News & Stories
Memorable Ice Fishing Trips
Posted by director on October 25, 2020
MEMORABLE ICE-FISHING OUTINGS
By Bob Jensen
It’s another of those “in between” seasons. Just as there’s a lull between the ice-fishing season and the open water fishing season in the spring, there’s a lull between the open water season and ice-fishing season in the fall. Today I’m looking forward to ice-fishing and also remembering some past days on the ice. Here we go.
It was around the year 2,000 when I got a phone call from Duane Peterson. Duane is an outstanding angler and better friend. When Duane says “there’s a good bite going”, I’m always confident that he has a good bite going. Duane said that Upper Red Lake in northern Minnesota was producing lots of crappies and that they were “slabs”. Joining us on the trip were Duane’s brother John and fishing friend John Janousek.
We got on the ice and to the productive area a couple of hours before sundown. Duane assured us that the best bite was at dusk and later. He was right. As soon as the sun hit the western horizon, we could see fish marks on our depth-finders. The water was about 10 feet deep, the fish were 2 feet off the bottom, and they were willing to eat our lures. I was ready to catch a crappie, but had no idea that the crappies we were about to catch would create perhaps my best, most memorable ice-fishing adventure. Crappies have big mouths, but I had never seen such an out-of-proportion mouth as the one on the first crappie that came through the hole in the ice that I was fishing through. It was the biggest crappie I’d ever caught. An easy 14 incher. We caught lots of big ones in the next couple of hours. Truly memorable!
Another memorable ice trip took place with fishing pioneer Gary Roach. I’ve co-authored several walleye books with Gary and shared a boat with him many times. Gary is perhaps the most intuitive angler I’ve fished with. We were after walleyes on Lake of the Woods in late-February. As we always do when ice-fishing, we kept a close eye on our sonar units. Usually walleyes and perch will hug the bottom while other species will go through several feet off the bottom. I was seeing a good number of fish off the bottom, but not many bottom-huggers and I wasn’t catching much either. Gary was experiencing steady action: Not fast but certainly faster than me. After watching Gary catch several walleyes in a row, he explained that when he saw a mark off the bottom on his sonar, he brought his bait up to that mark. That mark we learned, was a walleye. For some reason, the walleyes were running high that day. I learned then and there that fish sometimes do things differently than we expect. That little but significant tip has helped me catch many fish through the ice and in open water.
Last memorable ice-fishing memory for now. In the late 70’s I lived in Brainerd Minnesota for a winter. Some friends invited me to go ice-fishing on Lake Mille Lacs. They said that we would catch mostly walleyes, some perch, and maybe an eelpout. When I asked what an eelpout was, they said, “You’ll find out”. The walleye bite was pretty good most of the day. At some point, one of my friends hooked a big one and asked if I would help land it. When the fish’s head entered the bottom of the hole, I thought it looked different than the walleyes that we’d been catching, but I grabbed it and lifted it up. It was then that I realized this was like no fish I had ever seen, and when it wrapped its snake-like body around my arm, I realized this was like no fish I had ever handled. It was at that moment that I found out what an eelpout is: Slimy, slippery, and quite intimidating to a first time eelpout handler. My friends thought that was a great trick. Now, 40 years later, I do too.
Ice-fishing season is approaching. Make it, in a good way, a memorable one.
PHOTO: Mr. Walleye Gary Roach with a Lake of the Woods high-riding walleyes.
To see new and old episodes of Fishing the Midwest television, fishing articles and fishing videos, go to fishingthemidwest.com
A Look Back
Posted by director on October 22, 2020
Lessons Learned!
By Mike Frisch
Snow is falling outside as I sit writing this in mid-October. And, the weather forecast shows below normal temperatures for the foreseeable future. This sudden weather change means the open-water fishing season for 2020 may be over. With that in mind, now is a good time to reflect back on the just-completed season and note experiences from this year that may be helpful next season and in seasons beyond.
The past season was one of the more inconsistent walleye seasons for me and, I’m not sure why. Guide clients and I experienced some outstanding days, but unlike past seasons, the consistently good mid-June and into July bite never fully took hold. We would have one good day and, without any noticeable weather change, then struggle the next.
While the walleye bite was frustrating at times, it reminded me of how lucky I am to live in the Alexandria area of central Minnesota because there are lots of other fishing options available. For example, I fished summer crappies more than ever this year with good success. Plus, largemouth bass became the focal point for me in mid-July and that bite was simply outstanding. We caught good numbers of fish on most trips and several big bass came aboard as well!
This need to be adaptable and switch targeted fish species to produce consistent fishing successes is not new to me, but it certainly was reinforced during the past season. A completely “new” lesson, however, involved clear water and fishing line choices.
I’ve become a believer that zebra mussels and the resulting clear water they cause makes the use of low visibility fishing lines important. The thought being that fish can see colored fishing lines in very clear water and may “spook” from attached lures. In June, however, I spent three days in the boat with Wally Marshall, aka Mr. Crappie, and learned he doesn’t believe that theory. Marshall lives in Texas and has made a career as one of the country’s foremost crappie authorities.
