JIG STRATEGIES FOR ICY STEEL AND BROWNS

JIG STRATEGIES FOR ICY STEEL AND BROWNS

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Zzzz 8:06 AM Add Comment

From far across the icescape, wind picks up fetch. Tiny spears of wind-driven ice pepper our suits. Steelhead and trout might be out there, as far as the eye can see, out where ice or water meets sky. Or they might be underfoot.

Out there somewhere, a “wave” comes through and everyone1 the tip of a dangerously bent ice rod in the the hole so line won’t bury in the ice. Spools on the,. blur like electrons racing around a nucleus. Some fish hit spoons, some hit bait.

 “My grandma would have landed that fish by now,” somebody laughs, a precocious “skipper” dancing on the ice by his feet. “Your grandma was a linebacker for the Lions,” another says, pumping to gain line on a bigger fish.

It takes a while. Plenty of give-and-take. Finally a crimson-tinged silver bullet slides out of the hole. How far did it travel today, to end up here at your feet? Where has it been? Is it going up the river, up the shoreline, or back out to the expanse?

Timing the Bite
Ice fishing for steelhead and brown trout involves more than just two populations of fish. One portion of the steelhead population intends to run up rivers and spawn, while another portion remains in the big lake. The latter group is composed of two-, three-, and some four-year olds that won’t spawn during the current cycle. Those fish are wandering, feeding machines. The former group, made up of fish intending to spawn, can be less likely to react to aggressive presentations.

Many rivers have both fall and spring runs, dividing the population into groups that behave differently. Spring-run fish are more likely to roam farther up and down the shorelines, and farther out to sea. Some stay miles offshore all winter, rarely offering ice fishermen any windows of opportunity. Fall-run fish may roam around when conditions aren’t right for running the river, but probably stay closer to “home.”

When conditions are ideal for running rivers in October and November, there are far fewer fall-run steelhead under the ice around piers and harbors of the Great Lakes. Most are upriver, meaning ice fishing on slow, put-and-take rivers in farm country will be great—not to mention open-water fishing in all those hill-country rivers that never freeze. If autumn brings little rain and rive rs remain too low and clear, most fall-run steelhead stay in the lake, and ice-fishing opportunities can be awesome. Fall water levels are good big-fish indicators for ice fishing succ ess months later.

Then you have the extremes. Some Lake Superior streams with only fall- run strains never hold fish in fall or winter because they freeze solid or never have enough water in fall for fish to keep their backs wet. (Yet amazingly, many of those streams have great populations of naturally- reproducing steelhead.) After more than 100 years of following that patt ern, those fish know the drill. They continue roaming open water well away from the rivermouths until late winter, when days get longer and thaws begin to fill those streams up.

Brown trout can be a mixed up lot. Many strains have been planted, and each strain tends to behave diff erently. Specimens of the amazing Seeforellen strain (which attains the greatest size) behave like steelhead, running rivers in fall and often stayi ng upstream all winter. Other strains rarely seem to run rivers. They spawn on gravel beaches and spread out all winter, not concentrati ng around rivermouths until a run of bait fish draws them in.

Plugging on Ice
Then there’s Ohio. Steelhead cruise the shorelines in waves everyw here around the Great Lakes. Most places a wave might include 10 to 50 steelhead. The harbors of western Lake Erie entertain something bett er described as a tsunami of 100 or more big ‘bows. The steelhead fishe ry is on fire in Lake Erie. “Steelhead definitely come through in waves,” says Craig Lewis, owner of Erie Outfitters just outside Cleveland. “They rush into the rivers looking for baitfish and push right back out. Some fall run-fish can be found holding in a big hole way upstream, and we’ve been able to ice-fish those holes on some rivers the past two years.”

The most popular method is jigg ing vertically with marabou jigs. “Spawn bags are not as popular here as jigs tipped with minnows, wax- worms, or maggots,” he says. “Up in Michigan, waxworms are king. Here it’s maggots. We have guides at Erie Outfitters that ice-fish for steelhead. Their primary method involves marabou or bunny-hair jigs tipped with livebait.”

But when conditions arise that generally initiate runs of steelhead (thaws, warming trends, rises in barometric pressure), Lewis pushes a plug into the hole at the end of a long ice rod and lets the current sweep it downstream. “In cold wint ers with dense ice cover and snow, we use Luhr Jensen Kwikfish and Yakima Flatfish,” he says. “Let out 10 feet of line, wait a minute, let it wander and wobble around, then let out three more feet of line, wait a minute, and repeat. We place holes strategically across the head of a pool to cover it all and duplicate what a drift boat would do with plugs in open water. Sizes are the K7 Kwikfish and F-7 Flatfish in black with a fluorescent head, all white, or fluorescent pink. We use 10-pound mono with 8- to 10-pound fluoro leaders.”

Strikes with plugs can be massive or just a cessation of action. When the wobble of the plug stops, set the hook. Steelhead and browns can surge forw ard and push slack into the line, or just clamp down on the invading lure, stopping the wobble. Sometimes the lure finds a current void. Sometimes it’s a leaf. Sometimes it’s a living dynamo. In any case, ripping the lure forward occasionally can’t hurt when trout are active.

“We downsize to fish jigs vertic ally,” Lewis says, “using 6-pound mono with 4- or 5-pound fluoro leaders under a small float on medium- light ice rods. Inmost conditions, we merely pick the float up and set it down with a marabou or bunny jig. The river gives it plenty of action. No need to overdo it. I use VooDoo Cust om Jigs in 1/80-, 1/64-, or 1/32-ounce sizes, depending on where we are, how clear the water is, and how fast the current. Upriver in small water we use white or black 1/80-ounce marabou jigs most of the time with a float, picking it up occasionally and dropping it back down. We’re allowed two lines each and six tipups, but rod-and-reel in hand is king around here. It’s not like you catch a fish and wait another hour. You may hook 15 in an hour and not have another bite for three hours. When a wave comes through, nobody wants to be chasing flags.”

When a tsunami hits, the choice can be made for numbers or specimens. “Larger fish come off structure or cover, like a rock bar or a bridge abutment,” Lewis says. “Maybe those older fish need to rest more or tend to be smarter, but they orient to current breaks like bridge pilings where you don’t pull waves of fish—just one or two big ones. A big one can be 15 pounds or more.”

More Vertical Tactics
Outdoor writer and steelhead enthusiast Brian Kelly loves to ice- fish the harbors and rivermouths along the Eastern Basin of Lake Erie. “Usually first ice is excellent,” Kelly says. “If you have enough ice to stand on, you’ll find fish. Last year was cold early, and we were catching steelhead on ice the first week of December. The bite lasts through February or until the ice is no longer safe.”

Most Lake Erie steelhead are fall- run fish. “The steelhead that haven’t matured yet are cruising around looking for food,” he adds. “They enter harbors where smelt, emerald shiners, and shad gather. Smelt show up later, usually January and Februa ry, and we see a sudden bump in action again.

“Browns don’t run the creeks like they do in Lake Michigan. They seem to spawn on shoreline areas. Fishing stays consistent because the three- year-old steelhead roam the shorel ines, feeding heavily. Those fish come and go, depending on where the food is. Cameras and sonar tell that story quickly. The East Erie mix is about 75 percent steelhead and 25 percent browns. On Lake Huron we catch more browns. It’s 50-50 there.”

Kelly uses a variety of lures to jig in harbor areas. “Some years the big trout are more on live stuff,” he says. “Some years they really like lipless rattlebaits like the Rapala Rippin’ Rap or Strike King Red Eye Shad. Steelhead and browns clobb er those when you lift them just fast enough to make them begin to wobble and let them fall on a tight line. Acme Kastmasters and Little Cleos are classics. When the shad are running, they like a wider prof ile on the spoon, like the Cleo, PK Predator, or the new Williams Ridge Back. Doesn’t matter most years, but some years we can’t catch them jigg ing unless we put some meat on the spoon. We use a whole emerald shiner. You never need a stinger hook, they eat the whole thing.”

