The speed and intensity of how fish move should play a key factor in tactics and strategy.  Not always, but often when we find bluegills, crappies and perch on basins, flats and suspended over open water, these fish are on the move.  Sometimes, these fish seem to be moving as fast as a person walks.  When you watch these fish on the camera, they are on the go… seldom pausing and stopping  briefly and momentarily only when something arrouses their curiosity.  Now obviously when fish are moving like this, you have to move to find them but sometimes, we can actually do better by staying put and working an area if enough new fish keep moving in and out.  The faster fish are moving, the faster they leave you but also remember that the faster fish are moving, the faster new fish might find you.

The longer you can keep these fish below you, the more fish you can catch.

This becomes even more difficult when fishing alone.  When you are out of the water, these fish immediately drift off.  The longer you are out of the water unhooking a fish, the further they drift off.  Drilling a second hole with a second line is an option an angler can use to try and stall fish but drilling and fishing that second hole slows down mobility so dramatically that if might become difficult to find the fish initially.  Nothing is faster than hopping from hole to hole with one rod, using your electronics.  Coincidently, the fish that often move the fastest are usually schooled vertically versus scattered horizontally.  These vertical schools don’t take up much room and are often harder to find with electronics because the school might be six feet high but only three feet across.  When you do find them however, the whole dial might be lit up with fish while an angler six feet away can mark nothing.  In my opinion, nothing beats a Vexilar for judging the attitude of a fish because the resolution on the display is so much better.  Anglers can tell if a fish moves or stops by the flutter in the signal.

Often when attempting to find suspended fish, we just keep dropping the transducer down as we walk from hole to hole, stopping to fish when we see fish on the dial.  A tip for finding these suspended fish is to swing the transducer from side to side slightly to pick up fish that might be just off the cone angle.  Generally, even if you get a mark or two when finding fish this way, stop and fish as you might be just off the edge of the school.   We often start out by fishing aggressively when attempting to find these fish.  Something that is heavy, gets down and pulls fish in.  For perch, Northland Buckshot Rattle spoons are extremely effective for “calling” fish in.  For bluegills and crappies, finesse spoons like Northland Forage Minnows can bring fish in from a distance.  These burning schools of aggressive fish will generally eat whatever you put in front of them so the more fish you can find by being efficient as far as getting back down into the water or pulling additional fish to you, the better.

Strategy plays a big key in how many fish you can catch when faced with this type of situation.  The following are a few tips that have worked well for us when we are trying to take advantage of these opportunities.  Also, fishing outside in the elements is often crucial for finding these fish consistently as the person who drops that transducer into the most holes usually wins.  Good outerwear like Ice Armor is a must.  If the elements are so severe that you must use a shelter, a flip up style shelter like a Fish Trap is extremely convenient

Lift the Fish High

When a column of fish first appears on the electronics, many anglers immediately attempt to pick off the easiest fish.  Instead, try this.  Find the most responsive fish (usually located near the top of the school) and lift that fish up from the school to get the rest of the fish to rise.  Get these fish up off the bottom as high as you can until they start to drift back down.  As soon as they start to drift, go after the highest fish.  Often when you can lift the fish high (especially in deep water) the fish drift down instead of swimming away which gives you more time to bring in a fish, get unhooked and back down to the next fish.  Work your way down from top to bottom and if the school disappears with just a few fish left, hook one of the remaining fish if possible and just hold the fish for awhile, as that struggling fish will often bring the school back in.  Keeping the school stacked up vertically and off the bottom is crucial.

Modify Tackle

When using horizontal baits like Northland Tackle Gill Getters or Mud Bugs, pinch the barbs down and use a plastic tail instead of bait as the tails are much more durable and make an angler much more efficient because time isn’t spent out of the water baiting a hook after every fish or two when the fish are aggressive.  On a really good bite, replace the treble hook on a spoon to a larger single shank hook with the barb pinched off so that hooks can be popped out easier.  We typically tip the spoons with bait.  One of the most durable baits (where legal) is a perch eye.  Lures that cut through the water fast are often best as the key is getting back to the next fish.  Keep a  second rod loaded.  On a Vexilar, many of the new models come with a rod holder.  If not, make your own rod holder by fastening a piece of pvc pipe to the housing of your electronics.  This rod holder on the Vexilar is convenient for easily transporting that second rod from hole to hole.

Team Work

Use other anglers to your advantage.  If you or one of your partners gets on a hot school of fish, team up in the same hole versus drilling another hole.  When you come up with a fish, have your partner drop down in the same hole to keep the school below you and stacked.  Take turns reeling in fish until the school moves off.   Then use teamwork again to find the next school of fish.  If you are fishing with a partner in a portable shelter like a two man Fish Trap, make a point to work together so that somebody always has either a lure or a fish down in the water.  The longer you can stall these fish and keep them around, the more additional fish seem to show up and the longer you have to catch them.

Force the School

When dealing with perch, bluegills and crappies, nothing attracts fish like other fish.  “Stripes attract stripes,” as the saying goes when targeting perch.  With that being said, when a few fish show up on the screen and don’t rush up to eat, experiment with lifting the fish off the bottom but not letting the fish eat the jig, just coax the fish up and see if that fish pulls in more fish.  The higher you can get the fish, the better as it seems like other fish can see it from further away.  When more fish show up, it is amazing to watch how the attitude of the fish changes from being hesitant and passive to aggressive.  More fish you can pull in below you and the higher you can get these fish to stack up vertically, the more aggressive they seem to get.  Create an environment where fish are racing and competing against each other to eat what you are fishing with.

