secrets

[Guest]

is anyone willing to share some of there secrets on how to catch fish when they are fidgety. cause i need some help ive tried minnow heads, waxworms, jig and rap, big lures, small lures and any other basic thing you can think of and none of it works. thanks for the info.

rip some lips!!!

[Mankato-Ice-Man]

The only thing I can say is go as small as you can with everything- light rods, light line, small jigs, small minnows or heads, waxies.
Keep you actions smooth and slow, no aggressive jigging.
Stay away from crowds as those fish might not be under as much pressure.

Good luck. I think its that time of the year for most of us.

[kslipsinker]

I would agree with Mankato, light is good at this time of the year. I find a deep hole and watch the Vex. It is great to entice a daytime fish to bite.

[Renneberg]

Hey schnerdog, what kind of fish are you fishing for?

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"Study to be quiet"

[Guest]

iam mainly fishin for crappies and walleyes

[RogersResort]

Just maybe that is why they call them secrets.

[Jason Boser]

shnerdog, I ran into some crappie yesterday that did the same thing and it just happens esspecialy this time of the year. The one thing I will tell you is to move go to a differnt lake a differnt spot on the lake and try that it helped us yesterday.

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[Guest]

I don't think I'm the only one who'd say this but ice fishing is changing by the year. Each time I go out to a favorite spot I find that it's also become a favorite for LOTS and LOTS of other people. People who make alot of noise and have no courtesy for others. So, it makes sense to avoid those places now. Do a little research (not looking on the websites for good tips) and drill some holes away from the noise. It really works when you find fish that haven't been pestered all winter. Maybe even venture a little farther from home and find a lake that's not too big and not cluttered with activity. Cruise through the DNR site and pull a couple lake maps up. Even if you can't print the map you can make a hand drawing of the lake and mark your own search sites. One more thing. When fishing the finicky ones, stay a little longer. I have found at least once this winter if I stayed out there longer, the fish began to hit after the crowd thinned out and the noise level went way down. Maybe even stay home longer and go out later in the evening. One last thing-if you are sitting on top of a group of fish that won't bite (crappies) try working the bottom underneath them. I did this once a couple weeks ago and found that there were alot of fish down there too. They would come off the bottom and inhale.....T

[Guest]

Tiny tiny baits on 2lb test line helps. I have see times in cold water (spring pre-spawn) when the fish would be hitting my split shot and not my floaters or jigs. A 1/64 oz. jig with only a "tentical" or "feeler" leg from a tube skirt would take a fish when nothing else would. Black seems to work best for me when the fish are negitave too, for some reason.
Catch'n
Dave Hoggard

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[gill man]

Downsizing and subtle presentations are the go-to option for many anglers when the fish are turned off. It's the first choice because a lot of the time it's what you need to do. However, it doesn't always work. I've always been more of a presentation changer than a lure or color changer. I remember one case in particular this year catching crappies. I had to change presentations about 5 times within 2 hours or so to keep the fish hitting.
What surprised me the most is what the fish did when they "seemed" to be the most inactive. With traditional jigging techniques you couldn't move a fish. It seemed like they didn't know your jig was down there. I started ripping the little Fat Boy like you wouldn't believe about a foot above their heads. Before you knew it, one would start rocketing it's way up to the jig. Then, if you didn't do everything you could to pull that jig away, those crappies would lose all interest. But, if you'd lift that jig about as fast as you could while imparting big hops, they would come up and smash it. So these "inactive" fish got triggered by this extremely agressive jigging tactic, while more subtle presentations wouldn't make a fish even think about looking at the jig.

When the fish are down a good bet can be to downsize and slow down. But when that doesn't work try a 180 on them and go loud. Sometimes it might work.

gill man