What's working now - 2009

[Scott M]

I'd be remiss without attributing the "what's working now" thread to former staffer Corey Bechtold.

Corey's idea is still useful: to share your experiences on the water to see what's working. Exact locations aren't needed, but developing a pattern of presentation, fish mood given the season or weather, what the fish are relating to, etc. will help us all as we go out on the water for panfish.

Please share "what's working now."

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I was out on New Year's Day to a metro crappie hole. During daylight hours just about anything would work. I had good success with horizontal jigs and gulp waxworms in 20 feet of water. Fish were stacked up on the 20 foot flat outside of a bottleneck set of points. Night time made the fish a bit more finicky, spring bobbers were a must. Power minnows deadsticked were working (I'm noticing a strange trend that is working with this). I used a few glow ratsos after dark with better success than the horizontal jigs.

[mrfish1991]

i was also on a metro lake pretty recently..i dont know the depth on account of i dont have a vex or similar and i was too lazy to measure it out by hand.

I was fishing on bright sunny days and did very well. Both crappies and sunnies were not finnicky at all. I used several of the new bro series jigs as well as small jigging spoons. they hit plastics as well as euro. i used the berkley maggots that come in the small ziplock bag...they are about .75" ( cant remember what they are called)...but fishing has been very successful for me

i dont keep any fish out of the lake i do most of my fishing out of i just do it for sport.

[Drewski]

I've been finding nice size crappies in around 30' on a few different lakes. Been using a 1/16 oz. blue forage minnow tipped w/eurolarvae. The bite seems to be 4-7 p.m. on both lakes too.

[slurpie]

finding fish in a forty foot hole on bottom and 6 ' off. Biting on the bro bloodworm and diamond jig with waxie. They were really agressive last week and slow now. Bite is better during the day than at night. good luck.

[Jagsballar19]

I've been finding nice size crappies in around 30' on a few different lakes. Been using a 1/16 oz. blue forage minnow tipped w/eurolarvae. The bite seems to be 4-7 p.m. on both lakes too.

You got it right there. After 7 it slows and picks up again around 10.

[Mr_Lunker]

Nice to know the fish are biting during daylight hours. i guess it's time to change strategies. been using the bro bug with genz bugs jig head red and pink wirks best for me it wasn't to bad during nite bites also trying flashing the jig head first, during the sunset. hope this helps

[Fred_Bear]

Recently caught lots of crappie in 58-60 ft of water; deepest water in that area of the lake. Small crappies were always present on the vex in the bottom 4 ft and not aggressive at all. Schools of good size fish would come through from 40 - 50 ft and were very aggressive, it took way longer to get a ratso back down to the fish than it would to catch one. Fished another hole in the portable with a small jigging rap for walleyes at the same time as crappies. Even caught one eye at 32 ft off the bottom most likely chasing cicsos. Ended up icing over 20 crappies and 6 walleye between two guys from 1 PM to 4 PM. Never fished that deep before for either species, and it was definitely a new challenge but still fun.

[Drewski]

I was out the other day and was getting crappies and eyes in 50-60' of water.

[BK19]

I'd be remiss without attributing the "what's working now" thread to former staffer Corey Bechtold.

Corey's idea is still useful: to share your experiences on the water to see what's working. Exact locations aren't needed, but developing a pattern of presentation, fish mood given the season or weather, what the fish are relating to, etc. will help us all as we go out on the water for panfish.

Please share "what's working now."

why is cory a former staffer?

************************************

I was out on New Year's Day to a metro crappie hole. During daylight hours just about anything would work. I had good success with horizontal jigs and gulp waxworms in 20 feet of water. Fish were stacked up on the 20 foot flat outside of a bottleneck set of points. Night time made the fish a bit more finicky, spring bobbers were a must. Power minnows deadsticked were working (I'm noticing a strange trend that is working with this). I used a few glow ratsos after dark with better success than the horizontal jigs.

[zepman]

What happened to Cory anyway? I really enjoyed his insights.

[Scott M]

Corey's moved on to other interests and affiliations. The internet is a big place and anyone's a search away. He is missed because not only is he a good stick but he was super helpful. He does pop in from time to time.

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Tough bite that I am hoping eases up with a pressure change entering the weekend. I found fish hugging the bottom on Spring Lake. Heat was on high to keep up with the cold winds. Slowly (and I mean slowly!) twitched Fat Boys and Frostees with Berkeley gulp maggots brought in a few dinky crappies. One was 11", that was my highlight I guess , and perhaps the walleye that was about the same length.

[zepman]

Well, I wish him luck and will miss his thoughts on plastics and pannies among other things.

[riverrat56]

Found some very aggressive crappies today, fish were in 34', suspended anywhere from 6' off to 14' off the bottom, 1/16oz Rattl'n Flyer spoons and 1/8 oz Buckshot spoons tipped with minnow heads were the best producers. The fish were relating to a sharp break off of a midlake reef, we were very near to 18' and also with in spitt'n distance of 40'. Iced 8 crappies, 3 were from 9-10", the other 5 were 12"+ with the largest taped out to 13 3/4" and was a very thick fish!