Conclusion

These schools of fish that are roaming open water or across expansive flats can often be frustrating to find and stay on top of.  They are not just gone from where you caught them yesterday, they can be gone from where you caught them ten minutes ago.  These fish are burning through areas fast and the vertical shape of the school can cause frustration as you can cover a lot of fishless water before drilling that one hole where it seems like every fish in the lake is below your boots.  This situation however can be extremely productive however with a few adjustments in tactics and strategy.  Just having the mental picture of how these fish are traveling can help immensely as you make decisions through the duration of the day.

Editors Note:  The author, Jason Mitchell is credited for pioneering many of the modern ice fishing methods regarding presentations, locational strategies and the use of electronics.  Jason Mitchell also designs a premium lineup of application specific rods that have revolutionized the ice fishing industry, www.jasonmitchellrods.com.

I have often felt that it is much easier to learn a lake during the open water period. Structure and bottom contours can be broke down quickly when using a boat equipped with good sonar and GPS. Often during the winter (just like during the open water period) the sweet spots that attract fish are often subtle. Subtle changes like openings and lanes in weed beds, changes in bottom composition where the basin transitions to sand or gravel, rock piles where larger rocks form inside turns and fingers… the details make the difference for dialing into fish locations all year long.

Now these small details can be dialed into once there is ice but these spots can be discovered and saved much easier with a boat months before the lake freezes. I find myself relying on these open water recon efforts more and more each season. GPS mapping and detailed contour maps found on map chips have been a huge aid for learning water quickly regardless of time of year. Remember however that these spots, this information is available to anybody with a hundred dollar bill. Humps, sunken islands and points that used to sit deserted all winter now often have anglers because more and more anglers are utilizing this technology. The key now is learning the spots in more detail, becoming more intimate with the structure that is revealed on the map chips and most of all, finding spots that hold fish that won’t show up on a chip.

Changes in bottom composition won’t generally show up on most contour maps or map chips. Subtle bumps and depressions on flats are also often lost. Depressions found on flats are probably one of the most productive structural elements an angler can look for when attempting to find fish running large basins. Small depressions or pockets often seem to funnel fish. Small depressions or pockets in shallow weedy flats are also usually good if fish are in the area. These subtle depressions often don’t show up on a chip in detail because the change in depth is often subtle, a foot or less.

Transition areas where silt or muck transitions to gravel or sand are also key areas particularly for walleye and pike. The best sonar I have ever used for determining bottom content is the Vexilar Edge LC507. By turning up the range, I can look for second and third echoes which indicate a harder bottom. These transitions are than saved as icons or waypoints on my GPS.

Like many anglers, I use different icon and GPS symbols to indicate different things. I might use one specific color of diamond to indicate the actual weed bed and use another color to indicate openings, lanes or edges so that I can essentially map out the weed bed. I use one particular symbol to mark the top of the rock pile or hump and use a different symbol to mark a sweet spot on the deep edge where fish have been caught, etc. I than try and make a point to keep this information organized and logged so that when the ice covers the lake, I am ready and can quickly hit key spots without wasting any more time than necessary.

Catching more fish through the ice always boils down to fundamentals and efficiency. This information allows me to fish through an area and determine that fish aren’t on the spot quickly which is crucial so that I can be on the move to the next location. Hitting the general bull’s eye isn’t necessarily good enough, a much better strategy is to have a detailed picture of the spot in your head and be able to hit the key “spot on the spot” locations effectively by using GPS. By incorporating this information, I waste fewer minutes fishing areas that are generally much less productive.

Now obviously this strategy of open water research isn’t possible when traveling to new bodies of water and we often find ourselves hitting new lakes each winter chasing hot bites. For home water however that you know you will be spending a significant amount of time on come winter, you will be amazed at how many more fish you will catch by spending time in your boat getting a better understanding of the structure you will be fishing. As a guide for the Perch Patrol on Devils Lake, the information I can gather over the summer is crucial for my success during the winter.

Editors Note: The author, Jason Mitchell earned a reputation as one of the region’s top ice fishing guides spending most of his career on North Dakota’s Devils Lake (Perch Patrol Guide Service). Mitchell also manufactures and designs a series of extremely high quality, application-specific ice fishing rods that bear his name, the Jason Mitchell Elite Series Ice Fishing Rods (www.jasonmitchellrods.com). Mitchell also hosts the outdoor television show, Jason Mitchell Outdoors airing on Fox Sports North and is credited for pioneering many of today’s advanced ice fishing concepts and tactics.

1st Prize based on 5 species ($100/species) – Species include WALLEYE, PERCH, PIKE, CRAPPIE, and TROUT

Before you can enter, you must have a username account here at icefishingchat.com. To do so, see our REGISTRATION PAGE.

