Monthly Archives: February 2022

Are There Methods and Tactics To Find Mid-Season Success While Ice Fishing?

HOW TO FIND CONSISTENT MID-SEASON ICE FISHING SUCCESS

How To Find Consistent Mid-Season Ice Fishing Success

In many areas across ice fishing country, the ice fishing action got off to a bit of a late start this time around. Warmer than usual weather prevented safe ice from forming, and then when it did form, more warm weather sent things backwards. Now though, the action is underway. Lots of anglers are on the ice and success has been anywhere from good to exceptionally good. For that particularly good action to continue, there are some things that we can do. Following are some of those things.

I usually like the later rounds of the ice season better than the first few. We can get around on the ice better, and that’s a big deal. This time of year, it’s not unusual to drill dozens of holes in the ice in our attempts to find fish. The ice is thicker and there’s more snow on it, so the fish aren’t as easily spooked. And, although additional traffic on the ice can spook fish this time of year, the extra traffic won’t be as noticeable as it was earlier in the season.

The weather is usually warmer as mid-winter turns into late- winter, and that makes us more likely to get out and move around. I like to put my equipment in a flip-over and cover the ice, drilling holes as I move. Even with all my gear, it’s possible to be comfortable yet efficient. It’s not unusual to be covering territory and realize that you’re farther from your starting point than you might have imagined. When that happens, fish the holes that have been drilled on your way back to your starting point. You can often catch a bunch of fish by re-visiting holes that you’ve already fished.

Sonar is such an important part of successful ice-fishing. This time of year, it usually doesn’t pay to sit on a hole for more than 5 minutes if there are no fish below. The FLX-28 that sees the most use from me does all I need it to do to help me see and catch more fish. If I don’t see fish, I don’t hang around. But if I do see something that looks interesting but doesn’t want to eat what I’m showing them, I show them something different.

The biggest challenge to catching fish through the ice at this time of year is fishing pressure and conditioning. The fish have seen a lot of baits so they’re more selective. Additionally, many fish have been caught and taken home, so there’s fewer of them down there. Now is the time to abandon community spots and go out searching for other locations that aren’t as popular or well-known. There might not be as many fish on these spots, but the fish that are there often won’t be as finicky. Find different fish and show them different presentations and you’re chances for success will improve.

Downsizing and going to a slower presentation can be a good idea later in the season, especially when the fish are more choosy than usual. Some of the most successful ice anglers are using what is referred to as a 1-2 punch. They attract the fish with a bait that gets the fishes attention, something like a Tikka Mino. This style of bait has a good amount of action. The fish come in and look and will often eat it. But sometimes they just look. When this happens, drop a smaller jig to them. A Drop Jig tipped with live bait or plastic works well especially for panfish. Impart little action to the jig. Once you get the fish’s attention with the larger more aggressive bait, they have a tough time saying “No” to the smaller bait with less action.

The weather is warming or will be soon. The days will get longer, and the fish will get hungrier. If you get out on the ice in the next few weeks, the odds that you’ll catch a few are good, and that should be enough of a reason to go ice-fishing while the ice is still safe.

– By Bob Jensen of fishingthemidwest.com.

Deer Coolers Were Hard To Find This Year

Deer hunters have an unusual problem this year. When they shoot a deer there is no processor to take it to for hanging, cutting and packaging. I know of two local long-term processors that are closed this year. I heard they just could not get help since the government is paying folks so much to stay home and not work.

The processors, often called “deer coolers,” that are open are full and not taking deer the last I heard. Even Welch’s Smokehouse in Macon that takes in 20 pound of boneless meat and returns 25 pounds of delicious smoked summer sausage had a sign on the door last week saying no more deer until after Thanksgiving.

I cut up and processed one deer, only the third one I killed, way back in 1972. Linda and I had just gotten married the year before and she helped me. We covered my parents pool table with heavy plastic and “processed” the deer on it.

It was a hard job, especially since I did not know what I was doing. The cuts of meat did not resemble what processors provide, they were more just chunks of meat.  And the ground meat, put through a hand grinder my parents had, without adding any fat, was not nearly as good as what the processors produce.

I think a big problem was the deer did not hang and age at all, we cut it up the day I shot it. And it was an old buck, tough and with almost no fat.

I have cut up deer since then. If I can shoot a small yearling, either on purpose or accidently, like one I shot in thick brush and I could not really tell how big it was, I skin and gut them and put them in a huge ice chest. 

After three or four days I cut the deer into quarters, with hind and rear quarters left whole for roasts. And I cut the backbone into two or three sections for loin roast. They are delicious smoked or cooked in a big crockpot. I even cut up sections of ribs for smoking.

Linda says she will never help me cut up a deer again, she does not want to eat the meat after doing that although she loves it from the processor. I really do not want to process bigger deer and hope local coolers are able to open again soon!

