Right now, there’s a hidden hot spot in your favorite lake, and most years it never gets touched. “There’s this lake I’ve fished my whole life,” says legendary ice angler and guide, Brian “Bro” Brosdahl. “Thought I knew it pretty well. Then several years ago, I ran the entire basin in a boat armed with Side Imaging. What an eye-opener. Discovered a sweet spot that had likely been untapped for decades, maybe longer. It was just filthy with crappies and big sunfish. Still is.” The truth, Bro says, is that every waterbody in the Ice Belt has secrets to share, if only anglers will “listen.” Whether it’s a reservoir in the Rocky Mountains or Dakotas, a pond in Pennsylvania or a big lake in Minnesota or Michigan, the surface conceals an assortment of unusual fish attractors—submerged ... [ Read More ]
Hop, Drop and Troll For The Best Minnesota Slab Crappies – Ice Fishing
It’s no secret. Big water grows big crappies. The large, deep lakes of Minnesota have an abundance of forage and more places for crappies to hide, feed and grow. Find a big lake with relatively low angling pressure, and you’ve set the stage for potentially epic slab crappie fishing. But you’ve got to find them before you can catch them. Anglers who do a little research, drill enough holes, stay mobile and fish speedy baits will be rewarded with success. Seasonal Crappie Movements In smaller, shallower lakes, crappies are typically located and caught throughout much of the winter season over main-lake basins. In large, deep lakes, however, they tend to avoid the deepest areas and use flats, humps and basins ranging from 20 to 40 feet deep. But crappies ... [ Read More ]
Sight Fishing – Get In On The Excitement!
Sight fishing is nothing new to ice anglers. Sight fishing is a staring contest between you and the fish. Here we are, sitting above a hole cut in the ice staring at a wary bluegill, just waiting for it to take our tiny offering. This is as real as it gets. Everything is real time and what you see is what you get, there is no guessing. There is just something magical about actually watching a fish take your jig. “Now you see it, now you don’t.” You have to love that expression when sight fishing, because it’s so true. Panfish are notorious for inhaling and exhaling tiny morsels in a split second. Your helpless jig is now in the realm of the bluegill and its fate is entirely up to that plate sized trophy. You sit intently waiting for a reaction from the flutter below. You hold your breath ... [ Read More ]
Panfish Tournament Series
Throughout many of the states located in the Ice Belt, ice fishing series targeting Panfish have been taking off. To name a few of the series - the North American Ice Fishing Circuit (NAIFC), Team Extreme and the Ultimate Panfish League. They each have their own set of rules & regulations, as well as sponsors and payouts. This season upon my move back to the Midwest I decided to try my hand at competitive ice fishing and joined the Ultimate Panfish League. The Ultimate Panfish League event on Medicine Lake, MN is in the books. It was the coldest event of the year so far but the teams battled through it and brought in some decent weight to the scales. Medicine is a new lake which was voted in this year and many of the teams were unfamiliar with it when it came to ice ... [ Read More ]
Tungsten Jigs: The Answer To Finessing Aggressive Panfish
Excuse me? Finessing an aggressive fish, huh? I suppose you’re wondering what that even means and why I’m titling this article in a manner that would contradict itself. Well, believe it or not, even aggressive-natured fish need a little coaxing at times. So just how do we identify the aggressive fish that need to be teased with finesse applications? That’s a very fair question. I look to my Vexilar flasher. It’s amazing what your electronics will tell you. You can see when fish crash the bait only to halt upon impact, moments before striking. This tells me we’re dealing with aggressive-natured fish, but the offering didn’t seal the deal. Sometimes it’s because the bait is too large, not the right action, looks awkward, it could be a number of things. Me, I turn on my finessing aggressive ... [ Read More ]
12 Walleye Ice Fishing Keys Help Pinpoint Structure
Catching walleye consistently when ice fishing structure, often means finding the point of contact. The edge or structural element that funnels and pinches fish movements when fish move through a particular location causes them to pass through or over a specific location. Amazingly, these fish movements are often very precise. Most of the fish will come through a location passing along the same route often from the same direction. The beauty of fishing walleye is that they love structure and the fish movements over locations are seldom random. With the accuracy of map chips and lake contours, finding and understanding structure is no longer a guessing game. This makes our ice fishing amazingly accurate. Walleyes roam to feed during low light periods or after dark. On some ice ... [ Read More ]
Grand Rapids-Bowstring-Deer River-Marcell Fishing Reports
Grand Rapids-Bowstring-Deer River-Marcell Fishing Reports - MN Lakes by Fishing Guides, Minnesota Resorts and Members. If you can't find what you are looking for below, #1 - Become a member and ask for a fishing report, then please be sure to check out the Minnesota Fishing & Hunting forums. [wp-rss-aggregator source="8150"] Visit the Grand Rapids-Bowstring-Deer River-Marcell fishing reports Community for even more info. Click Here... Grand Rapids-Bowstring-Deer River-Marcell fishing reports are provided by fishing guides, area resorts, local residents and visitors fishing the lakes in the Grand Rapids area. If you use the fishing reports above, consider sharing your Grand Rapids-Bowstring-Deer River-Marcell fishing reports and help others out with first hand experiences to make ... [ Read More ]
Dog Day Blue Gills – The Dinner Plates
by Jim Uran Late summer bluegills keep the doctor away, it’s a proven fact. Well maybe I stretched the truth a little but they sure can make a person happy this time of year. Even during the dog days of summer, these tanks are more than willing to bite, and they are as easy to find right now as ever. Weeds seem to be the key location year round for bluegills. And as the summers water temp has peaked and is slowly on the downfall the fish certainly have a lot of options to hide in out there. What I look for out there is a weed bed that isn’t too thick, has openings for casting, but enough cover to keep the fish hidden. In a perfect world I will look for a mixture of cabbage and coontail in the 8-12 foot range, and anchor on the outside edge of it. I’ll slip bobber the area or ... [ Read More ]
Dreams of Building My Own Wheeled Fish House
Forget the intricacies of this years Vikings team. What Minnesotans really want to know is the best way to build the best ice-fishing house. And if you want the best, you've got to be thinking about building a wheeled fish house. Are you the type of person who is constantly thinking the best way to construct the next one? Like many - maybe most - fish houses on Minnesota ice, your perfect house is on wheels. That way you can fish, say, Gull Lake one day and run up to Leech the next and Lake of the Woods the next, much like using the comforts of your boat for walleyes and panfish. Or Deer hunting, duck hunting or, dare I say, the family camper. Retail, a wheeled house might go for about $6,000 to $50,000 - less, perhaps, if bought in the off season. With a few carpentry skills and ... [ Read More ]
Secrets to Catching Big Walleyes – by Jason Mitchell
Big fish will typically push smaller fish off off a spot if the big fish want to set up on that spot. Bass fishing is probably the best example of locations or spots that are typically big fish spots because so often, we can readily see what makes a location so attractive. Not all docks for example are the same. Some docks have a better scour hole from a big motor powering up on a boat lift. Docks with wheels or tires might have better structure below the dock that attracts fish for example. A particular dock will produce a big bass and a few weeks later, the same dock will hold a different big bass providing the spot has had a chance to rest. Some rock piles just have the complexity and all the right ingredients to produce several big muskies. Some particular holes or log jams ... [ Read More ]