Entry Rules and Details

1.) Entrants must be IceFishingChat.com members.   Go to Register Now if you haven’t already.
2.) All Photos should show a visual measurement, and the Crappi Candle product in the picture to verify that it is, in fact, a recent photo.   This helps verify users from using a previous fish.  If you need a Crappi Candle for the contest, one is being offered at a special price. Contact Garland Jones at crappicandle@sbcglobal.net
3.) All entries must be entered into our photo gallery into the proper species section based on your fish.
4.) By submitting an entry, (picture) you are giving your permission for the picture to be used by the owners of Crappi Candle to promote their product (Crappi Candle) as they may choose.
5.) Judging of pictures and the selection of the winners will be done by Crappi Candle management, please make sure the measurement is clearly visible.
6.) Prizes will be distributed by IceFishingChat.com.
7.) The contest runs now through the end of February.

Don’t forget to check out the Crappi Candle Website to get your product right away for the contest.  Let them know you’re in the contest for a discounted rate!

Good luck everyone!

The ice on most northern lakes is now thick enough for anglers to safely haul out their toys thanks to a cold stretch at the beginning of the month. Though nighttime temperatures have been below zero, new innovations and advancements in tackle, gear and shelters are helping anglers heat up the early-ice action. As is the standard, this review of The Hottest Stuff On Ice will help you find the newest tools to help blaze a trail onto your favorite lake or find a last-minute stocking stuffer to warm the heart of your favorite hard-water angler.

Some of the best ice gear come out every winter in the lure department

Lured In

Just when you thought you had every sort of spoon in your tacklebox, Northland Tackle (www.northlandtackle.com) revamps and revolutionizes their line with the Macho Minnow model. With a beveled edge for crazy drops and a wicked wiggle coupled with a separate tail segment that flutters with a wild vibration, this lure in 1/12- to 3/4-ounce weights is perfect for crappies, walleyes or pike – particularly when fish have the feedbag on at early ice. In ten of Northland’s Baitfish-Image patterns, there’s a color for whatever the fish eat in your local waters.

Berkley (www.berkley-fishing.com) bulks up their successful Gulp! Alive line with the addition of a synthetic version of a classic ice fishing bait – the minnow head. Formed and pressed with great detail, including three hanging tentacles beneath the head, the bait bears a dead-on resemblance to the real thing. Packed in two-ounce jars, the bait never goes bad and always has the potency of the Berkley Gulp! solution to keep it fresh for fishing.

Lindy (www.lindyfishingtackle.com), the company that brought us the Genz worm and Fatboy jigs a decade ago, pushes lure innovation forward once again with a new type of jig designed to cover water, even when fished through an ice hole. The Slick Jig is a forward-weighted lure that pulls away from the standard up-and-down and gets baits out and about to trigger fish. In models for panfish and predators, the Slick Jig blows through presentation boundaries and gives anglers a new way to draw in their quarry.

To The House

Ice fishing shelters have come a long way like the new line from Clam - an innovator in ice fishing

Clam Corporation (www.clamcorp.com) has done up its line of houses in order to make ice fishing more comfortable. Their pop-up shelters like the Summit FLR and Base Camp Thermal units are hardwater versions of popular deer blinds, while the Denali II and IV flip-over models offer even more room for two or four anglers, respectively. The biggest benefit of the line’s overhaul comes from the standardization of Clam’s Thermal X material in many models, which helps retain up to 25 degrees more heat than standard canvas covers.

Frabill (www.frabill.com) also capitalizes on the explosion of pop-up options available to outdoorsmen with its hub-style ice shacks designed for rapid setup and takedown. The Frabill Frontier is a two-man shack, the Outpost accommodates up to three anglers and the massive Headquarters houses up to six anglers and their gear. Never have more on-ice shelter options been available to ice anglers than this year.

Oh Holey Night

Popular portables aren’t the only items getting an upgrade this ice season. Jiffy (www.jiffyonice.com) ice augers have a new look and more power to help hole-hopping anglers get the job done faster. The newly designed medium- and large-duty augers with the new Jiffy 2500 and 3500 engines boast redesigned transmissions that trim down cutting time and effort. The biggest bonus in the new Jiffy STX Pro line is the quick-detach E-Z Connect Collar on the auger shaft for transportation or separate storage of the power head without the use of an allen wrench. Also available in the Pro Line models are optional handle configurations for better ergonomics when drilling

These and other advancements for the 2010 ice fishing season make outings more enjoyable, more comfortable and in many cases, more successful, in turn making it easier to take advantage of all the opportunities that surround us…in our outdoors.

When you spend your winters guiding on a huge lake like Central Minnesota’s Mille Lacs, doing all the things it takes to find biting fish can test your resolve. There’s only one way to the fish – drilling lots and lots of holes. My guides and I sometimes spend entire days doing nothing but searching—one guy drills, another dude scans with an underwater camera. Often, we’ll grind out three or four hundred holes in the space of a 9 hour day. It isn’t always pretty, and more often than not, the best way to find fish isn’t the easiest way. But man does it pay off. We can usually stay well ahead of the crowds, keeping big schools of untouched fish to ourselves for days at a time.

There's no secret nowadays that the more you drill, the more you'll find

While most of our time goes toward the pursuit of walleyes and perch, the things I’m going to tell you apply to pretty much any fish swimming below the ice.

I mentioned the “pay off,” and wanted to share a little snapshot from last winter’s fishing. During a particular 9-day stretch in January, I’d been quietly picking away at a huge flock of walleyes on a spacious deepwater hump. The fish were there, but every day was different. The fish made little daily movements around and over the hump, based mostly on baitfish location, light level, and more than likely, fishing pressure exerted by our own group.

