fish

[pan man]

anyone else finding the fish are being non hungry or not wanting to bite. I have been out five times now and the fish come in but do not bite.

[srfishin15]

I'm from the St. Cloud area and yes the fish are a bit more finicky than usual for early ice. Not sure why, but the solution for me is one of these things usually (or more):

1. Move move and move until you find active or semi active fish.

2. Down size and finesse the sluggish fish such as how you'd fish midwinter, i.e. light line, small jigs etc

3. Upsize to bigger stuff and pick off the active fish. You be surprised what a jigging rap, chubby darter, or large drop jig with a plastic can do to sluggish fish when its ripped in their face over and over again.

Not trying to sound like an expert, but thats what has worked for me so far this year and in years past, hope that helps.

[lawnbuilder]

I've only been out once, but they sure came in nice, just didn't want to bite. I tried bigger and smaller, ripping and subtle nothing really helped. But it was a nice day and I was fishing.

[Chill62]

PanMan, I've only been out twice this year (Friday and Saturday) and i'm on a small lake so I'm not stating where for the protection of the lake but it's around DL area. We graphed a lot of fish both nights and the bite was LIGHT!!! Saturday we had a camera down and the fish were interested in our baits but just didn't want to bite them. We tried spoons, jigs, minnows, wax worms, gulp wax worms, and minnow heads. Also tried vertical and horizontal jigs to see if that mattered and we struck out. We caught about 25-30 blue gills on Friday and about 50-60 on Saturday. Saturday there were three of us and Friday there was only two. Fishing was very slow but what we did get was very impressive. Tailgate picture was Friday hand one was from Saturday.

[DrJuice1980]

50-60 fish is a slow day?

[Chill62]

I thought it was. In years past we would catch a lot more and it would only be for a 2-3 hour time frame. 60 fish for 3 guys for the five hours we went is only 4 fish per person per hour. To me that isn't too fast and furious. I've been out there at times when you can't keep one line in the water so I think it was pretty slow at times.

[pan man]

was out monday same thing but had a big big northern keep comming through but not a bite

[Dahitman44]

Has been very slow for us as well.

[Chill62]

Why would it be so slow? Pressure? Weather? We saw a few snakes come through didn't hit tip ups but would nudge (not bite) our panfish jigs. Our water was majorly cloudy, we were blaming it on that but maybe it wasn't the issue. Our lake was covered with snow.

[Dahitman44]

I wish I knew. High pressure never helps me?

[pan man]

I went out thursday and got seven big gills after dark that was weird but the walleyes still would not bite