 ft. off the bottom, keep down sizing untill I caught one, turned out the fish were 2-4 in silver shiners. I caught 6 or so, they are good pike bait and a lot tougher than boughten shiners.

[Craigums]

Drop down an underwater camera and figure out what the heck is going on...problem solved

[slipperybob]

Just wait till you get to the St Croix and mark fish all over the water column...shads about 10', suckers' on bottom...LOL's

[sjburnt]

.

[theicehooker]

I was just going to say they were probably bait fish or clouds of plankton when you drop through those clouds they scatter from water movement and cause almost what looks like alot of fish. then when you dont move all the sudden the vex starts to clear up, what you called "fish leaving." Or it is that little green algea clumps. I have also gotten that when you miss a strike and all the sudden the vex has all this [PoorWordUsage] on it. I also agree 100 % with the fact that you must have the top of your ducer at least below the ice. That fast rising blob was a bubble or some sort of interference more than likely. Although not saying you werent on fish, but.....

[NyQuiLlama]

 Originally Posted By: efgh

The same thing happened to me 2 or 3 weeks ago fishing off ceder point on Francis during the Otter run, markum showed a lot of fish 3 ft. off the bottom, keep down sizing untill I caught one, turned out the fish were 2-4 in silver shiners. I caught 6 or so, they are good pike bait and a lot tougher than boughten shiners.

This is the reason that sometimes I feel like the traditional method of ice fishing (sans sonar, jigging blind) has it's merits. An old school fisherman wouldn't have wasted his time.