Fish like walleyes and perch move in the winter—in fact, they move a lot. Thing is, though, they’re not traveling from one end of the lake to the other. Still, on big water like Mille Lacs, daily movements can certainly span several hundred yards to perhaps a mile. And of course, schools move to different depths and locales several times within a 24-hour period.

So we’d begin each day picking up where we’d left off the previous day. My guides and I would drill in opposite directions, each zigzagging up and down from the deep edge, to the drop off, to well up on the shallow flat. After banging out 20 to 30 holes in one direction, which would take about 10-minutes, we’d go back, grab rods and begin quickly fishing through each hole. We jigged Northland Buck-Shot Rattle Spoons for no more than 5 minutes per hole before moving on down the “trolling path.” If we were working an individual walleye on our flasher, we might stay a few extra minutes to trigger that fish. Still, having laid down entire path of holes, it was so much more efficient to keep moving and search for biters.

So if we flashed a fish in one hole, but couldn’t trigger it, we made a little sign in the snow next to the hole, and return later to hopefully catch it. Really, this is as close to trolling on ice as it gets, and you’d better believe that it’s every bit as effective for contacting active fish—especially during those otherwise tough midday hours.

Having iced close to 40 fish the previous day, I approached the spot and saw a group of shelters stationed off the tip of the hump. As I talked to these anglers about their lack of success, it was interesting to note their six augers, lying unused on the ice. Obviously, the school had moved, but I figured they’d still be close. The guys told me how they’d drilled “a bunch of holes” all over, but the fish just weren’t here.

Moving a little ways down the break—maybe 150 yards—I popped 20 more holes. On my second drop, I connected with a 29-inch walleye. With a peek over my shoulder, I slipped the fish back and bailed, saving the spot for later that afternoon. Still, I couldn’t help thinking about that group of fishermen—if only they’d kept drilling and not given up.

Which just goes to illustrate an important point regarding ice trolling: while it certainly is a systematic game, more often than not, the only way to find fish is to just keep drilling and scanning with electronics. My motto is, ‘enough holes are never enough until fish are found.’

The ice trolling system begins with my GPS. Following contours on my LakeMaster mapping software, I lay down a “trolling route” in the snow first—running the edge with a snow machine or on foot, tracing out the boundaries of the structure. Then, I simply go back through, following my tracks, snatch the StrikeMaster, and cut more holes.

Most often, when drilling-out a new piece of structure, a partner is following behind with a MarCum VS380 underwater camera. It’s the other half of my fish-finding gameplan. Anglers like cameras because they offer a n entertaining way to watch fish react to lures. But the truth is, the camera is even more valuable as a fish-finding tool. The VS380 is compact and lightweight, making it easy to carry on the fly. The picture on the 380 is incredibly clear, too, showing an amazing amount of detail—all the way down to individual mayfly larva, even zooplankton. Really, it’s like having HD-TV on ice.

The viewing angler who drops the lens into each new hole sees the big picture—bottom terrain, the presence or lack of baitfish, walleye size, numbers and their position relative to bottom. Even their activity level can be gauged simply by observing fin movement and distance above bottom (active fish are usually one or more feet above the substrate and their pectoral fins fan a little more quickly). When the viewer spots a fish, he’ll trace certain symbols on the snow for reference. To keep other anglers from discovering our fish, we’ve devised our own code—for instance we might trace a “10-4” for walleye, “50-0” for big walleye, or “1-1” for two walleyes. The goal is to fine-tune our ice trolling program as much as possible—again, it’s a system, no different than a strategic open water trolling approach—and not just a bunch of holes drilled to impress people with our endurance.

Soon, we begin fishing back through each hole in sequence. We’ll leapfrog over one another, again, rarely fishing any one hole for more than 5-minutes. Once we reach the end of the trolling path, it’s time to start the drilling/camera viewing process again. Cut and view thirty holes, then fish. After a few hours (usually less), it will become pretty apparent whether the active fish are off the deep edge, directly on the drop, or on top of the flat.

Some days, rather than using portable shelters, we simply set a large pop-up style house, such as a Frabill Headquarters, which serves as basecamp. From here, a bunch of anglers can formulate gameplans, eat lunch, and just get a blast of warm air. Really, though, if you’re outfitted with something similar to my Snosuit, you’ll never even notice the cold.

It’s sort of funny, but one of the biggest objections to ice trolling comes from anglers who say that all you need are a few wisely drilled holes placed in key spots at peak times. This is true if you’re setting up for an hour or so of fishing at dawn or dusk. But even then, I’d still rather have the luxury of working through an entire network of 30 to 100 holes along a particular structure.

What I like to tell people is—and this is absolutely true—once you start ice trolling, systematically exploring entire structural complexes with an auger and a camera, you’ll start catching a lot of walleyes and other species during all the supposed ‘off-peak’ hours during the middle of the day. Each new hole holds the hope of a big fish—and if you ask me, that’s about as good as it gets.

Bluegill fishing is about balance. Each trip is a constant trial and error to figure out if the fish want a tiny speck of an ice jig – the flash, vibration and, meaty profile of a jigging spoon, or any presentation that falls in between. Each presentation has its strengths and weaknesses so experimentation is a must every day—sometimes every hour!