[Jordyn Kaufer]

WBL-

10-15FOW on the weedline, with Ratsos's/Shrimpo's tipped with a waxie or two.

iced 2 crappies, 1=9inches and the other was 9.5

we were fishing on the "flat" if thats what you wanna call it

[Matt Johnson]

Some of the best days of ice fishing this past weekend that I've had in a long time! A lot of giant sunfish with some that are soon going to find their place on my wall as replicas

We worked over an expansive shallow 5-7 foot weed flat in search of sunfish... and maybe the occasional crappie, but the crappies eluded us. We punched roughly 50 holes throughout the day and had to hop from hole to hole in order to consistently find biters. A fish or two out of each hole was all we were getting. Some holes had too many weeds to fish it, but others were perfect pockets in the weeds and bingo!... that's where the fish were!

Spring bobbers or a Power Noodle was definitely needed as these fish were very light biters at times. A lot of bites went undetected (we soon figured that out by watching them on the underwater camera) but when the hook was set you better hold on!

I was amazed at the amount of 9+ inch fish that were caught, in fact, I would say I've never touched that many 9+ inch fish in a weekend in my entire life! We found an isolated pod and worked them over! A lot of patience at times but the rewards were well worth it.

I caught most of my fish on either a size 10 red glow Fatboy, size 12 Northland Tackle glow red Gill Getter, or a size 10 red Flutter Bug... all were tipped with a single Berkley Gulp! blood red Waxie threaded on.

The key was constant movement... meaning that if a fish came in to take a look at the bait we had to keep it moving in order for a fish to bite. If you let it sit still the fish would swim away. The trick though... you had to BARELY move it... pretty much a very subtle quiver is what they wanted and then you had to pay very close attention to the spring bobber.

It's been a while since I've dropped my rod to grab a bluegill at the ice, but this weekend found me doing that a few times

[Chode2235]

I didnt catch quite the numbers of sizes that you did Matt, but had the same pattern where I was fishing.

I actually had a lot of success finding bigger crappies in the weeds. The hot bait was a chubby darter for me. Just bouncing it a bit back and forth, just above the tops of the weeds.

Also had some luck with the gill pills, but sight fishing with the chubby darter was the way to go.

[fishersofmen]

Nice report Matt its been the same for me the last couple of weeks with the very light bite on the spring bobber. Those 9- 10 inch gills are fun to catch!

[Tripleplay]

Matt,

Nice fish! I actually had my first one of the year that size this past weekend. I actually thought that it wasn't a gill until it popped up into the hole. Honest truth was I had switched earlier in the day to my son's spring bobber rod as he wasn't with me that day and the first bite I had on his was from a suspended fish and literally doubled the rod over and had the drag a singin'. Ended up breaking off after a pretty good battle and I'm guessing a big bass as there were other marks still on the LX-5 so unlikely that they would have hung around with a northern in the area. (rod snapped so hard into the roof of the house that the spring popped out and I couldn't find it--my fault so my cost to fix) Caught the big guy on my spring bobber rod with a wax worm with a red Eurolarvae as an extra enticer on a shrimpo or ratso (I can never remember which one hangs vertical?). I know it sounds crazy but one day when I was struggling on the ice a fishing neighbor gave me this secret and I use it whenever it gets tough and it does seem to make a difference. Same rod and setup (without the Eurolarvae) got me some crappies as well in a deep hole later in the day.

Honest truth was that was the slowest bluegill day I have had all season but the big guy made up for it.

[Matt Breuer]

Tripleplay, I always use a waxie or a euro on my Shrimpo's (vertical). If the fish are killing it, I'll try it bait-less, but until they prove to me that they're uber-aggressive, I'll have scent aboard the jig! If you want to try something different with the Shrimpo, take the tail off, and hook it whacky-style on the hook. Puts off a beautiful bob in the water....

As for what's been working for me... It's been the most shallow orientated I've ever been. I've been chasing crappies and 'gills in less than 12' of water nearly all year, with some really good fish coming out of 4-5' of water. Of course there are a few lakes in the area that are putting out crappies in the main basins, suspended 10' of the bottom in 35' of water as well.

Matty, those are some nice 'gills.

[tacklebox7FF]

I will have to agree on using shimpos for crappies.. they work even without bait. and if you get into the aggressive gills they bite them too..

[bak2MN]

Matt nice fish!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[bak2MN]

Matt nice fish!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[snoozebutton]

Found them (crappies) shallow tonight too Matt, around 5 or 6 feet and they were a foot to 3 feet under the ice. Ratsos both pink and white with a minnow produced the larger ones (10 to 13 inches) and a Bro's Bloodworm without any meat produced the most. I was going to try a minnow with the bloodworm but it's kind of nice to catch them going "meatless."

[Cyberfish]

I got out with some friends for some late ice sunfish action, and had a great bite going on. I got more 10 inch bluegills than i can remember on an ice fishing outing. plus bonus largemouth bass up to four pounds and some good perch, sunny and 50 degrees too, cant beat that!

I got my fish on a lindy rattlin' flyer spoon with lots of red maggots for bait, also got some on a fatboy jig. Upsizing was the key to getting bigger fish. smaller plastics also worked, but you had to sort through more small fish. Most of the fish were in 8 to 11 feet.

Get out while you can, this late ice won't be around long, and the fish are really feeding now!

http://mtbucket.blogspot.com/2009/03/big-sunfish-and-bass-action.html

MT

[Scott M]

Thanks as always Mike. Did you make it out to the Sports Show? Thought I saw a GEM sticker on a sporty car.

Keep on those big 'gills.