Marshall and I fished a variety of Wally’s signature series soft baits with very good success, which was somewhat expected. However, contrary to my expectations, we used Mr. Crappie hi vis monofilament line on our reels. Marshall was adamant that the “crappies wouldn’t care” about the line color. In fact, he said he believed some fish would be attracted to the bright line! All I can say is we caught plenty of crappies in very clear water during Wally’s time in Minnesota. And, I used the line on several subsequent successful crappie outings too!
In addition to rethinking line choices (at least for panfish) and changing target species when one species appears reluctant, another lesson reinforced to me this season was the need to stay versatile with my fishing techniques when fishing conditions change.
A bass tournament on the Le Homme Dieu Chain of Lakes in September drew my fishing attention for several days leading up to the actual event. During those “pre-fishing” days, slowly presented soft plastics and jig-n-pig type presentations were producing numbers of sizeable largemouth bass.
Tournament day, however, saw unstable weather with winds over 30 mph. The day also saw, at least for my partner and me, the disappearance of our good “slow” baits bite. Realizing that we needed to cover more water and try to trigger bites, we made a mid-day switch to casting crankbaits and turned a very slow fishing day into a pretty good day. We didn’t cash a check, but we did finish in the tournament field’s top half.
That day reminded me of a walleye tournament lesson from years ago. After my Dad and I had a disappointing tournament finish, Dad made a comment I’ll never forget. He said something to the effect of “sometimes you get so caught up in trying to make fish bite the way you want them to bite, or the way they have been biting, that you forget that things change and what worked yesterday might not work today.”
Good advice 25 years ago, and as we learned in September, still good advice today!
The summer of 2020 saw good catches, good fun, and more fishing lessons learned, or re-learned. I hope you had a good season too and we’ll see you on the ice. As always, remember to include a youngster in those ice fishing trips!
Mike Frisch hosts the popular Fishing the Midwest TV series. Visit www.fishingthemidwest to see more fishing tips and view recent TV episodes as well!
Photo – Wally Marshall, Mr. Crappie, with a Minnesota crappie caught on one of his signature series ShadPoles using Mr. Crappie hi-vis fishing line!
Time to Think Ice Fishing!
Posted by director on October 21, 2020
IT’S TIME TO THINK ABOUT ICE-FISHING
By Bob Jensen
There’s still time to take advantage of open water fishing, but it’s also time to think about going ice-fishing. This year, particularly this year, if you want to go on an ice-fishing trip, you need to make plans now. People are fishing more than ever, and competition for lodging is intense in ice-fishing country. Through the years I’ve had the opportunity to ice-fish on lots of bodies of water for a variety of fish species. There are a good number of places that provide fond ice-fishing memories for me, but today, I’m making plans to try to return to the following three ice-fishing hot-spots.
My first real ice-fishing trip a good number of years ago was to Big Stone Lake on the Minnesota/South Dakota border. I had been there fishing open water walleyes earlier in the year, and while there, was told of the ice-fishing opportunities for perch. I made a return trip when the water got hard. The catching was outstanding. I’ve been on the ice on Big Stone several times since, and continue to be impressed with the action. An angler may need to do some sorting, but we’ve always come up with a good number of perch appropriate for the table. In the past few years the bluegill bite has become more prominent. Big Stone has more than a few true slab bluegills.
A couple of hours east and north of Big Stone is the Alexandria Lakes area of Minnesota. In addition to being an outstanding open water region, there are lots of ice-fishing opportunities for lots of fish species in the Alex area. Panfish opportunities are plentiful, and the walleye action can be very good as well. Sometimes we forget that largemouth bass can be taken through the ice, but they can. The Alexandria area has some of the best bass fishing that can be found anywhere, open water or through the ice. Although largemouth aren’t targeted frequently in very many places, if the thought of catching bass from under the ice is appealing, the Alex area is the place to make it happen.
I consider Clear Lake in north central Iowa to be my home lake. It’s where I caught my first walleye and where I’ve caught many walleyes since. It’s also an outstanding ice-fishery for a wide variety of fish species. In recent years, Clear Lake has developed a well-deserved reputation as a world-class yellow bass producer. Yellow bass are voracious feeders. When an angler gets over a school of yellows, if the appropriate bait is presented, it will be eaten. It seems that yellows are almost always willing to bite. Yellows are also very prolific. They reproduce quickly. Because of this, there is no limit on yellows on Clear Lake. Keep as many as you want to clean: They’re outstanding on the table.
Clear Lake also provides crappie ice-action, and there is a growing perch population.
Now about the catching: When it comes to ice-fishing and panfish, small baits are usually best. Something in the Genz series of Drop Jigs will be a good choice much of the time. The tougher the bite, the smaller the jig. In clear water, start with a subtle color, but don’t hesitate to try bright colors. Get the fish’s attention with aggressive jig movement, but when a fish moves in to look at your jig, slow the action down. Try tipping the jig with a Maki Mino, but go to a waxworm or spike if the fish are finicky.
Wherever you fish, your sonar unit will be key. Don’t fish a hole very long if you don’t see fish on the sonar. If you see them and they don’t bite, try a different lure size, color, or action. If they still don’t bite, keep moving in search of biters. You’ll eventually find some.
As mentioned earlier, wherever you decide to go ice-fishing, now is the time to make plans to do so. If you do, your chances for success will be much better.
PHOTO: Mike Frisch took this jumbo perch and others like it through the ice on Big Stone Lake.