Miniature jigs are great when the fish are super-finicky. Even the most wary fish can be fooled when a tiny jig is paired with a super-thin line. Seriously, what bluegill can’t resist a tiny Northland Jiggle Bug tied to the end of two-pound test, better yet, 100% fluorocarbon. The smaller the jig and line the better when fish are lethargic, spooky, or just a little “off”. Yet small bluegill love the tiny jig and thin line combination, too. Sometimes the ratio between catching a small fish compared to a nice one is 50:1. And once a bigger bluegill does take your microscopic presentation, retrieving the hook becomes yet another chore.

Conversely, a jigging spoon is a great choice for bluegill when the fish are very active, spread out, or if you’re constantly pestered by smaller fish. The flash and vibration of the spoon calls fish in from afar, and the larger size discourages smaller fish. But sometimes, coaxing a bigger fish to eat such a large offering becomes frustrating. The fish may have been feeding for several days and they’re simply not as active compared to last week, not to mention the waxworm, larva or plastic tail dangling from the treble doesn’t conceal the hook well enough to grant a bite. Eager smaller fish still attempt to grab the treble hook, but instead get a mouthful of waxworm or Eurolarve, ripping it from the hook with a headshake. Take off the gloves and rebait. Rebait. Rebait.

So you try the small jig again and silver dollar sized sunfish continually pound the tiny offering you drop down the hole, beating the bigger fish to the hook. Solution? Ride piggyback.

As previously mentioned, jigging spoons and ice jigs each have positives and negatives. Yet putting the two together is like joining peanut butter and jelly, an engine and gasoline, or a young child and a set of blocks; it’s simply a good fit.

It doesn’t take much know-how in creating a piggyback spoon in your angling laboratory or garage stall. You can even accomplish the task on the lake if you’re careful so the components don’t get lost in the snow.

Simply remove the single or treble hook from the split-ring of your favorite jigging spoon, and then add your favorite ice jig to the now empty split ring. A pair of split ring pliers makes the job easier, but sometimes a strong thumbnail can open the ring just enough to remove and replace a hook.
Jigs that hang vertically work best, but don’t underestimate a horizontally sitting ice jig either. Sometimes an odd appearance is enough to trigger bites from inquisitive bluegills.

You’ll find endless possibilities to be creative as you begin pairing up various jigs with the wide variety of spoons on the market. Just imagine the color combinations, luminescent finishes, hair, rubber or synthetic attractors on the jigs, spoons that rattle and even the size options for making a wicked, bluegill catching bait. Yet don’t be surprised when your piggyback spoon lands a perch, pike, walleye, bass, crappie or other variety of fish swimming in the lake, river or reservoir you’re fishing.

My favorite combinations include Northland Tackle’s Forage Minnow Jigging Spoon or their super-noisy Buck-Shot Rattle Spoon paired up with a Northland Spider Ant or Jiggle Bug. The legs on the Spider Ant are a great attractor and the Jiggle Bug hauls in the big ones when less is more. In other words, when the fish are finicky the Jiggle Bug has just enough color to excite whopper ‘gills, but is subtle enough to tempt even the pickiest eaters. Tip the jig with a waxworm, Eurolarve, or one of Northland’s lifelike Bloodworms from Bro’s Bug Collection.

So the next time you’re looking for huge bluegills through the ice, consider teaming up your favorite ice jig and your favorite jigging spoon – a powerful combination that is sure to put a bend in your rod.

It’s the evening of the first day when the temperature has stayed well below freezing and I’m sitting in the not-quite-bright-enough light of the living room, squinting as hard as I can in an effort to thread a wisp of one-pound test through the eye of a 1/64 ounce Genz worm in preparation for an activity I won’t do for two weeks. They say ‘never stop learning’ and last year, just when I thought I had ascended to the plateau of the ice fishing learning curve, I realized I still have a very long way to go.

Small ice fishing lures are excellent on crappies and other panfish

Focusing the majority of my efforts on pike, perch and walleye in my formative years of ice fishing hooked me on the idea that any fish will hit a spoon or a jig on six-pound test. It didn’t seem to matter what these fish saw in the murky alkalinity of the flooded sloughs stocked by the Game and Fish Department in the late 1990s. The game was more about jiggling the biggest rattling spoon I could drop down there or making sure the biggest frozen herring was the one impaled on my treble hook attached to the tip-up. But like all schools of thought, there’s usually one eureka-type moment that blows the common conception out of the water and opens the door to areas of new exploration.

That moment came for me while I was hunkered in an ice shack with my buddy over 30 feet of water, just off the Lake Ashtabula shoreline north of my hometown of Valley City, N.D. An annoying red line would phase in and out on my trusty Vexilar FL-8, and no matter what I dropped down there, the line would reappear, swim up to my lure and then disappear with no reaction. I threw everything I had in my tacklebox at the blip with the same result, until I swore to my friend that this fish was mine. I clipped the line and was just able to squeeze it through the teeny eye of a size ten Lindy Fatboy jig. Baiting the hook with just a segment of a waxworm, I waited in impatient agony as the tiny jig slowly spiraled its way down the water column.

The red line reappeared and met my offering a few feet off the bottom. The monofilament bumped slightly in the last guide of the rod and I set the hook. With zeal, I cranked on the reel and rocketed the fish out of the water, nearly hitting myself in the head with my rod. For the rest of the outing my buddy and I hovered over that spot without another bite. But I was satisfied with my one fish, and I took the lesson of downsizing with me as we folded up shop and headed in.
Flash forward to last season, where panfish became my primary pursuit. I targeted crappies out over the depths, bluegills along the weedlines and a pod of perch packed into a tight inside bend. The lake in northeastern Minnesota was a far cry from the farmland perch and pike sloughs in Barnes County, N.D. and the fish in it had eyes that probably could pick out each individual angel on the proverbial pinhead. Small was the ticket, save for those three-day stretches when the crappies were bingeing under a full moon.