 
Rods and reels are standard. “We use Clam ice rods with 4- to 6-pound Seaguar AbrazX Fluorocarbon,” Kelly says. “Trout are not as line shy as they are on Lake Michigan so rod length isn’t critical. With long rods it’s hard to get them up the hole. The best ones are light walleye rods. If it’s too stiff, the action on the lure is too abrupt and hooks rip out. Steelhead hook themselves.”

 
Kelly fishes around harbor mouths about 10 to 15 feet deep. “Few of these East Erie harbors are deeper than 20 feet,” he says. “Steelhead school up, coming through in waves. Try to find an eddy off the main current in the harbor. For one thing, it’s safer than the current areas. Steelhead mill around in that slack water. Most of the time they use the top third of the water column. Use a portable shelter or cover your head over the hole with a piece of canvas and you can see them. We fish three feet under the hole a lot, watching the spoon. Out of nowhere there’s a flash and the rod’s doubled up.”

Hedging Bets
Some guides, like Chris Beeksma of Get Bit Guide Service on Lake Superior, depend entirely on spawn bags under Slamco Slammers or Automatic Fishermans—rod holders that maintain tension on the rod and line until a steelhead touches the bait. Then the rod snaps up and the hook is automatically set. “We fish in 3 to 6 feet of water outside wide rivermouths most of the time,” Beeksma says. “It works better to stay away from the hole unless you can sit perfectly still and be quiet for hours on end. We use jigs somet imes, too, to keep spawn bags tied with brown or steelhead eggs down in the current flowing out of the river. When current is slight, we use #8 or #6 Owner Mosquito Hooks. No need for sinkers on the line in those depths in either case.”

Beeksma and I use 1/64- to 1/32 TC Tackle Jigs colored with nail polish or powder paint in unique or unusual colors. We paint them in glow colors for warming-trend days when chocolate water rolls out of the rivers under our feet. Running to grab a thrashi ng rod before a steelhead yanks the entire operation down the hole is part of the fun.

Last winter lice-fished some of the slow, farm-country streams of eastern Wisconsin with Kerry Pauls on, inventor and owner of Automatic Fisherman, LLC. When I arrived, he and “Big” Mike Neta had six Autom atic Fishermans deployed over strat egic spots on a bend pool, several miles upstream of Lake Michigan.

Winter was wearing on. For steel- head holding upstream, the spawn was approaching. Feeding was no longer the priority. “Best to hedge your bets,” Paulson told me. “We catch more fish on spawn than lures in late winter because they aren’t aggressively eating. Spawn, on the other hand, excites them because it has to do with their main priority this time of year.”

We caught brown trout and some small precocious steethead with spoons, but none on rattlebaits. All the bigger fish—came on spawn bags presented on bare hooks or jigs under Automatic Fishermans,
Consider the season and the nature of the fish you’re likely to encounter out there. Upriver fish may be focused on things other than eati ng. Smaller, baited jigs and hooks tend to excel up there. But out where the wind peppers your jacket with daggers of ice, anything goes. •

DAY OF THE LIVING DEADBAIT

DAY OF THE LIVING DEADBAIT

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Zzzz 4:27 AM 1 Comment

Fishing Authority: Green animals came stalking death, slithering snakelike through green water, past green cabbage, in a green light—a primal chiaroscuro. Smelling death, pike tracked it to our feet, leaving a grisly scene on the lake’s floor at day’s end.

Messy creatures, pike. When quick-strike hook-sets rip deadbaits free, they tumble and flutter to the lake’s floor. At day’s end, a dozen or more big baits in bright colors punctuated the bottom around the bite zone, as seen on our camera monitors. But by morning, the baits were gone—devoured by living, deadbait-eating pike.

That was two years ago on Lake of the Woods, under record amounts of snow. Last winter was different. David “Shoggie” Shogren, Rick Hammer, and I walked out onto five inches of clear ice on a local lake, armed with tip-ups, big decoy suckers, and a bag full of deadbaits that included smelt and ciscoes—some colored with Pautzke High Octane Fire Dye. Some were treated with new dyeenhanced Pautzke Fire Brine, and some were left in their natural deadbait zombie state.

Shogren opted for the live sucke rs and he was first to hook up. “Is it big?” I asked. When he said it was I dropped what I was doing and raced over. The show was about to begin. Looking through a stone-age lens of thin ice, we could see every gyration of that 40-inch-class pike under glass as it sped beneath our feet. Even Blue Earth on the big screen pales.

Shogren went on to catch every pike that day—all on live sucke rs—while I tried every variety of deadbait at every level, from right on bottom to halfway up, while Hammer caught panfish until his arms ached. I placed deadbaits on homemade thin wire leaders and heavy fluorocarbon leaders. I experimented with colors that worked in that lake—deadbaits dyed purple or green. I tried naturals with no added scent, salt, or color.

Nothing dead worked. I could recount several similar episodes involving various angling notables using deadbaits or livebaits with someone exclaiming, “Aha!” or “Eureka!” and none of it made sense until some snow cover arrived and the tables turned.

Deadbait Time
“1 use deadbaits after a heavy snow,” says deep-woods pike guru, Jonny Petrowske, known as the nefarious Jonny P. “When it gets really dark down there I drop frozen smelt, ciscoes, or salted shiners. As long as it smells, it doesn’t have to be big. Big fish, big bait? The best big pike technique on the lake in summer is a white crappie jig on a Snoopy rod. Everybody knows that. Sometimes a dead shiner snack is better than a giant live sucker.”

>) Livebait was key for Guide David Shogren on this occasion, but deadhalt shines at times, too.

Petrowkse lives outside the rules on the fringe of civilization. “When the water’s really dark under deep snow, I unbalance the tip-up with wooden dowels,” he says. “1 ducttape 3-inch chucks of 1-inch-diameter dowel under the tip-up to unbalance it. Then I put duct tape on the flag so it catches more wind, helping it to rock back and forth.” He knows it’s weird. “1 could use an HT Enterprises Windlass tip-up, but that’s the trouble with tip-up fishing. You’re sitting there waiting with too much time to think.”

Not so weird when you think about it. Writing for In-Fisherman in 1989, famous English angler John Wilson penned this beginning to the article Active or Wobbled Dead- bait Takes More Pike: “Deadbaiting for predators like pike . . . falls into two categories: (1) Strive to make a dead fish behave like the real thing by bouncing it through rough water beneath a float.. . or (2) Play a truly static deadbait laying perfectly still on the bottom where it belongs and, perhaps more importantly, where pike, particularly those larger, but lethargic old female lunkers of 20 pounds or more, expect to find it.”

> Coloring Deadbait
Using a brine solution to preserve and prepare baits for coloring is a good idea, even when using simpLe food coioring. Toughens baits up. With Pautzke Fire Brine or Pro-Cure Brine N’ Brite Bait, piace deadbaits in a freezer bag and cover with liquid. Soak baits for at least 24 hours in the refrigerator, remove from the bag, place on paper towels on a scrap piece of lumber, and blot away the excess dye.

Fire Brine comes in seven colors, but Pautzke High Octane Fire Dyes and Vicious Bait Dyes can be added to clear brines to color baits, Wear rubber kitchen gloves to handle baits or hands are stained for days. (Take the rubber gloves fishing, too.) Let baits dry out a bit on paper—several hours, turning them occasionally—before putting them in a new baggie and storing in the freezer or heading out on the ice. That allows the natural juices and scents to permeate the skin once again. Baits keep in the freezer for years, and won’t “go bad” even after many trips. Pro-Cure Bad Azz dyes can be added out on the ice if baits have been treated for 24 hours with a clear brine solution.

Pike eat dead stuff. Sometimes they seem to want to be tricked into thinking it’s alive to satisfy predat ory pride. But baitfish killed by temp erature stress fall to bottom and predatory pride or no, pike eat it— especially in winter, and especially when suspended baits are “wobb led.” Another method we use to wobble deadbaits on ice involves the new HT Wind Jigger Rod Holder, which allows using rods and reels with a light drag setting. Even a slight breeze bobs the rod up and down.

