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Dog Days of Winter


IceHawk

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  • 'we have more fun' FishingMN Builders

got out from 3 to 5 today to check a spot and color selection was the key. had lookers and after 4 different combos finally got 9 to commit. all growing up to get bigger. :) tried a combo from 3 days ago and they would not touch it!  that really surprised me. great info  chris. 

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Another factor to contribute to the dog days of February definitely is fishing pressure. Was out on an area lake last week targeting basin crappies. A community hole that has seen a fair amount of pressure since the first wheel house set down. The fish still want to be in the basin to feed, but showing themselves during the day suspended half way up the water column is not happening anymore. They tend to huge bottom, or just a couple feet off at most. You can throw everything at them, and they laugh and swim away. They've been fished so hard for so long, that they change feeding activity times, and take insects closer to bottom it seems.

 As Chris mentioned, line diameter helps detect light bites and along with converting line wary fish. Live bait presentations can be the only way to go, or plan on going home defeated. Fishing away from the wolf packs with a small tail hooked crappie minnow just off bottom, at prime times and well beyond o' dark 30 will help ice fish from these same areas that produced crappie earlier in the season. Prime time for good fishing, usually coincides with a NHL, or NBA game on the radio, 7pm -10pm, or just before the sun wakes up. FISHON!;)

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  • 'we have more fun' FishingMN Builders

This whole winter has been a struggle for me. I fish away from crowds and use light line. I have never struggled like I have this winter. I have tried all kinds of plastics and tiny jigs to huge jigs. Live bait has not helped either. I have lightly pressured lakes and pressured lakes nothing wants to bite. This not just me many others are saying the same thing.Today was I was on lightly pressured lake and marked fish but could not get many to bite.

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We had to work a lot more today to get on fish than what we expected. And having a biting wind didn’t help.

I still wouldn’t say we crushed them but managed to sort out a dozen keeper crappies.  Once we found em, the first flurry was easy but that didn’t last real long.  We changed, and changed, and changed presentations to keep those lookers biting.  One thing would work for a half dozen or so fish and then it would die.  Make a change or two and get a half dozen more.  Lots of small ones to weed through.  Another thing I would do when they started ignoring my bait and disappear was just pull it out of the hole and wait until I marked fish again before dropping back down.  I don’t think you can ever over estimate the first drop on crappies.  

Later on, the thing that worked for us to draw them in was very aggressive jigging.  I mean 2-3 foot rips with small jigging spoons.  Blade spoons, rattling flyer, and forage minnows tipped with plastic at times but needing to be minnow heads at the tail end.

It turned into being a fairly odd bite but change kept us in the game.

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I too went out all weekend with very tough results... I would see them all schooled up on the camera and couldn't get them to commit 

AQUAVU (2).jpg

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7 hours ago, bassman186 said:

I too went out all weekend with very tough results... I would see them all schooled up on the camera and couldn't get them to commit 

AQUAVU (2).jpg

We saw the same thing in one area we tried.  They were perfectly content doing nothing.

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  • 'we have more fun' FishingMN Builders
1 hour ago, gimruis said:

Wait for the ice to melt then get out there during open water.  That's the best advice I can offer!

haha!  :)   why wait?  fish on! :):) 

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Your point about going to a lighter rod is very timely.  I was working thru my rigs and moving more toward my heavier combos thinking more about solid hook-set rather than feel.  I have found springs and walleyed didn't mix, but lighter tip action will get a try next week.  Based on your comments may start with light action on my jigger and medium on my deadstick.

Thanks

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  • 'we have more fun' FishingMN Creators

I would add that mobility is your friend.  I can almost always pluck a few of the more aggressive fish out of the hole.  Then it gets tougher.  Sometimes switching colors or profile will get the bite going again.  But often moving just 20 feet will get you on fresh fish.  Do this enough times and it turns into a pretty good day.  :)

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  • Your Responses - Share & Have Fun :)

    • leech~~
      Nope not me.  May want to go nextdoor and ask around?  
    • smurfy
      Looks to me like Leech brought his chair home!!😅😆
    • Brianf.
      I'm not there, so I can't tell exactly what's going on but it looks like a large area of open water developed in the last day with all of the heavy snow on the east side of wake em up Narrows. These two photos are from my Ring Camera facing north towards Niles Point.  You can see what happened with all of snow that fell in the last three days, though the open water could have been wind driven. Hard to say. .  
    • SkunkedAgain
      Black Bay had great ice before but a few spots near rockpiles where there were spots of open water. It looks like the weight of the snow has created a little lake in the middle of the bay.  
    • LakeofthewoodsMN
      On the south end...   Thanks to some cold spring weather, ice fishing continues strong for those still ice fishing.  The bite remains very good.  Most resorts have pulled their fish houses off for the year, however, some still have fish houses out and others are allowing ATV and side by sides.  Check social media or call ahead to your favorite resort for specifics. Reports this week for walleyes and saugers remain excellent.   A nice mix of jumbo perch, pike, eelpout, and an occasional crappie, tullibee or sturgeon being reported by anglers. Jigging one line and using a live minnow on the second line is the way to go.  Green, glow red, pink and gold were good colors this week.     Monster pike are on a tear!  Good number of pike, some reaching over 45 inches long, being caught using tip ups with live suckers or dead bait such as smelt and herring in 8 - 14' of water.   As always, work through a resort or outfitter for ice road conditions.  Safety first always. Fish houses are allowed on the ice through March 31st, the walleye / sauger season goes through April 14th and the pike season never ends. On the Rainy River...  The river is opened up along the Nelson Park boat ramp in Birchdale, the Frontier boat ramp and Vidas boat ramp.  This past week, much of the open water skimmed over with the single digit overnight temps.   Areas of the river have popped open again and with temps getting warmer, things are shaping up for the last stretch through the rest of the spring season, which continues through April 14th.   Very good numbers of walleyes are in the river.  Reports this week, even with fewer anglers, have been good.  When temps warm up and the sun shines, things will fire up again.   Jigs with brightly colored plastics or jigs with a frozen emerald shiner have been the desired bait on the river.  Don't overlook slow trolling crankbaits upstream as well.   Good reports of sturgeon being caught on the river as well.  Sturgeon put the feed bag on in the spring.  The bite has been very good.  Most are using a sturgeon rig with a circle hook loaded with crawlers or crawlers / frozen emerald shiners. Up at the NW Angle...  Ice fishing is winding down up at the Angle.  Walleyes, saugers, and a number of various species in the mix again this week.  The bite is still very good with good numbers of fish.  The one two punch of jigging one line and deadsticking the second line is working well.   Check with Angle resorts on transport options from Young's Bay.  Call ahead for ice road guidelines.  
    • CigarGuy
      With the drifting, kind of hard to tell for sure, but I'm guessing about a foot and still lightly snowing. Cook end!
    • PSU
      How much snow did you get on Vermilion? 
    • Mike89
      lake here refroze too...  started opening again yesterday with the wet snow and wind...  very little ice left today...
    • Hookmaster
      A friend who has a cabin between Alex and Fergus said the lake he's on refroze. He texted me a pic from March 12th when it was open and one from 23rd when it wasn't. 🤯
    • SkunkedAgain
      I don't think that there has been any ice melt in the past few weeks on Vermilion. Things looked like a record and then Mother Nature swept in again.   I'll give my revised guess of April 21st
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