Jigging raps and rattle spoons were stashed away in favor of size ten, 12 and 14 jigs and ice flies, and my standard four-pound test was halved on a majority of my reels. Even then, in the gin-clear waters beneath my shack, I watched as the finicky bluegills turned up their noses at some of my smallest stuff on my thinnest lines and I vowed that next season, while the fish might get reeled up a bit slower, the connections would come more often and I’d push the limits of the infinitesimal.

So here I sit, practicing my clinch knot with one-pound test on my most sensitive spring bobber rod knowing that my tactics have evolved to deal with whatever water quality lays beneath the ice. Whether it’s perch, bluegill, walleye or crappies, I’ve learned that sometimes bigger isn’t better, and from the spring-fed reservoir to the gravel-bottomed natural lake, clear waters require special tactics to scale the slopes of their learning curves. Each season provides its ‘a-ha!’ moment, whether you’re pursuing a new species or fishing new waters. Learn from them, grow from them and expand your knowledge, even if it means getting smaller…in our outdoors.

Nick Simonson is an avid multi-spiecies angler and hunter and has been writing his columns since 2001 for a number of publications and websites across the upper Midwest. Find more stories on www.nicksimonson.com or become a fan on Facebook by searching “Our Outdoors.”

Times are a changin’. Used to be when we went ice fishing, our presentation always included a jig tipped with some type of minnow or hunk of meat, no matter what species of fish we were targeting. As the fishing tackle industry has grown, companies have found ways to make better baits that work in all seasons for all species of fish.

Artificial bait can be as effective during hardwater season as open

Today, ice anglers can use a blended approach, combining live bait tactics with artificial applications. Maybe work a soft plastic swimming lure in one hole while monitoring a live minnow and bobber in another. And all this while a nearby tip-up deploys yet another minnow, likely something larger. The options are endless.

The following are a few jigging and rigging techniques using artificial lures that have proved effective used in conjunction with a live bait program.

Dropper Rigging Stocked Trout
Brookies, rainbows, splake and the like are all suckers for aggressive presentations during the ice months. These fish are very inquisitive and can be called in from long distances. The thing is, they can be picky about what they eat so give them a 1-2 punch by using a dropper rig. The rig consists of a spoon with the treble hook removed and in its place a short 3-5 inch section of monofilament is attached leading to a small ice fly, like the feathered Spider Ant or new Scud Bug from Bro’s Bug Collection. When jigged aggressively, the spoon will dance, while the small jig pulsates and beckons these stocked beauties to bite. This rig is especially effective early in the season when these fish are in their most aggressive state.

Bug Up Perch
Our lakes are alive in winter with bottom hugging larvae, bloodworms and crustaceans. All species of fish exploit these tasty offering but none take advantage of the potential feeding frenzy like perch do. Much of this action takes place in the mud-bottomed basins on the lakes we fish and this is the best place to find massive schools of perch. Ice fishing guru, Brian “Bro” Brosdahl has designed a series of specialty jigs and soft plastic tails for Northland Fishing Tackle that are effective on all panfish, perch included. I used some of these jigs last season for perch and lit them up using a technique that Bro taught me. “Bro’s Mud Bug” is a new jig that has a “fat-head” that anglers can shake and bounce in the mud to imitate hatches coming out of the bottom. Tip this jig with one of the new plastic tails – like the Bloodworm, Slug-Bug, or Scud-Bug – and you have an offering that perch flip over.

Metallic Walleyes
Spoons are available in all shapes and sizes from various manufacturers and they catch walleyes throughout the winter. In fact, I fish spoons almost exclusively for walleyes during the winter months. Spoons are good because they have superb attracting abilities and can call fish in from a long range. They can also be shaken lightly to entice “lookers” that are in close range to bite. I just about always fish a Northland Buckshot Rattle Spoon and use a “jerk, jerk, shake” cadence. I’ll jig the spoon more furiously if flasher screen is bare and then begin jigging softer sequences when fish appear. One last “triggering” trick to make lookers turn into biters is to slowly jig your bait and lift your rod at the same time, making the bait rise in the water column. Walleyes are more likely to commit to if they get teased up off the bottom a bit.

Swimbait Lakers
Everybody knows that lake trout are suckers for plastic, minnow imitating baits like tubes and jerk shads. They catch fish on a consistent basis and have for years. A trend for winter trout fishing is working baits that trigger bass during the open water season. One of the hottest new styles of baits in this category are swimbaits. Gaining popularity for largemouth bass in California, they are now being used by bass anglers all over North America. If you haven’t used them for lake trout, you’re missing out. The Slurpies Swim Shiner is a great example, Silver Shiner and Emerald Shiner being a couple of the hottest colors. The key is to keep it moving. I will jig these baits in 3-5 foot lifts and cover the entire water column. You will call in big fish while showing them something they probably haven’t seen before.

The key with artificial baits is to use them to call fish in to your presentation. If you can do this, there is always a high percentage of fish, no matter what species you are targeting, that will bite. Spend some time this winter using artificial baits in tandem with typical live bait techniques and you will see your catches improve. Every time you do something different than the norm, you learn something and in the end this will make you a much better all-round angler.