Wilson also wrote about dying deadbaits in a rainbow of colors: “For added attraction, especially on waters that get overfished, colouri ng deadbaits can produce interesti ng results. This caught on in Britain in a big way. . . and there is no doubt that in certain water conditions, baits colored in red, gold, blue, yellow, or even green show up well, and pike in particular often show a preference for a certain color.”

He colored his baits with food coloring or powdered dyes used to add hue to boilies and other carp baits. Pautzke’s Fire Brine, a recent innovat ion, both colors and preserves bait. With dead suckers, herring, ciscoes, shiners, smelt—any deadbait—pat it dry, place it in a resealable plastic bag, and pour in just enough Fire Brine to cover the bait. Drain, retain the excess for the next batch, and refrigerate.

As Wilson indicates, “in certain conditions,” colored baits excel. In stained or cloudy water, and in darkn ess under heavy snow and thick ice, added color can make a difference. Petrowske, who hadn’t considered coloring baits, wanted to know if the dyes included glow colors. Not yet, but I could see a light bulb blink on. “1 use hair hooks to add color,” he says. “1 clamp the trebles in a fly- tying vice and tie Flashabou or marabou to the shank—just a sparse amount extending maybe an inch or less past the bend of the hooks, using the same amount of material I might use to tie a dry fly for trout.

 
“I generally use natural colors like white, blue, green—things you find in the pike’s world up here,” he says. “Sometimes they like holog raphic versions that give off a variety of colors. No deer hair. I want something that flutters a little. I’ve seen it a thousand times. Pike slide right up to a deadbait, stop, and stare. I think that puffy motion of the hair is the trigger with deadbait from early to mid-winter.”

The puffy motion he ment ions is supplied by the unbalanced tip-up. Or renewable energy. “1 place the dowels on the bottom of the tip-up so a gust tips it and, when the gust stops, it rocks back again,” Petrowske says. “1 throw some snow around the hole so the tip-up doesn’t freeze down. No wind, no worries. The nearby movement of a pike makes the hair move. They actually trigger themselves to strike sometimes.”

Quick-Strike Rigs
Petrowske doesn’t think most pre-tied rigs are stealthy enough for pressured pike in heavily fished waters, so he ties his own using two grades of fluorocarbon extending at least 5 feet above the bait. “1 don’t want to scare pike off with something that looks hokey,” he says. “When things get tough and pike are pressured, that light, fluttering drop when the bait is rocking pushes their button.”

The rig starts with about 5 feet of 80-pound fluorocarbon. “The braided line on my tip-up terminates with a barrel swivel,” he says. “That’s where I tie on the 80-pound fluoro. I’m fishing in 10 feet of water or less a lot, so the swivel is out of the water in most cases. I melt the other end of the fluoro with a Zippo lighter then mash it up against the lighter to create a mushroom-shaped knob on the end of the line.”

He then ties on two 5-inch lengths of 40-pound fluorocarbon above the knob, each termin ating in a treble hook. “1 use nail knots, just like tying a leader onto fly line,” he says. “It’s a tough knot to tie. Once you get it down, the rig is locked in with the nail knots. I could use crimps, but I don’t want any metal down there. Trilene knots secure the hooks to the leaders. Minnesota requires an attractor on this kind of rig and I sometimes put the tiniest blades I can find on the leaders
or I just use hair hooks. With small #6 trebles, I tie the 40-pound to split rings, then run the hooks on. Smaller hooks let the bait flutter with less energy applied.”

Petrowske calls it The Y. “It’s all fluoro and presumably everything is invisible,” he says. “No swivels or sleeves for pike to be leery of. I susp end deadbaits halfway down the water column, unless I’m marking a lot of activity at a certain depth. I have a jig rod going and I’m watchi ng. I think the smell of oily dead- baits dials pike into an area without any help, but I cut the belly open sometimes and let the goodies hang out to release more scent into the curr ents under the ice. We undere stimate their ability to smell. If pike smell deadbait they start looking for that silhoue tte, that shadow. Now they’re hunting.

Grateful Deadbaits
I tie my own rigs, too. Sometimes with 40- to 60-pound Seaguar Blue Label or Premier fluorocarbons, which are more resilient to pike teeth than others I’ve tried. And sometimes I use 10- or 15-pound Cortland Toothy Critter Tie-Able Stainless because it’s green. With tieable wires, cut a segment about 14 inches long, slide both ends through a metal sleeve, slide it up to form a half-inch ioop above the sleeve, crimp it tight, and tie a treble to each tag end. Don’t forget to slide an attractor onto the wire before tying hooks on, if wanted or needed.

Petrowske and I might be a tad eccentric about stealth, but you can’t go wrong by overestimating your quarry. Underestimating wild animals tends to be a bigger mistake. Maybe Shogren caught all the fish that day because he was using tiny Jann’s Netcraft Propeller Blades instead of the clunkier, flashier Colo rado blades I chose. This year at first ice it’s time to try some sparsely tied hair trebles under a Windlass, ala Jonny P, because the color thing is intriguing and that’s a quick, easy way to play with it.

Wilson had little to say about matching colors to conditions: “For coloured water, yellow takes some beating, whilst in clear water bright red scores well.” That was about it.

>>Late season often calls for deadbaits set right on bottom.

One thing that stands out after fishing with colored baits for any length of time is that lakes can have pet colors. Some colors seem to interest no pike at all, ever, in one lake, yet catch pike like crazy in another. More often, colors seem to be affected by conditions. As Petrowske notes, deadbaits and bright colors often work best when it gets dark down there. At one extreme—bright, sunny days on thin ice over clear water—deadbaits and colored baits take a back seat. Naturally colored livebait takes center stage. At the other extreme—dark days on thick ice with heavy snow cover on stained lakes—brightly colored deadbaits take even neutral and overly cautious pike.

In most conditions, colored deadbaits work under the ice, with a caveat or two. Deadbaits tend to produce increasingly better results as winter wears on. Suspended baits catch pike all winter, but when pike move shallow late in the season, setting baits right on bottom with a classic quick-strike rig often entices more strikes, probably because that’s where pike expect to find dead fish at that point and they may actually be sniffing around with eyes looki ng down. Pautzke makes Fire Brine in seven colors: green, blue, yellow, red, chartreuse, orange, and purple. An eighth option is natural, for pres erving the bait but leaving the color unchanged. I use them, but Pautzke isn’t the only company making bait- fish dyes.

Pro-Cure has liquid Bad Azz Bait Dyes for baits already preserved with Brine N’ Brite Bait. Use the liquid version to spray on the color of choice the same day. The liquid version is available in six shades. Pro-Cure also offers powder cures for adding to brine solutions in metallic blue, chartreuse/lime, fire orange, pink, deep purple, and brilliant red.

Vicious makes three liquid baitfish dyes (Pretty ‘N Pink, Predatory Purple, and 14K Gold). Treat these pretty much the same as Pautzke Fire Brine— immerse baits for 24 hours or so, pat dry, air them out in a cool place, repackage and use or freeze.

Some dangle deadbaits tail up or head up, and it works. Petrowske and I prefer to hang them horizontally with dual- lead quick-strike rigs as he described. I place one hook through the eye socket on one side of the head, and the other hook somewhere between the dors al fin and caudal peduncle on the opposite side of the bait. Or I do whatever it takes to make the dead offering hang horizontally, where a “wobbling” technique makes the best impression. Fishing deadbaits on rod-and-reel is fun, too, using the same rigs.

As far as bait goes, when green predators come calling in green water through green weeds, baits are grateful to be dead (any resemb lance to rock bands past or present is purely coincidental

BEST LARGEMOUTH BASS WATERS ON THE HORIZON

BEST LARGEMOUTH BASS WATERS ON THE HORIZON

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Zzzz 8:12 AM Add Comment

Fishing Authority: If you want to catch bass, go where there are a lot of bass. If you want to catch big bass, go where there are lots of big bass. Pretty obvious, but if you wait for fishing reports, you might be too late. Here I make predictions of lakes likely to produce memories in the near future.

