random thoughts from a long weekend

[scottyhoover]

Some people think I'm exagerrating when I say I spend 20 hours on the ice in a weekend, I'm not. Many times I'm hitting the ice at 2am, only to fish until 8am and then making the switch to bluegill as the sun rises. Many other times I will hit the ice at 5pm and stay until I can't stand it anymore. This weekend I made more of an effort to try some different things, and also make note of other little things that happen involving fishing for pan fish.

For the first few days of this long weekend the crappie were in a major negative mood it seemed. Many lookers on the vex but only 1 ouf of 10 biting a minnow...if that. So I tried 2 different methods of tieing a dropper line with a dry fly tipped with a single spike. For you fly dunkers I believe I was using a white ephron or dusty miller...whatever you guys call em. Dry flies tied on a dropper are great when the fish are not very aggressive, as they kind of just 'drift' in the water, even when tipped with a spike.

First method for a dropper. Mainline to tiny tiny barrel swivel...tied on and left an 8 inch tag line to which I attached my fly. Then I ran a heavier crappie jig off the bottom with a minnow. This presents the fly in a great way....letting it free fall as you raise and lower the rig. I caught a few fish this way.

Second method for a dropper line I tried: Mainline to heavy crappie jig, then I tied a 1ft length of 3lb to the shank of the jig hook, like you would attach a stinger. So the dry fly was attached 1ft below the top jig. This method gives your fly a whole foot of free fall...which as crappie fisherman will tell ya...they love a falling bait. Down side....harder than method 1 for detecting strikes. But I still managed a few fish by this. On the days when it was slower than molasses using a dropper fly at least got me an extra fish or two.

A word of warning on using a vexilar and fishing dropper lines....using method 1 with a dropper above your jig. If you use the vexilar foam float and hook a fish on your bottom jig....the top dropper fly likes to hook into your vexilar float as you try to land a fish....beware!

Also for those tough bite days.....changing baits often.....can trigger a reaction bite. A few times I had a fish come look at a minnow but I was already knowing it wasn't going to bite it....so up comes the minnow and down goes a heavy jig like a genz worm (glowing of course), with 2 spikes on it....it triggered a random bite or 2 on the tough days.

I have not given the plain treble hook enough credit for crappies. It gets solid hook ups thats for sure. I even clipped the tails off my minnows on the days when fish were finicky, and it worked! But when it gets dark break out a glow jig so the fish can find you!

Slip bobbers and crappie, a marriage made in heaven. MSUiceman and I have talked about we both love to use thill ice n fly bobbers for crappie. If you really want to see how tricky a speck can be with a bait...try one of these tiny bobbers and you'll be amazed at how they pick up a bait. Unfortunately they don't work well when running and gunning on a cold windy day...but if you are tucked in a warm fish trap where things can't freeze, this is the way to go. A classic crappie bite happens when your bobber flops on its side like a beachball. I weight my rigs so the yellow half of the bobber is 1/4 inch submerged. Fish can pull this rig all thet way to the bottom of the ice and never feel the bobber. Fishing 2 holes with a vexilar I developed a new strategy tonight. I was getting frustrated when I had 2 slip bobbers fixed at certain depths and a crappie would mark up 4 or more feet above my baits. The bobber method was too good to abandon completely. So you set one rod with a slip bobber and fix it at a popular depth you are marking fish. Then on the other hole I fished a rod with no bobber and used this as the rod to 'seek and destroy' rogue fish that cruised in at random depths. Works well, very well.

Finally a note on bluegills. Nuke ants are working great...i especially like the white ones. Quick tip.....when big gill rips your waxie or spike off of the hook of a nuke ant....don't reel it up! From my observation they almost always come back thinking there is more of a free meal...only this time they feel the point.

[FishTales]

Originally posted by scottyhoover
A word of warning on using a vexilar and fishing dropper lines....using method 1 with a dropper above your jig. If you use the vexilar foam float and hook a fish on your bottom jig....the top dropper fly likes to hook into your vexilar float as you try to land a fish....beware!

Why not drill two holes side by side and then drill a third hole almost touching the other two hole and put the transducer in it.
Depending on ice thickness, adjust your float so tranducer does not extend below the ice.

[ih772]

Good tips Scooty. Thanks for posting them. The crappies had lock jaw on Lake nepessing too.

[scottyhoover]

Fishtales, the 3rd hole would solve the problem! But in a 1 man fish trap, with lantern, heater, vex, fish bucket, etc. all arranged just perfectly, there isn't much room to spare for a 3rd hole, which I would probably drop something down anyway Plus with so much water on the ice I'm not sure I'd want another hole or I might have floated away. I usually just flip the transducer out of the hole, but the top dropper fly caught me off guard one time when it lodged firmly in the float. Oh well just yank the ducer and the fish out all in one motion. Big crappie swim in big circles when you hook em so keep your holes kinda far apart.