By Jason Mitchell

By far, the best education we can get to make us better ice anglers is by sight fishing. Sight fishing allows us to watch the reaction of fish and just as importantly, allows us to watch how our presentation looks in the water. When we can see the hook or lure in the water and watch how fish react, we can easily see the moves that trigger and attract fish. The body language of fish as they become aroused by a lure is fascinating to watch. How fish approach and hit a lure is also an education that can make you a much better angler.

Proper techniques can offer better ice fishing for panfish

Ice anglers often refer to jigging but often, a better description in regards to catching panfish is “quivering.” What sight fishing can teach you is just how subtle and fluid the jig has to become when attempting to trigger fish. Many of the best ice anglers often fish with subtle and soft movements that are tight and precise. Slow and easy so that fish can slide forward and suck yet with just enough movement to keep the jig from turning. What is sometimes surprising to some anglers is just how little of movement it takes on the rod tip to cause the bait on the jig to shake and bounce. The movements are often so precise and tight that the angler is essentially jigging in a one inch window when fish get close.

Manipulating line twist or memory is a very important piece of the presentation puzzle because less line twist or less jig spin widens the window of things you can do with the jig. You can still quiver or bounce the jig in place, rocking it seductively if you have a lot of twist in the line but once you back off on that movement, the jig begins to turn or spin and this seems to often turn fish off. Line twist can be controlled several ways. Some anglers use a plastic Schooley Reel or fly reel as these spools work less twist into the line than traditional spinning reels. Another option that works in some situations is to attach a tiny barrel swivel above the jig to take out some of the twist. Pay attention to the knot placement on the jig to make sure the jig is hanging straight. In the water, the jig should have a symmetrical movement when quivered in the sense that some jigs can also be out of tune so to speak, tracking to one side or spinning to the side which imparts a less effective action and also builds up unnecessary line twist. Lastly, some line twist can be stretched out of the line by stretching the line with your fingers. Dragging the line (with no lure or jig attached) across the snow and letting the wind take the line can also take out some of the coils and twists. The bottom line is that if you take good care of your line and pay attention to line twist you are going to catch more panfish.

Why is little or no spin on the jig so important? Because when you can stop quivering or jigging and that jig can just hang momentarily almost motionless, this is about the most effective trigger there is for close fish that are eyeing the jig… when the jig just hangs or stalls, essentially doing nothing at all. The less the jig turns on the stop, the subtler and smaller you can move the jig and still trigger fish and these small micro moves are the deadliest moves of all.

This is why high quality rods that are light in weight and sensitive are so important to the presentation, not just for feeling fish but for also fatigue. A good rod will feel like an extension of your fingers where you can vibrate and barely move the tip with precision without wearing down. Obviously, the more you fish, the longer you can fish effectively before getting tired and sloppy. A good rod will also give you the sensory clues as to how the jig is working and often, many bites are indicated by nothing more than a sudden lack of these sensory clues, the weight of the jig.

Using soft plastics for ice fishing has gotten extremely popular in some ice fishing circles yet slow to catch on in other regions. Plastics can be a good way to learn some of these movements that trigger fish because if you don’t have a good fluid rhythm to your “jig stroke” you are going to struggle with plastics but if you do have these movements down, you can catch more fish with plastics than you could with live bait like wax worms or spikes in many situations.

A picture is worth a thousand words as the cliché goes. To become a much better ice angler this winter, find a lake where you can sight fish. The fish don’t have to be big for the educational value. To speed up the process, use plastics and teach yourself what the fish like and don’t like by watching your jig and watching the fish. The lessons learned can be taken to deep water or shallow, stained water or clear. The mental picture you will have of your presentation and of fish will be invaluable when sight fishing isn’t possible.

Editors Note:  The author, Jason Mitchell is a legendary ice fishing guide on Devils Lake, North Dakota for the Perch Patrol Guide Service, www.perchpatrol.com and designer of a premium lineup of high performance fishing rods that bear his name, the Jason Mitchell Elite Series Ice Rods, www.jasonmitchellrods.com.

Up above, I tiptoe across the frozen shallows maintaining a low profile. Stealth is a big part of the game. Down below, however, it’s more like lions in the Coliseum tearing and tossing-down everything with blood running through its veins. That’s what it’s like in early winter when northern pike slash through the shallows with hearty appetites and an equal amount of recklessness.

Early ice pike fishing can be fast action

These apex predators spent most of late autumn roaming the basin, tracking along offshore humps and deeper secondary breaks. With the flip of a switch, though, they head straight for the shallows – 4 to 12 feet of water – when the surface water solidifies. And there’s no secret to the gravitational pull. It’s about gorging on the bounty of available forage.

Panfish are standard fare. Bluegills, crappies, and perch are already making use of whatever green weeds are left. There, they find food, and, allegedly, sanctuary from threats. Pike disrupt the peace, however, ferreting through cuts and openings, as well as cruising along the edge picking off the careless. Ultimately, panfish only find safety in numbers, some brethren sacrificed for the whole.

On certain lakes and reservoirs the summons comes in the form of whitefish and or tullibee (ciscoes). Their reproductive ritual begins in the late fall and finalizes sometime after first ice. Perfect timing for pike.