When they were newly impounded, southeastern reservoirs produced outstanding bass fishing, the result of an upsurge of nutrients, good habitat, and expanding bass and forage fish populations. Unfortunately, the boom was often followed by a bust. Fishery management of southeastern rese rvoirs has come a long way in a relatively short time, and bass have been a primary focus. Innov ative harvest regulations, habitat management, and, in some cases, Florida bass stocking, has resulted in bass fishing as good or better than in the “good ol’ days.”

Anglers have had a role, too, actually, two roles. There’s no doubt that the widespread adoption of volu ntary release has sustained the abundance of bass and, in many fisheries, also improved size structure (the proportion of large bass). But anglers also let mana gers know that quality was as or more important than quantity in most waters. Bragging rights shifted from catching a 10-bass limit to the combined weight of the best five.

 
Despite the experience, skills, and knowledge of today’s fishery managers, largemouth bass fishing in southeastern reservoirs still fluctuates. In some reserv oirs, climate and water availability strongly affect fish populations. In other areas, pressure from non-anglers affects habitat quality, like aquatic vegetation control or water level fluctuation, in multi-use reservoirs. Some conditions can’t be changed, but managers have learned how to manipulate bass populations to provide the kind of experiences anglers seek.

Fishery managers are always proud to share success stories. But because so many factors affect fisheries, it took a little arm twisting on my part to get them to make predictions. Ultimately, I’ve assembled the stories behind some of the lakes where bass fishing is “cycling up” in the next few years.

 
Falcon Reservoir, Texas
Down in Zapata in far South Texas where everyt hing sticks, stings, or bites is Falcon Reservoir, an 83,654-acre (at full pool) impoundment of the Rio Grande. “Falcon is all about water,” says Texas Parks and Wildlife Department biologist Randy Myers, “but repeat stocking of Florida bass fingerlings also contribu tes to the large size structure.”

Strong largemouth bass year-classes were prod uced in 2004 and 2005 following substantial waterl evel increases. These fish fueled the boom from 2008 to 2011 that put Falcon in the record books for bass tournaments and attracted anglers from across the land. When the water fell, fishing faltered. Winning tournament weights (5-fish limit) dropped from 40-plus pounds in 2010 and 2011 to 24 to 26 pounds in 2015.

“Right now, increases in water level suggest a repeat of the strong year-classes that produced the phenome nal fishing in 2010 and 2011,” Myers says. “The low water in 2011 to 2013 allowed for a jungle-like growth or huisache, mesquite, acacia, and salt cedar on the exposed reservoir bottom.” Flooding of this vegetation provided the cover needed for high survival of young bass spawned or stocked in 2014 and 2015. Myers pred icts the next boom should start in 2017.

How good can fishing be at Falcon? Myers reported that creel surveys conducted during the 2011 boom estim ated 20,000 4- to 7-pound largemouths caught from January to June.
Best times to go: March to June for numbers and size.

"BASS FISHING AS GOOD OR BETTER THAN IN THE ‘GOOD OL DAYS"

Lake Taiquin, Florida
This 8,800-acre, 88-year-old impoundment near Tallahassee peaked a couple years ago, a result of stocking one-half million advanced fingerling (3- to 4-inch) Florida bass in 2000 through 2003, according to Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) fishery biologist Andy Strickland. Those fish started showing up as 8-plus pound bass in 2006. Winn ing tournament weights consistently have exceeded 25 pounds in recent years.

Talquin has been managed with a 5-bass, :18-inch minimum length limit (one bass over 22 inches allowed), with exemptions granted to certified catch-and-release tournaments. FWC’s Aquatic Habitat Restoration/Enhancement team has planted giant bulrush in vario us locations along the shoreline. “Giant bulrush is a bass magnet in the spring,” Strickland says.

So what about the future? FWC stocked a total of one million advanced fingerling Florida bass in 2012, 2013, and 2015—twice as many as stocked in 2000 through 2003. If history repeats itself, those bass should start entering the fishery as trophy fish as early as 2018, and Strickland foresees a double-digit bass factory beginning in 2020. A proposed 16-inch maximum length limit (one over allowed), if approved, should stretch the boom for several years.

Best times to go: March-May for numbers; December-March for giants.

Nickajack Reservoir, Tennessee
Nickajack is a dendritic, 10,370- acre Tennessee River mainstem impoundment built in 1967. Although largemouth bass are most abund ant, healthy smallmouth and spott ed bass populations also exist. With Chattanooga near its upper end, the lake gets a lot of pressure. Even so, bass catch rate was almost one fish per angler hour, second highest in the state, in 2012. And the average largemouth caught weighed almost 3 pounds. Likely the 5 bass, 15-inch minimum length limit contributes to the abundance and quality of bass here.

Lake Chickamauga, immedia tely upstream of Nickajack, gained nationwide attention a couple years ago for big catches of huge largemouth bass. Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA) mana ging biologist Mike Jolley termed it a “perfect storm”—the coming together of effective stocking of Florida bass and production of the first- generation largemouth bass-Florida bass hybrids that supported the fishery, good habitat, and anglers disc overing umbrella rigs to mine the monsters in open water.

Jolley has applied the lessons learned in Chickamauga to Nicka jack, which has a good mixture of aquatic vegetation, brush, and stumpfields, as well as abundant shad. Although vegetation remains a wildcard, as TWRA has no control over its management, another perfect storm appears to be brewing. “Based on consistently high catch rates and large size structure in spring electrofishing assessments, the black bass population is in excell ent condition,”he says. “If the Florida bass stocking is successful, I predict Nickajack may rival Chickamauga within about eight years.”
But you needn’t wait. Next-door Chickamauga is still hot for trop hy bass. And the abundance and size structure of the Nickajack’s largemouth population are already impressive.
Best times to go: October, November, and February-May for numbers; March-May for big fish.

>> Increased coverage of hydrilla seems to have boosted catches of big bass at Lake Eufaula on the Chattahoochee River, AlabamaG eorgia, in recent years.

Lake Eufaula (Walter F. George), Alabama/Georgia
This 45,000-acre Chattahoochee River impoundment has a history of cycling up and down, according to Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) fishery biologist Ken Weathers. Desirable coverage of hydrilla has benefited bass recruitment and somewhat stabilized these fluctuations; a 14-inch minimum length limit also appears to have helped. “The bass population promises fantastic fishing, but there are some ‘ifs,” cautions Weathers.

The DCNR’s tournament reporting system recorded the lowest number of angler hours to catch a bass over 5 pounds in many years. Abundance of 5- to 6-pound bass means good numbers of 7- to 10-pound bass should be available next year. But they need food. As I write this (September 2015), anglers are commenting about “skinny” bass. Weathers’ team just completed their annual summer shad sample. Threadfin shad abundance is the lowest in four years, and the few shad collected were predominantly large ones over five inches.

But don’t write off Eufaula. Large threadfins are prime food for the abundant 5- to 7-pound bass, and Weathers is cautiously optimistic about good numbers of giant bass in 2016 and 2017. A good shad spawn next spring would mean fast growth for the abundant young bass spawned in 2014 and 2015, and that translates into a lot of quality-size largemouth for anglers to catch in upcoming years. Moreover, hydrilla provides good habitat for other forage, like bluegill and crayfish. So even with shad down, forage is available for bass.

Best times to go: Mid-March to mid-April and October to early November for numbers; late Janua ry to early March for quality fish.

 
Santee-Cooper Lakes (Lakes Marion and Moultrie), South Carolina
These two connected impoundments of the Santee and Cooper rivers provide about 150,000 acres of habitat-rich water. This dual impoundment was the place to go in the mid 1990s. South Carolina Department of Natural Resources fishery biologist Scott Lamprecht provided some data that suggest the largemouth fishery may be bett er than ever in a couple of years.

 
Marion and Moultrie consistently have moderately abund ant largemouth bass that grow fast and demonstrate good population structure. In almost every year since 1998, electrofishing samples reveal more than 50 percent of stock-size bass (longer than 8 inches) were larger than 15 inches and more than 10 percent were over 20 inches. That’s a large proportion of big bass. Want more evidence? Winning tournament weights last spring were consistently 27 to 31 pounds. Five-bass limits in summer and fall competitions were 17 to 24 pounds. And here’s the inside scoop: Lamprecht’s data show Moultrie had a substantially better size structure than Marion in 2015.