DEEP-WATER CRAPPIES CAN PROVIDE MID-WINTER ACTION If You Know Where and How To Catch Them


Mike Frisch

from The Fishing Wire

Deep-Water Crappies Can Provide Mid-Winter Action

Mid-winter can be one of the best times to locate and “stay on” on crappies. Though the fish are often in predictable areas during this time, getting them to bite can be a bit challenging. Here are some thoughts on where to first, find mid-winter crappies and second, on ways to tempt them into biting.

Mid- winter crappies are often found roaming deep basins searching for food. Basin areas in some of the shallow lakes I fish might be in the 15- to 25- foot depth ranges. On other lakes with deeper waters, the basins that hold fish will often be deeper too.

While crappies often roam a particular basin, a good basin one year will often be a good basin the next year too. For that reason, anglers can often return to productive areas they found in previous winters or, on previous trips, and drill holes in the same vicinity to pinpoint schools.


Moving about a basin and quickly drilling holes to find those schools is key and this is where having a sharp, reliable ice auger helps. The K-Drill auger I use works great for searching as it’s super lightweight and is powered by a cordless electric drill, so with a charged battery, it’s a reliable starter.

Another important part of a successful basin crappie search is the use of a quality flasher sonar unit. Sonar allows anglers to “see” any crappies roaming a basin and, since crappies often suspend, is helpful in effectively presenting a bait in the water column at the level the fish are found.

I use the FLX-20 flasher because it does an excellent job of helping me locate fish and has ¼-inch separation allowing me to easily distinguish individual fish and my bait when the fishing starts. This is important as crappies often appear several at a time and “separating” them as they appear on sonar helps catch them!

Finding roaming crappies is obviously important. The challenge then becomes getting them to bite. Sometimes the fish are aggressive and can be caught on small jigging spoons tipped with minnow heads or waxworms and worked aggressively. A 1/16-ounce Jointed Pinhead Mino spoon is my favorite as it comes in all the right colors and its jointed design, and the action the design provides, often makes it appealing to crappies.

Spoons are favorites as they appeal to bigger fish and the aggressive ones. At times, however, crappies require more finesse. This is when small tungsten jigs get the nod. In fact, a small tungsten Drop-Kick jig tipped with either waxworms or a small panfish plastic has put lots of crappies on the ice when the fish refused other lures. Pink, red, and white jig and plastic color combinations have worked well for me when finicky crappies are encountered.

I usually start a fishing day jigging a spoon and go to the tungsten jig if the fish won’t cooperate. These jigging methods are, however, only one part of my 1-2 winter crappie set up. The other involves a simple crappie minnow fished on a plain hook beneath a bobber with some split shot weights added to the line about a foot or so above the hook.

This “do nothing” approach is often effective when fish are attracted to a jigging bait but refuse to eat it. Often, these fish simply slide over to, and inhale, the minnow!

If getting fish to inhale your baits this winter is a goal, consider targeting crappies. By heading to the basin of your favorite panfish lake and employing the tips suggested you can probably find and catch some mid-winter slabs right now. As always, good luck on the ice and remember to include a youngster in your next outdoors adventure!

Mike Frisch is co-host of Fishing of the Midwest TV and a multi-species Minnesota fishing guide, view the website:  www.fishingthemidwest.com to see more from Fishing the Midwest.

Fishing Jackson Lake In December Trying To Get Points

 The first Sunday in December 12 members of the Spalding County Sportsman Club fished our November tournament at Jackson Lake. After 8.5 hours of casting, we brought 35 keeper bass weighing about 43 pounds to the scales. Most were 12-inch spotted bass. There were three five fish limits and no one zeroed.

    Jay Gerson won with five weighing 5.72 pounds, Zane Fleck placed second with five at 5.35 pounds and Sam Smith was third with five weighing 5.05 pounds. Niles Murray came in third with three weighing 4.31 pounds and Carl Heidle had big fish with a 2.78 pounder.

I think I set my goals too low. My goal each year is to win the point standings, and I had a comfortable lead going into this tournament, with just two left. In my mind I thought if I just landed a keeper in each of the last two tournaments I would win.

When I landed a 13-inch spot at 7:45 I relaxed, I had my keeper. Then it hit me that with 12 fishermen I could lose over half my lead with a last place finish.  So I started trying harder but could not figure anything out.  I finally caught my second keeper at 2:00 and came in 11th place.

That finish did cause me to lose almost half my lead. So, with one tournament left this year, I gotta do better next Sunday!

What Are Some Good Innovative Ice Fishing Lures?

Of Innovation and Ice Fishing Originals

FISKAS Wolfram Jigs & Little-Atom; All-Time Money Winners on Ice

from The Fishing Wire

Saline, MI – Right place. Right time. Great lure. For Jamie and Carmin Olson of Your Bobbers Down, Inc., the old fishing adage parallels not just the successful company’s back-story, but also serves as a sort of remarkable self-fulfilling prophecy. Sixteen years after the company’s inception, the Olson’s brands remain benchmarks in the ice fishing industry.