So the foodstuffs are up in the shallows, but located randomly. Weeds have already been noted. But make sure your focusing on the greenest and thickest vegetation available. That could mean a lush garden grove. In other situations it’s a thick spot amongst an acre of spindly brown weeds. The most reliable weeds are found in shallow bays that are adjacent to the main lake.

River mouths are another natural draw. Pike are suckers for moving water. Suckers, the actual fleshy baitfish, are common there. Take heed that ice quality on and around river mouths is several notches thinner than what the main lake offers.

Although pike activity is at its seasonal peak, there are good, better, and best times to fish. Morning and evening are no-brainers. With that said, historically, I’ve nailed the majority of my larger fish – 10-pounds plus – during mid to late morning, say from 8 to 11 am. The last hour and a half of the day is next in importance, but a distant second.

Weather is a factor as well. Invariably, I pound more pike on cloudy days than those marked with sunshine. Pike roam more freely. They loosen their range and don’t stick as tightly to cover. In response, I spread the field, which means running Frabill tip-ups while maintaining a rigorous jigging schedule. Depending on the state’s legal allotment of lines and how many partners I’m sharing the ice with, it can be half-dozen tip-ups sprinkled about a 200 foot radius.

The only thing that bests cloud cover is cloud cover on the leading edge of imminent precipitation, either snow or one of those bothersome early winter mists. Pike go bonkers before a front.

Now about that tiptoeing and black-ops stealth I mentioned earlier… Yes, early winter pike are ferocious feeders. That’s to your advantage. But on the flipside, you’re operating in shallow water with only a thin veil of early ice. The ice, in fact, is often transparent. To the fish, you’re silhouette is as apparent as the old tire and boulder on the bottom you just walked over. Complicating matters, my preferred technique positions me directly over their heads.

Jigging really scratches their itch, though. When pike are on the move an energetic jig is irresistible.

Pre-drilling puts the angler in position to operate stealthily. Drill your holes 15 minutes to a half hour before show time. To really take advantage of the morning bite, pre-drill in the darkness, before pike take their morning swim.

Finally, it’s fishing time. Lurched over a hole, I ready the rig, which was tied-up the night before. There’s no finer opening act than an oversized jig fitted with a live sucker minnow, either. My preference is the Bionic Bucktail Jig from Northland Fishing Tackle. Hand-tied with genuine bucktail, the Bionic Bucktail creates a full-figured and vibrant target. In clear water, I opt for White Cisco, as it mimics most native baitfish. In darker conditions, Yellow Perch is a better choice.

Next comes a 4-inch sucker minnows or chub – they are the ideal length and shape for jigging pike. Lip-hook the minnow with the forged single hook. The rear of the jig features a “sting’r” hook, a treble tethered by teeth-resistant steel. Don’t stick the treble in the bait’s posterior. It’s a common practice, but I’ve stung more pike with it floating freely alongside the minnow. My theory is that the lightest part of the rig – the sting’r in this case – is the first to find a pike’s jaw.

The action is more of a swimming and dumbed-down-darting than classic jigging. Don’t snap it. Instead, smoothly but confidently pump the jig in 1 to 2-foot motions. I’ll operate from top to bottom in clear conditions. Pike aren’t bashful about rising to the underside of the ice. In darker water, I’ve found most fish operate within 4-feet of the bottom.

Not just any old rod will do, either. Put away the panfish stuff. Remember, you’re tangling with muscle-bound fish in a relatively small space. It’s fist to fin combat.

A guiding buddy of mine and northern pike nemesis, Paul Nelson, developed a pike-specific rod for Frabill. It’s quite the fish tamer. Found in the Ice Hunter series, the 32-inch, medium-heavy stick yields the perfect balance of a firm but playful tip with the backbone of a brontosaurus.

For battling in tight-quarters I recommend spooling with a superline, not monofilament or fluorocarbon. You’ll appreciate the toughness and resistance to shredding. I look forward to testing the new Performance Fuse from Sufix.

It takes angler skill to bring down fish of this magnitude as well. Expect violent runs and very dynamic directional changes. To win, you must wear the fish out, no horsing it in. Pulling back too hard nearly insures that the jig will tear free. Maintain pressure, letting the drag do what it’s designed to do. As a failsafe, I back-reel with the drag-system covering my behind. If the fish runs exceptionally fast, lock down on the handle and the drag takes over – beautiful 2-part harmony.

Icing a submarine-sized pike in the shallows isn’t like walking and chewing gum. Plan that the fish will appear horizontally – wide head in the hole and numerous inches of body tucked beneath ice. Keep the rod loaded, applying constant pressure while turning the fish. Obviously, it’s nice having a “net man”. As the snout rises, prepare for the snatch and grab. Know that you’re going to get wet. In fact, to reduce the risk of breaking off, I take the fish while it’s vertical, its movement restricted in the hole. As a bonus, the fish is less likely to flip-out and injure itself.

Once on the ice, it’s a quick photo – titans only – and the head goes back from where it came. Hold and pump the fish a few times until it’s self-powered. High-five your partner, or do that faddish knocking fists move, and it’s on to another screensaver quality pike.

About the author: Brian “Bro” Brosdahl (Max, Minnesota) is a professional fishing guide and renowned ice fishing expert. For nearly two decades he’s been sharing his insights and innovations with the fishing public. He can be reached at bbro@paulbunyan.net.