Lamprecht attributes part of the large size structure there to the 14-inch, 5-bass limit, but habitat management also helps. “Vege tation has been dynamic, and it’s been a constant battle to maintain native aquatic vegetation while cont rolling nuisance exotics,” he says. “Right now, everyone is dedicated to a good and stable amount of vege tation.” Add to this winning comb ination that the populations have a high frequency of Florida genes.

>Bass by the numbers:
An effective way to monitor the size structure of a bass population is a simple statistic called relative size distribution (RSD). Input data are numb ers of largemouth bass sampled by electrofishing. This index is the number of largemouth bass greater than a specified length divided by the number of bass over 8 inches. The index is multiplied by 100 to eliminate decimals:
RSD X=(number of bass greater than length X)J(number of bass greater than 8 inches) X 100. RSD can be calculated for any length. In the following graph, RSD data are for RSD 15 (RSD for bass larger than 15 inches) and RSD 20 (RSD for bass larger than 20 inches). Lake Moultrie has a high proportion of bass over 15 and 20 inches. Samples were not collected in 2009, but note the peak in RSD 20 2 to 3 years after the peak in RSD 15. Nickajack has a gene ral upward trend in RSD 15, indicating an increase in population size structure.

So how can it get better? Favora ble water levels after a decade-long drought produced strong year- classes in 2013 and 2014. Lamprecht expects catch rates to continue to rise in 2016 and 2017, with Mother Nature dictating the direction after that. “I’ve seen a 45-pound 5-bass bag in the past, and I expect to see more in the next couple years,” he concludes.

Best times to go: April-June for numbers; February to April for size.

Clarks Hill Lake, Georgia! South Carolina
This 71,000-acre Savannah River impoundment is genera lly known as a numbers lake, but it’s one to watch for quality-size large- mouths in the next 2 to 3 years. Georgia Wildlife Resources Division fishery biologist Ed Bettross describes a rather circuitous path that may lead to improved fishing.

Striped bass are an import ant fishery in Clarks Hill. Aeration of inflowing Savannah River water has improved the summer habitat for blueback herring and striped bass, both of which need well-oxygenated, cool water in summer. Large stripers eat large gizzard shad. Improved water quality keeps big stripers abundant and feeding all summer. The stripers crop the big shad which, in turn, improves spawning and production of young shad. Thus by managing striped bass, Bettross is producing abundant shad forage for black bass. Clarks Hill is one of many southeastern reservoirs with strong largemouth bass recruitment but insufficient harv est of small bass by bass anglers addicted to catch and release, so abundant fora ge is needed to keep the bass growing. Increased angler harvest of bass under 15 inches bass would help.

With improved water quality, recent reserv oir filling after years of drought, and desirable amounts of hydrilla, Clarks Hill is poised to produce good numbers of 15- to 20-inch bass. Sampling in 2015 indicates relatively low numbers of bass over 16 inches, but high numbers of 12- to 16-inch bass. If water remains available and shad remain abundant, Bettross forecasts good numbers of bass over 18 inches in a couple years.

Best times to go: January, May, and September for numbers; March, May, and September for big fish. •
*Dr Hal Schramm, Starkville, Mississippi, is an avid angler, fishery biologist, and freelance writer. He frequently contributes to In-Fisherman publications on scie nce topics.

GENIUS WHISPERS IN AN INTRICATE WALLEYE WORLD

GENIUS WHISPERS IN AN INTRICATE WALLEYE WORLD

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Zzzz 9:20 AM 1 Comment

Fishing Authority: So begins a meandering story... Right time and place, first ice on a body of water with mombo walleyes. Last Mountain Lake, Saskatchewan. Dream destination.

 Cheating, it’s so easy? Not quite, and smart to be there is more like it. We go when we can. Bay of Quinte. Western Basin of Lake Erie. Lake Winnipeg. And a dozen other slightly less stellar options in between, along with all the other waters we have to choose from. Mostly we make do. But we’re always scheming to go get us some of the best.

 Last Mountain is 58 miles long by a mile or so wide, running north and south just northwest of Regina, through rolling high prairie—a prairie lake on the northern edge, fertile and productive but with ice cover for five months. Glacial trenches 60 to 80 feet deep sustain vibrant populations of whitefish and ciscoes in the middle and lower lake. Burbot are plent iful. Crayfish. Shallower water holds perch, suckers, and minnow life. Walleyes here can live 25years and never spend a day howling at a hungry moon.

Specific spots are in play in the lower reservoir where shoals of sand, gravel, clay, sometimes rock, sometimes boulders, break from 15 to 20 into 30 feet—35 to 40 at times—always jutting into trench water.

Add stellar anglers and things get.inter- esting. In-Fisherman Digital Editor Jeff Simpson and guide and certified fish- Clayton Schick, who lives near Last Mountain, are two of the best. are shooting In-Fisherman TV in early December last year. Chris Hoffman, who enters this fray a bit later, doing the camera work.

simpson has fished all of the great walleye waters in North America—those just mentioned— plus scads of other waters in the Dakotas, Minnesota, Manitoba, and Ontario, including Devils Lake and Lake of the Woods. Schick spends summers guiding for lake trout and pike atone of Canada’s mostexciusive destinations, Wollaston Lake Lodge.

After icing giganto walleyes for a month he heads to Florida Keys for tarpon and anything else that swims there. He’s a vagabond in search of big fish—a whisperer on mission. He handles more giants in a season that most of us handle in a lifetime.

Simpson is a lifelong student of fishing for walleyes and after visiting so many fisheries notes how similar the fishing can be. “The fundamental jigging strategies I grew up with reading in In-Fisherman are always right on target to begin,” he says. “No matter the chosen lure, you lift it and let is it fall to attract fish. Sometimes they come right in and eat on the pause, which is the main triggering maneu ver. Other times you add a nod to the pause.

“A nod should start just after a fish has moved in and won’t respond,” he says. “Sometimes all it
takes is the slightest movement beyond the barest movement already inherent in the pause.”

At that point, as we have so often instructed, every day is an ongoing experiment in action. We toy with
different lures. We toy with more aggressive moves, especially at first ice. We may also eventually temper
back, using a deadstick with a minnow anchored on a Jig in a nearby hole, as the jigging continues, especially as the season slides into midwinter.

Sometimes most of the fish seem to respond to the same general lures and presentation moves. Other times, each fish that comes in responds differently than the one before it. We’re looking for patterns and sometimes they develop and other times they don’t.
Simpson: “Nodding doesn’t require conspicuous movement of your hand or wrist; just squeeze the rod handle with the palm of your hand and fingers. If it’s obvious, it isn’t a nod it’s a jiggle or a shake, more aggress ive motions reserved for swimming lures like the Jigging Rap, or working spoons for active walleyes, typi cally during prime-time low-light periods.

“With a nod the minnowhead on the hook, or just the dangling hook, barely dances. Nodding also works as you slowly raise the lure about 4 to 6 inches, then stop. Then nod again. Anytime you can get a fish to move up, their mood seems to change and you increase the chances of them biting. Stick with these fundamentals and work from there.”

Noteworthy on the days that Simpson and Schick fish together is how many fish won’t respond to lifting the lure, but do respond to dropping it and working it on the bott om. “Working the bottom isn’t new,” Simpson says. “It’s always an option. One tactic is to pound a lure on sand or clay to create a disturbance then lift it an inch to 6 inches to a foot and pause. Most of the time you want the lift into the pause to be dead slow. The ‘thing’ is rising up out of the disturbance below.”

We want to highlight another bott om maneuv er, but first let’s set the scene.

Schick fishes about 20 days at first ice, morning and evening and often all day, so it isn’t long and he gets a feeling for where fish are and what they’re responding to. One advantage to fishi ng all day, even though the best periods remain at twil ight, is learning where conc entrations of fish are. As he explores, checking diff erent depths and areas, he often finds fish that come in to look but won’t bite. Those spots can be top areas to set up for a twilight bite.