In 2001, Jamie Olson was on a mission to find the best spring bobber for his ice fishing when he came across FISKAS, a Swedish manufacturer of top hardwater products. Unable to sell across oceans at the time, FISKAS opted to ship Olson a sample of every product they made—primarily FISKAS Wolfram (tungsten) ice jigs — hopeful for a U.S. distribution deal.

“It was a small box of jigs,” Olson recalled. “There were just four sizes and thirty color patterns back then, plus a pile of FISKAS Balances (swimming / jigging lures), but the package weighed well over 20-pounds.

“At the time, no one in North America had any idea what a tungsten jig was, let alone how heavy they were compared to lead or how effectively they fished. But when I placed a single tiny FISKAS Wolfram Jig in my palm, and felt its impressive heft, I knew we were on to something big.”

That very November, Olson and his wife Carmin launched YourBobbersDown.com, a family-run online store offering cutting-edge, hard-to-find ice fishing products. “My favorite fishing partner is my wife’s father, George Pullin. He’d call me up at work all the time when he wanted to go fishing. I’d pick up the phone and hear George’s exuberant voice: ‘Hey, your bobber’s down!’ he’d always say. Later, when we started our business, the phrase became a natural for our company name.”

Success followed, with product placement at numerous local retailers, and Cabela’s stores in 2003. “Our good friends Jeff Morse and his father Phil understood the power of FISKAS Wolfram Jigs right away. Jeff worked at the local Cabela’s store and introduced us to Cabela’s corporate folks. In 2004, the Morses also won $20,000 and the first NAIFC Championship, pairing FISKAS Wolfram Jigs with Little-Atom Nuggies.”

Soon, the profitable lure pairing led to a relationship between YourBobbersDown.com and Little-Atom, a classic ice fishing company who created early microplastic baits, such as the Wedgee, Noodle and Nuggie. “While most folks consider Little-Atom the pioneer in ice plastics,” noted Olson, “few know that they also crafted some of the original ice jigs. The Rembrandt, Rat Finkie, Purist and Shmoe are all classic lure designs created in the 50s and 60s by Little-Atom, imitated by many other companies over the years.”

Following a handshake in 2005, YourBobbersDown.com became the sole online sales point and a distributor of Little-Atom lures and plastics. “Before this, I was traveling to the big ice tournaments, selling FISKAS Wolfram Jigs and Little-Atom lures out of my van. I remember having lines of anglers wrapped around parking lots, people who’d heard about the success of our stuff and couldn’t find it anywhere else. At times, folks wondered if we were selling fishing tackle, or something else less legit,” Olson laughs.

“When we first showed tackle buyers at Cabela’s, Scheels, Bass Pro Shops and other stores our products, they told us they’d never seen anything like it before. We were the first company to bring tungsten ice jigs to the U.S. market. It took some time and education for the market to accept the higher cost of these premium products.

Today, all our FISKAS Wolfram Jigs are still made in the same factory, using premium tungsten molded bodies and the finest Japanese fly-tying hooks. Every lure is hand-soldered and painted by artists with tremendous attention to detail.”

All these years later, tungsten jigs have become big business, with numerous other companies jumping at the ‘heavy metal’ hype. “Anglers have a lot more choices now,” observes Olson, “but what we’ve found is that most of our customers remain loyal to FISKAS and Little-Atom because no other company can match our quality and our personal service.

Interestingly, more and more anglers are also discovering the advantages of heavy tungsten for their spring and summer fishing. They’re just so much more versatile and an awesome alternative to lead.”

Indeed, even with a surplus of new tungsten ice jig entries—including models from much larger companies—top anglers continue to choose FISKAS. At least six NAIFC Championships have been won by anglers using FISKAS / Little-Atom plastic combos to date, including titles in 2004, 2005, 2008, 2012, 2013 and 2015.

Interjects Tony Boshold, NAIFC and World Ice Fishing champ and longtime FISKAS-Little Atom aficionado. “When you add up all the championships and other tournament wins, FISKAS jigs and Little-Atom plastics are without question the money-winningest ice lures of all time. Even though a lot of imitators are out there now, word on the street about who’s got the best stuff has never strayed from the lures we’ve always used.”

ABOUT YourBobbersDown.com
Acknowledged as the finest one-stop-shop for premium, cutting-edge ice products, YourBobbersDown.com continues to bolster its product line with elite items. Beyond FISKAS and Little-Atom lures, Olson has added popular J&S Plastics, ASSO technical fishing line, Fiskas Balances, and bi-metal tungsten jigging spoons. Select complementary products such as Jonttu palm rods, C9 Scent Formula, Cold Snap Products, Ice-Strong Titanium Spring Bobbers and Bug Luggage jig boxes put the good stuff within the reach of all anglers.