Day 2 perch frenzy on leech lake 3-27

Me and Andy stayed overnight in grand Rapids hoping to hit my favorite bluegill spots sunday. We got there early and started getting fish right away, then they moved. Tried another spot, same thing, then another, same thing. then we tried the first holes again, nothing, It got really tough totay on them. I called Nathan, a guy that fishes the area often to see whats up. He said he was on a good perch bite on leech, so we left the sunfish behind and drove out to chase perch. after some searching around different holes we ended up sitting on a couple of holes that produced non stop action in 16 ft. they would hit just about anything, but waxies and spikes paqcked on a jig seemed to get the best results. No huge Jumbos, but we took home a bucket of nice keepers

Icey weekend day one 3-26

I got out for some crappie action Saturday. I met Doug and his Son Collin, and a few of his friends on a spot that produced well last year. we had great ice conditions, the whole lake was my parking lot with over 3 ft of solid ice and just a few deep snowdrifts to dodge in my Ford.
I was hoping to put on a clinic on those slabs and had a good start nailing some really nice ones on a heavy metal 3mm green with a j&S icemite. But then I started having a tough time marking fish. That is when Collin really took over the show, he would hop around picking a fish here and there still fishing with a jig and waxworm, then he would go in his Dad's tent to warm up, where he would catch some more! Nice job!, he got the most, and big fish with a 13 inch mule too!


Doug got some great shots of my with my big crappie, nice! thanks!

golden crappie

Collin with a slabbosaurus

Ice vacation day 3 back to the bluegills!

Day three had us back on our bluegill spots, the fish were moving shallower, and we had to drill a bunch to get back on them, but it was well worth it. nuggies and ice mites worked well for me, but others got em on waxworms too, we also got up early sunday and punished a few more, before the all too soon time to go. Thanks to everyone who made it up, it was a great time, and we will have to do it again and again and again!

Day 2 tullibee and perch action

Day 2 of my up north "icevacation" had up trying a few lakes rumored to hold massive panfish. the first one we tried deep and shallow and all depths in between, we found mediocre perch from 5 down to 40 ft. Then the chase continued to a different lake. We found some abandoned holes in 20 ft and soon we were on agressive biting fish! Only they were all tulibees, which no one seemed to want to catch. we fished em for a while then headed to catfoot souix, where we heard a panfish bite was going. We fished quite a while in many different spots and got lots of perch,some nice sized onmes mixed in. but no pan fish.
I wandered out to where quite a crowd was gathered, but they were not getting too much, a few medium sunfish, and no slabs, so I headed back with our group and was content icing some more perch. Then something came in around ten ft down and annialated my jig and nuggie. It fought good and near the end, flashes of silver down there had me thinking 2 pound plus slab, but it ended up being a large tulibee.

First day of my ice fishing vacation! 3-17

The first day had me drilling many holes looking for bluegills, and find them we did! mine were caught on a tunsten njig 3mm with a pumpkin pepper nuggie tail

Panfish frenzy 3-13

I got out for a day of panfish chasing with lawrence, who I met at the NAIFC tournament in febuary.
we hit a couple of spots he has done good in earlier in the winter, and had some action from mostly smaller fish with a few decent ones mixed in.
Then we hit the inside edge of the big community hole, and found very slow action with only a few small sunfish. We decided to hit some new spots that haven't been fished all winter. the first was a bust, drilling 20 holes and not even seeing a fish on the flasher.
We moved in towards another shore about a hundered yards and tried again. we had fish right away with me losing a large bluegill near the hole.
Lawrence had some holes cut a bit shallower and really started nailing the crappies, so I moved that way and joined him for non stop action for 2 hours or so. They were almost right under the ice and quite aggressive. We got our fish on little atom jumbo wedgees, but they were hitting so hard I could have cast a 8th oz roadrunner down the hole and caught them. I was hoping for more bluegills mixed in though, so we stuck with the smaller baits, and got some good gills mixed in with the slabs.
Lowell came out and some of lawrence's friends too. the fishing slowed a bit but we still were getting em good. Another feeding frenzy toward the end of the day and we had to leave the bite to get off the lake befrore dark!

lawrence, he was a fishing machine!

Lowell with a nice slab

Como lake kids ice fishing clinic pics

We got out on Como lake and cut lots of holes in shallower near the pavillion, but no fish were marked in any of them. I was thinking they O2 levels were down, so I moved out deeper closer to the areators were, but not too close, the ice was still 2 feet thick. I dropped a jig down and soon had a big hungery school of crappies willing to play. we got to drilling about 50 new holes in the area for the kids clinic. That scatterd the fish quite a bit and made the bite pretty tough when the kids got there.
I rigged up a palm rod with a 2 mm jig with larva and that was enough to tempt a few finicky panfish and perch to bite!

We tried quite a few tricks to tease those skittish fish to bite, here they try double teaming, using the scratcher and tapping the rod to impart the right movement in the bait .
the best thing seemed to be a slow lift with a light shake or vibration...

Rush lake Pike!

I was out on Rush lake looking for crappies, but catching bluegills and pike.
The first two pike I was able to get them to drop the hook, but this one would not let go, it was solidly hooked in the tip of the lip with my last 4 mm gold tipped with a pumpkin pepper little atom nuggie.
I decided I wanted my jig back so the fight was on! He first made some hard runs, I just let go of the handle and used my fingers on the edge of the spool to slow him down. then it slowly came towards me, trying different moves to snap my line, but gave him enough slack to keep the 2# stren intact, and soon it was over! I don't know why a big ol pike would bite a panfish nuggie, but they do! Got a few pics and sent him back to his buddies. I dont think he told them how he got whooped by a 9 dollar rod, 6 dollar reel, and 2# line haha!