Schick: “In 20 days of fishing you have days when the fish are just on. They come in hard and if they don’t take right away you play keep-away a foot or two off bottom and you’re catching fish.

“Sometimes you get a morni ng and an evening like that back to back—or an evening and the next morning. Then things settle down for a day or two, and often three or four, with reluctant fish, even during the twilight periods. Sometimes we get back into a few active fish by maki ng a move to a new area. Weather is always a factor, too. I’m always hopi ng for an extended period of mild weather. Miserably cold weather often means tough fishing.

“And there’s a difference between big fish and smaller fish. It’s the big ones I’m after and they get tentative fast. You want to see a giant mark on sonar come in and cover your lure. But even when they want to bite they’re still wary, which translates to almost always tentative. That’s when I might work the bottom.”

Schick has two favorite spoons, the PK Spoon and the PK Flutterfish. He’s used them to catch dozens of walleyes above 10 pounds, including one of 13.56 pounds, on Last Mount ain the last couple years.

The PK Spoon is a compact teard rop shape with a smooth mirr or-plated finish on one side, and dimpling like a golf ball on the reverse side, producing contrasti ng flickering flash that blends color to become a hint of something. The spoon body is biased in the butt end with a slight bulge on the mirror side that adds weight so it settles butt first. The head of the spoon, which is thinner than the butt, cuts like a knife on the lift, while the butt gives off a subtle pulsing wobble

 This is the same fundamental more than subtle deliv esign as the classic Acme Kastmaster; but the unique design of the PK makes it tip on its side and shimmy and shake as it drifts down through the first half of the fall, at which point the butt takes control and it settles like a rock, with only a little swing back into position where it first settles. It’s genius—a compact spoon that fishes precisely yet crosses over into the world of flutter spoon.

(I interject that it’s imposs ible to know how a spoon or any other ice lure actua lly fishes without dropp ing it in a tank and putting it through the rounds. I’ve been lucky to always have near me in our office a large observation tank to test- drive lures. At a minimum, drop the lures you are cons idering as part of your repe rtoire down an ice hole and watch how they work. What a surprise to read testimony from other anglers about how specific spoons perf orm only to find the oppos ite with tank testing.)

In contrast, the PK Flutt erfish is shaped like a flattened peanut, with a drawn-in waistline midw ay between each end, the stamped metal relatively thick and bent into a slight concaving arch. The thick stamping allows the spoon to fish heavy for its size and shape. Even the smallest version (1/8 ounce) coupled with light line fishes effectively in 30 feet. Schick fishes the 3/8- and 1/2-ounce sizes.

Meanwhile, the unique concave elongated shape with the pinched middle makes the spoon lay on its side throughout the fall, shimmyi ng, flashing, flickering, with the mirror side up, the divot-side down, as it also rocks left-right, right-left like a falling leaf. It’s genius—a flutt er spoon that fishes precisely.

)>Schick with another big walleye from Last Mountain Lake, Saskatchewan, working a PK Spoon at first ice.

A spoon is an illusion. Often the illusion is little more than subtle delivery device for a tasty, aromatic morsel of something fishy, like a minnow head or a whole minnow. A little flash, a little vibration—a hint of color and something injured, something struggling (on the lift-fall). And then it hangs vertically, for all purposes disappearing on the pause, except for whatever you’ve tipped the spoon with, which can be critical, but at other times need be no more than almost nothing, which is to say bare hook

At times the jigging process is like calling ducks or geese or turkeys or elk. When the critters haven’t been bothered and are looking aggressively for food or company, call boldly and often, often using lures that are a step or two more “outstanding” than a spoon. Other times, when they’ve been worked over, have become wary, or environmental condit ions aren’t perfect, just hint at the presence of something. Touch off a spark of curiosity. Don’t let them find you easily—make them search. Or don’t show them somet hing that’s obviously food—make them wonder until they have to sample to be sure.

With a spoon we’re hinting subtly at this and subtly at that by lifting and letting it fall. The illusion continues as the fish draws near. There’s no logic involved on the fish’s part. It’s reacting to a set of simple cues. Something flickered and flashed, wiggled and fell. Based on past experience it’s pred isposed to think food. We have to continue the ruse long enough to get the fish to sample.

)>Simpson’s largest walleye during the In-Fisherman TV shoot was 32 inches and weighed 12.4 pounds. It bit a PK Flutterfish thumping the bottom.

It helps to know what walleyes can see. In-Fisherman has always been about
blending the best science with extensive field experience to bring you honest answers about fishing questions. A shorth and version of what we’ve writt en extensively about in past issues goes like this:

Most anglers know that walleyes have eyes that easily gather light so they have an advantage over most prey in dim light. This advantage is most obvious during twilight periods, but also after dark, although even walleyes have limited vision in the complete blackness brought on by nightfall under ice covered by snow.

Most anglers don’t know that walleyes can’t see details well. Many anglers assume the opposite because walleyes have such large eyes. But it’s the cone cells in the back of the eye, in the retina, not eye size, that determine color vision and the abili ty to see details like the subtle patt erns on lures.

Walleyes are unique in having some of the largest cone cells of any predatory animal, on land or sea. Cone cells are like pixels on a large- screen TV in a sports bar—the bigg er the pixels the fuzzier the picture. Another indication that walleyes don’t have good detailed vision relates to their eyes being so good at gathering and scattering light, which is what helps them see well in dim light. That also makes details fuzzy.

Meanwhile, walleyes have color vision that peaks in the orange-red and green portions of the spectrum. They see colors on both sides of each peak, but sensitivity declines. So they see wavelengths shorter than green and longer than orange-red, but not well. Overall, they see orange and red well, followed by green and yellow. They’re least sensitive to blue and violet, so much so that in most situations they probably can’t see them. This includes purple.

They also don’t see UV light. Our research suggests that while wall- eyes can’t see UV light, the addit ion of UV brighteners to lures may at times help those lures fluor esce, which means the brightness of the lures increases when fluoresc ent paint is used. In order for this to happen, though, there needs to be enough light present to allow UV to penetrate the water column. Such light generally isn’t available under ice covered with snow, the more so in twilight conditions that often result in the most active feeding. The Inside Angles in this issue has more detailed information on this topic.

UV light and fluorescence shouldn’t be confused with phosp horescence, where a chemical comp ounds in paint emits visible light (glow) after being charged by a light source. In dim light this light is more visible to walleyes and it is a proven producer in some situations.
Putting what we know together we can say that like most predat or fish, walleyes in clear water can sense movements well at a dist ance—in the best light perhaps out to 50 feet or so. In dim light that dist ance is reduced to perhaps 5 to 10 feet at early twilight. As the walleye closes the distance, the moving lure is flashing and flickering as it falls. There may be a hint of color. We are, again, predisposing the walleye to thinking “food.” It’s a grand game of sleight of hand.

As the walleye closes the distance, the best vision discrimination occurs for a short distance from perhaps a

foot or so out to five feet, where the fish has binocular vision. Even then though, we know that walleyes don’t
see details well. And when the fish closes the distance to within about a
foot, binocular vision disappears, making it even more difficult for the fish to discriminate,

See why it’s possible for a Spoon, which looks like nothing a walleye ever eats, to be mistaken as food? See why it’s so important to hint at this and that to get the fish to bite ? See why a nod when the fish, is at close distance can help the fish find what it’s looking for after being attracted from a distance?

Schick: “1 don’t know which spoon I’ve caught the most big fish on. It’s probably about even. With the PK, I fish the 1/4- or the 3/8- ounce versions on 8-pound Berkley Trilene XL. I start with this spoon when I’m exploring and anticipating active fish. If after several days of fishing things are trending the other way I fish the Flutterfish.

“The PK fishes well on the bottom, but I like the Flutterfish better for reasons I’ll get to in a moment. The PK works well off the bottom, I suspect for the reasons we’ve been discussing. It’s compact, attracts fish well, but when they get in close it’s a mystery to them. The mirror side helps the spoon disapp ear, while the divot side gives a hint that something’s there. A little nod after the pause. Move the lure up and nod some more. Sometimes I make them chase, depending on how they’re reacting. Yes, it’s an ong oing experiment.