[flydunker]

Scottyhoover, outstanding report. I just purchased a vexilar and am in the process of learning how to properly use it. I am also in search of crappy. Can you tell me how you identify a fish that has entered the water column 4 feet above your bait. I do not think I am picking this up. It seems that I am seeing the red on the grid and calling it the bottum them putting my bait just above it hoping that it is a fish. Any help will be appreciated.

flydunker

[scottyhoover]

I typed this all up as a PM to flydunker but what the heck I might as well post it here too:

First of all....I'm using a fl18 with 19 degree ducer. For 95% of my crappie fishing I'm in 18fow or greater....more often in water 20-23ft. 19 degree gives you a nice wide view in waters of this depth. Now when fishing water that is close to, but not over, 20ft, putting your vex on range setting 1 (0-20 ft) will give you a nice 'blown up' view of the water column. Now when you start fishing something just over 20ft, you have to go to range setting 2 (0-40ft)....but the problem is in 21fow your only using the half the screen now and your marks will all be smaller, kinda 'squished' down. So that is the first thing you have to get used to.

Most of the crappies I see are suspended and at low light they are usually on the move searching for food, so on the vex I will see blips at many different levels over the course of an evening. Always try to get your gain set so that your lure is just a light green line, with a lively minnow don't worry if it borders on yellow....even if the center of the mark gets a tiny bit of red from time to time. I tend to error on side of too much gain rather than not enough, at least then you see fish out on the edges of the cone, even if you do mark some extra stuff. I usually start fishing by spreading baits out at different levels at least 7ft apart in the water column.

Crappies after dark will cruise up so high in the water column it is just hard to mark them sometimes. A fish at 6ft down isn't under your sonar cone for very long so you will usually just see a line that quickly builds from green to yellow and then fades away quickly as the fish leaves the cone. Or sometimes they are so high up that you might only see a light green flicker and then nothing. I see marks at 3ft down over 20fow all the time....these are usually the big boys too. When you see this you need to get a bait up to that level quickly to get their attention. It really should be obvious when a large mark that isn't your bait shows up.

Also, another reason I opt for more gain, when you see even a faint green line that just flickers once and is gone....thats probably a fish skirting the edge of your cone. Because they are out on the edge, the depth of the mark on the screen is actually a few feet lower than the fish really is....so I quickly bring a bait up to about 1-2ft above where the mark is and jig it hard to get that fish to come in a little closer for a look. With crappie, you can fish below them all day and not get a bite...you have to be at or above the level of the fish to get them to bite most of the time, unless they are really snappin'.

Trying searching the water column, by bringing a minnow up to the top and then just slow dropping it all the way to the bottom. Concentrate hard on the screen for even the slightest extra green line that is not your bait. Once you see one use what I mentioned above to get a bait in front of it.

Last night I was camped over a 20ft soft bottom basin and the fish were just cruising at all different depths....wether I had bait in the water or not I was marking fish that were moving. If you aren't seeing any marks at all then it could be possibe the fish just arent there But first thing I would do is crank up the gain and search the water column from top to bottom to see if anything at all is swimming down there. Now if you fish shallow water, throw this all out the window

[Banditto]

I was going to add what happened to us this weekend.

My wife and I were out with four other friends ice fishing. We were all taking turns manning the shanty while everybody else checked tip-ups using large suckers.

As I approached the shanty I could see my wife was in it now, but the Vexilar transducer was in the shanty hole, but the unit outside. So I adjusted the gain and while I was doing that I could see fish all around.

So I told her what I saw, and 2 seconds later she nails a 14" crappie. I haven't seen crappie like that since I was a kid! So I changed her sucker to a wax worm and had her position the bait right at the fish on the Vex and BAM! another one, even larger. I am sure it was a wall mounter! AND IT BROKE THE LINE! She tends to get over excited for big fish and I think she got it snagged on the hole and busted it off, but she swears it jerked really hard. No one will know, but the second one was beautiful and thick.

The next day we caught a few pike, but what had to be a 4-6lb large mouth checked out my bait for several minutes.

heart pumping action for what was otherwise a slow weekend.

[riverboy]

Scotty

I talk to Dave Genz the other night at the walleye clinic in Saginaw. He dosnt even like using the Vexilar floats. He just uses the eyebolt and the rubber stopper on the cord. Im not sure his reason I guess I should have asked. I have yet to try but Im hitting the river tonight and see how I like it.

Are you ready to jig for some eyes yet?

[scottyhoover]

yeah the whole vexilar float vs no float is kind of a non-issue since eveyrone has there own way of arranging the fishin venue. I like to be able to move the float from one hole to the other sometimes without moving the unit, and the eye/hook thingy forces me to set my pro-pack in 'just' the right spot in the trap eh .....

I probably should go fish for some eyes to diversify my catch a little. But I've been dead set on a mission for a crappie to mount, not sure if I can get off that horse yet. Good luck hope you catch a 12 pounder Scott. My prediction for the shiver is....the guy who wins will be polish and will be from bay city, essexville, or pinconning.

[riverboy]

Originally posted by scottyhoover
My prediction for the shiver is....the guy who wins will be polish and will be from bay city, essexville, or pinconning.

Man that counts me out allready!!! What about the Scotish from Saginaw!!! LOL!!!!

Flyrod is planing a outing for the Sagnasty! It would be great to see ya there! Bring ozzgood and MSU too!!