“1 like the Flutterfish when fish are tentative overall. This is when they often come in and at times— again, you just have to experiment— they won’t respond to moving the lure up, but are interested in it on the bottom. One bottom maneuver I find deadly at times is to just lift the head of the Flutterfish—not the butt—and thump it up and down. It’s subtle disturbance in comparis on to pounding bottom.

  “Even big walleyes find it easy to eat the lure right on the bottom, because the butt is light enough to get sucked up and in. Before they eat you see them tip down on your sonar screen. The butt end of the PK doesn’t move that well. If you’re going to pound bottom with that one I follow with a lift to get it above the bottom. That’s a great maneuver at times. A longer lure like the Flutter- fish also walks across the bottom easi ly, another visual picture that excites some walleyes. And, at times, after thumping bottom, I also try a slow lift and a suspended pause with the Flutterfish.

Simpson: “How deadly that bottom tactic can be is shown by the fact that it produces all the big fish the first days I’m there using other tactics and can’t catch a thing—at least not a big fish. I start with a Chubby Darter, one of my favorites and a lure that, if I do say so myself, I’m pretty good with. (Note that Simpson is the creator of this lure, carving the first mode ls by hand and selling the idea to Salmo in the late 1990s.) I’m also tryi ng other spoons. Nothing. It’s the PK Spoon producing a few fish up off bottom and the Flutterfish doing the most damage on and just above the bottom. I finally switch and, using Schick’s bottom tactics with the Flutterfish, I’m immediately into fish.”

But no tactic in wall- eye fishing produces all the time. No lure or lures are a pipeline to success in every instance. The game we play is convoluted, a matter of calculation based on what we know from exper ience and what we’ve learned by reading articles like this and watchi ng others in action. One can never dismiss a classic option like the Jigg ing Rap or the Chubby Darter, or many of the other classic spoons, without putting them to the test.

Chris Hoffman, In-Fisherman videographer who shoots the unfoldi ng drama of catching those Last Mountain walleyes for In-Fisherman Television, spends four days fishing with Schick before Simpson arrives. He catches his first 30-inch wall- eye and several bigger fish. One even ing he has a big mark come in on a Johnson Shutter Spoon. No go, so he switches to a PK Spoon. Minutes later, frustrated, but with the fish still on screen, he reels up and considers his options. Dropping a #7 Jigging Rap, he jigs once and the fish bites. This one is 29.5 inches and 12.39 pounds.

)>Hoffman’s 29.5 x 20-inch 12.39-pound walleye was caught several days before the filming excursion, on a #7 Jigging Rapala, after the fish rejected several other spoons. 



Hoffman notes how deadly the PK Spoon is for Schick and himself in a boulderfield where it’s impossib le to work the bottom. And he furt her notes that another good angler fishing near them also ices some big fish. He’s using light line—6 pound—in combination with a 1/8- ounce Northland Forage Minnow. He catches fish working the lure in traditional lift-fall-pause fashion off the bottom as well as pounding bott om and lifting.

Today, the world is filled with astute walleye anglers. Over the years we defined lure categories that work and key lures within those cate gories. We taught how to work those lures. It pays to keep things as simple as possible, but great anglers respond to ever-changing fishing conditions with an open mind and engaging and enlightened tactics.

This isn’t about fishing Last Mountain Lake. The body of water could just as well be Diy Lake, South Dakota, or Onieda Lake, New York, although the fish wouldn’t be as impressive.
The cast of characters, from lures to anglers, might change, but how you proceed, and your succ ess, is determined by your ability to process input and appropriately respond to the ongoing experiment in action that is every day on the water.

“...GREAT ANGLERS RESPOND TO EVER-CHANGING FISHING CONDITIONS WITH AN OPEN MIND AND
ENGAGING AND ENLIGHTENED TACTICS”

THE BLOODWORM CONNECTION TO GIANT PANFISH

THE BLOODWORM CONNECTION TO GIANT PANFISH

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Zzzz 5:52 AM Add Comment

Fishing Uthority: The universe of living things inhabiting the ooze at the bottom of your lake is like somet hing out of a sci-fi horror flick. These little creepy-crawlies represent the ubiquitous aquatic invertebrates—biologists use terms like oligochaete worms, bryozoans, as well as the larvae of cadd isf lies, mayflies, and chironomids (midges). The proportions of panfish grazing on these wee beasties are sufficiently scary to keep anglers up at night.

 Lest you think these gooey organic zones represent dead, fishless water, consider: A single square meter can host up to 50,000 burrowi ng invertebrates—nearly all of them tube-building chironomid larvae anglers call bloodworms. We’re talking about the most abundant, important, and diverse group of aquatic insects on earth. Midges are found in almost every water body on the globe and often comprise more than 50 perc ent of all available species. In some waters, the forage value of midge larvae is the only reason cert ain fish can exist.

Rarely seen, the soft-bodied anatomies of these bottom dwellers appear alien: Weird wormy things with segmented, translucent torsos giving glimpses of their internal organs. Using little appendages, they writhe, undulate, and contort to propel themselves wildly yet slowly through the water. Hair-like cilia and antennae help them feel their way through gloomy surroundi ngs, while a deceptively ferocious mandible allows them to hunt, gather, and chew food.

Often, they build and live within bizarre tube structures that extend from the lake floor. During low-light periods, certain species leave their tubes in search of food. And in spring, the larvae metamorphose into pupae, emerge toward the surface, and hatch into midge flies. They don’t bite, however, despite their resemblance to mosquitoes. But fish surely bite them—a fact ice anglers have known for some time. Only recently has surveillance with underwater cameras led to discoveries of the specific locat ions where massive colonies of chironomid larvae draw monster panfish.

Tracking Tube Towns

Several winters ago I first noticed the presence of these vertical tube structures on my underwater came ra. Friends thought they were a type of grassy vegetat ion. Indeed, some of the tubes were slender enough to resemble plant growth. But in the midst of a spectacul ar bite for big crappies and sunfish, I noticed the bott om was littered with these thicker round chimney-like structures that looked to be about a half-inch in height.

Given years as a fly tier with a cursory knowle dge of aquatic entomology, 1 realized these were likely burrows of some form of invertebrate. Research revealed that they were chironomid larvae—the aquatic stage of the midge fly. Bloodworms use salivary secret ions to cement together particles of various types of mostly organic substrate. The tubes serve as a built-in food source, and as a refuge from predators. Individual bloodworms may build multiple tube burrows.

Certain I’d uncovered a key predator-prey connection, I went to several other trophy panfish lakes and searched basin areas with an Aqua-Vu Micro cam in 20 to 35 feet of water for the densest colonies -of bloodworm tubes. Every time I found areas of concentrations of burrows, I caught panfish there during well-defined periods of the day—never the same time from lake to lake. On came ra I watched sunfish and perch dig into the substrate and pluck individual bloodworms out of their homes.

Guide Brian “Bro” Brosdahi also has closely foll owed bloodworm activity. Convinced of the power bloodworms wield over patterns for big panfish, he spends most of his winter fishing amid specific zones with the highest concentrations of burrows we call “tube towns.”

“At different times, almost every fish in the lake eats bloodworms,” Brosdahl says. “I’m convinced that crappies, perch, and sunfish prefer the taste of them. In Europe, particularly in tournaments, the most popu lar bait is a live bloodworm. Eventually, someone will figure this out and start selling them in the U.S. But for now, you can catch a lot of big panfish by matching the hatch with softbaits.”

While many anglers look for small, off-the-beaten- path lakes for big panfish, Brosdahi likes big water. It’s a preference I share, because large fertile lakes often host not only the best bloodworm habitat, but also the physically largest chironomid species. “Lakes with wide expanses of shallow mudflats in about 40 feet of water and less, have the right habitat for hatching those bugs anglers call ‘lake flies’—giant midges that swarm early in the spring and summer,” he says. “Big, fat one- inch-plus bloodworms grow huge bluegills, crappies, and yellow perch. Bass and walleyes gorge on them, too, and often cough up big balls of what look like red yarn when you catch them.

 













>Left to right - Akara Mega Softtail Bloodworm and Northland Tackle Impulse Bro’s Bloodworm, next to live dark red bloodworm, light red bloodw orm, and olive brown bloodworm.

“Big, windswept, dishpan-shaped lakes can be terr ific. Because they lack structure and obvious fishing spots, a lot of anglers avoid these lakes. Large chains of lakes also can be great. Lots of shallow vegetation also is good. Some of my favorite spots occur where a weed- flat transitions into soft bottom, like at the edge of sloppy decaying vegetation. Bloodworms are a lakes clean-up crew, moving in and feeding on the dying vegetat ion,” Brosdahi says.

Other spots with good potential for tube towns include small holes or depressions in depths of 20 to 35 feet, even if they’re surrounded by water that’s just a few feet shallower. Brosdahl also loves funnels, where a narrow area joins two larger basins. Sometimes, a subtle one-foot drop in the basin can draw hordes of blood- worm activity, as organic matter often settles into these hollows over decades and centuries.

When you’re sleuthing with a camera, you may spot scattered bloodworm tubes in almost any part of the lake—shallow or deep. But look especially for basin zones where soft bottom is carpeted with a never-ending mass of vertical larval casings. When you find one of these tube towns, punch in a waypoint. At some point during the day, swarms of panfish will materialize and graze like mad—especially at early-ice and mid-ice season.

BOOMS, BUSTS AND RE-BIRTH

Last winter, another guide spilled the beans on one of Brosdahls blood- worm lakes. After 20 years and countless giant pans hooked and released, he was suddenly seeing dozens and even hundreds of shelt ers showing up on this previously unscathed ice. When he let me know what was happening, it was already too late. “Better get up here fast,” he said. “The army has landed.”

I fished the lake twice last wint er, and experienced brief flurries of activity throughout the day that usually culminated with quick bites from 5 to 10 crappies. On each day, we also caught just two large sunf ish. Thinking back to previous seas ons before the crowd converged, I recalled crappie flurries often lasting upwards of an hour, with catches of several dozen crappies and maybe 10 heavyweight sunfish during an 8-hour day. Total harvest last winter surely exceeded 10,000 crappies and perch and probably a 1,000 or more large sunfish.

Yet given the lake’s vast spawni ng habitat and profuse population of jumbo bloodworms, it’s possib le that if anglers leave it alone for a few years, it will bounce back. Which isn’t to say I’m wild about the unchecked harvest of 14-inch crap- pies and 10-inch sunfish, but you’ve got to pick your battles.

By late January, Brosdahl had moved to another lake that had yet to be swarmed by the masses. It’s the same lake that last March produced for us a pair of honest-to-goodness 12-inch sunfish. As we took a lunch break that magical day, we talked about one of his favorite fishing subj ects. “A lot of anglers know panfish eat loads of bloodworms, because they often literally gorge themselves full of them, and then burp them up in the hole,” he says. “These are ‘gills, perch, and crappies with big full bellies—they grow fast and reach monstrous proportions much quicker than in mostlakes.

“Most anglers don’t know about bloodworm movements under the ice. I’ve watched bloodworm-panfish interactions with an Aqua-Vu for so long that I sometimes wonder about my sanity. It’s given me the ability to visualize what’s happening when a fishing flurry kicks in, as well as when it goes quiet down there.”

Chironomids in Motion

“Typically, the larvae leave their burrows to forage and scavenge in low-light conditions,” Brosdahl says. “This can happen at dawn, dusk, or at night on a clear lake; or at any time during the day on waters with limited visibility. Heavy snow and opaque ice—conditions that produce winterkill on smaller lakes—also can spur bloodworm activity. The best fisheries are big, shallow, and fertile with stained water. These are the lakes most likely to house those giant midge flies you see in spring. The bloodworm larvae that become these midges, as you can imagine, are plump and juicy, and when they leave their tubes en mass, panfish swarm.”

Brosdahl says that when blood- worms leave their tunnels, they become active swimmers. “They swim and wiggle in a wild, awkward motion,” he explains. “When they’re feeding on zooplankton, they sometimes ascend several feet. If you’re in the right spot, your sonar screen can become a total mess of signals close to bott om because the bloodworms are so thick. That means you’re in the right spot.

“Other times, bloodworms simply poke along bottom and sift through debris. Folks wond er why fish suddenly show up and turn on in their holes, and this is it. Mass bloodworm movem ents spur major jumps in fish activity, no question. And the bite can often be fast and furious, with fish racing around, trying to eat as many as they can before the larvae disappear back into their tubes.
“We hear so much about how things move slowly under the ice, but it’s not necessarily true,” Brosdahi says. “Bloodworms are weak swimmers, but they kick their tails in fast, frenzied motions, even if they don’t actua lly cover much ground. They’re sitt ing ducks for fish, which zip around like it’s summer.”

Matching Maneuvers

While it’s not always necessary to be precise with jig movements or spec ific baits, matching the bloodworm hatch—color and anatomy—nearly always induces more bites, particu larly as action slows, or when fish begin poking into the substrate. When bloodworms are active, Brosdahi pref ers to get down fast with a heavy tungsten jighead and Northland Bro’s Bloodworm. He’s a master at pulling off a micro-subtle wrist shake that makes the plastic tail quiver without moving the jighead. I call it the BroB uzz, and it’s a killer trigger.

Much of the rest of the time, when bloodworms hide inside their tubes, Brosdahi and I use a tiny stand-up style jighead, such as a Northland Mud Bug or 8MyBait Reaper dressed with an Akara Mega Softtail Blood- worm or Bro’s Bloodworm. Wiggle the jig and let it sit, sometimes right on the bottom. Use a camera to watch as you move the jig into precise posit ion. Do a painful pause, keeping the jig still for up to 10 seconds, followed by a Bro-Buzz. Try popping the silt, but don’t overdo it.

Brosdahl adds that a lot of these softbaits work wonderfully on a micro drop-shot, rigged with a #12 hook. It’s a setup that possibly mimi cs the stationary, frenzied undulat ions of live bloodworms better than any other. You can also drop-shot diff erent chironomid flies intended for fly fishing, and can rig two different flies on a single drop-shot at a time.

Last winter, the Akara Blood- worm produced numerous trophy ‘gills for me, both drop-shot rigged and threaded onto a 4-mm Akara Disco Ball jighead. Note the photo and the spitting-image similari ty between the Akara softbait and the real McCoy. The Akara bait is a dead ringer, with crazy tail-kicking action. I also love the J&S Ice Mite and new Mini Versa Mite. And new in a tungsten jigfly, Jeff’s Jigs Blood- worm, promises to be an incredible addition to my arsenal this winter— a durable hand-tie with a beautif ul tail-kicking action.

Beyond classic red, which is for me a confidence color, Brosdahi points out that bloodworms often carry different hues. Black, olive green, brown, and even chartreuse can also be great colors in blood- worm scenarios. Actually, the term “bloodworm” applies only to certain midge species with hemog lobin in their blood. Hemoglobin, which stores oxygen, allows the larvae to exist in low-oxygen envir onments. It might help explain why fish often make quick feedi ng movements through blood- worm tube towns, yet don’t linger in these fertile near-bottom areas where decaying matter quickly consumes oxygen.
While micro plastics produce plenty of bites, live bloodworms impaled on a hook are the best panfish inducements you can use. Using a coffee tin, I’ve built a strainer-type collection can for scooping live bloodworrns from the bottom. It works, but can take time. Or you can simply gather the worms floating in your hole, disg orged by caught fish.

When the bite turns tough— which can happen when fish such as bluegills gorge on bloodworms for short frenzied periods—a live blood- worm is often the only way to cont inue catching fish. And should you find yourself surrounded by fields of creepy-crawlies, emerging menaci ngly from their alien-like underwat er pods, fear not. Great fishing will shortly save the day.•