How to Catch Crappie, Bluegill, Perch and Other Panfish

In this post, I'll describe some easy techniques, tackle, and lures to use to catch crappie, bluegills, perch and other panfish.  This crappie inhaled a leadhead jig tipped with a plastic twister tail grub while casting for crappie.

Catching panfish is a fun, easy, and inexpensive way to enjoy fishing.  In this post, I'll describe the basics of how we catch panfish on a regular basis using artificial lures.  We'll cover what rods, reels, and tackle that I like to use, as well as a few easy techniques and strategies that will help you catch more panfish.

Later in life, I learned to fish artificial lures, mainly because I accidentally kept leaving my worms and other bait in the trunk of my Dad's car.  When the bait died, it stunk up his car, and I had no ride to fish in.  My choices to adapt were to either improve my memory or change techniques.  So, I decided to change techniques.  I forget why...

...Oh yeah, mainly because using artificial lures to catch panfish is relatively cheap, and it doesn't leave a mess.  Not only that, using lures rather than bait keeps me relatively mobile, generally speaking.  The more mobile that I am, the more fish that I will find to catch.  That said, sometimes I'll carry some live bait to tip my jigs with to tempt finicky fish during colder months, but we'll discuss that later in the post.

First, lets discuss the tackle that you'll need.  Personally, I have rods dedicated to this type of fishing.  If I fish for multiple species, I'll have rods rigged for those species with me too, but if there is a chance that I may target panfish, I'll always bring my panfish rig.  My basic panfish rig is a simple one, an ultralight six foot, six inch ultralight rod, with a small reel (2000 series), matched with light line, usually 4 pound test.  For tackle, I carry an assortment of bobbers, or floats, a box of with an assortment of jigs and jigheads, and a box loaded with my favorite small soft plastic lures.

You can see my rig in this picture, an ultralight rod with a Shimano 2000 series reel, teamed with light 4 pound test line, and a small jig.  You can't see the bobber in this picture, but I was using one.  The jig is a chartreuse panfish tube in chartrueuse.

Now, let's talk about a couple easy techniques, and we'll start off with one of my favorites, the "Bobber and Jig" technique.  Many of us started out catching fish with our Dad or other adult as a kid, usually tossing out a live worm under a red and white plastic bobber.  When fishing like that, we learned the basics of catching fish under a float.  We'd cast the rig out, sit and wait for fish to bite, then, when the float moved or went under water due to actions other than our own, we'd set the hook.  So, let's delve a bit deeper into this technique and adapt it to using artificial lures rather than live bait.

The Bobber and Jig rig can be simple or complicated, depending on how seriously you take this kind of fishing.  I'd say I'm semi-serious about it, because I like to keep things simple.  I usually use a simple red or chartreuse round styrofoam weighted bobber that is about an inch in diameter that clips to my line.  Under that, at whatever distance I think the fish will be, I'll attach one or two small jigs.  I make sure that my jigs are tied so that they sit horizontally in the water, as much as possible.  I believe that I get more bites because a horizontally presented jigs best resemble panfish prey better than jigs that dangle vertically.  You may have to adjust the jigs throughout the day to keep them in a horizontal position.

This is the basic "Bobber and Jig" rig that I use.  The amount of line below the float can be as much as five feet under the float at times, but most of the time, when fish are active, I'll keep the jigs about a foot to three feet down.  I cinch the jig up tight so that it stays horizontal, as pictured above.

Now that we understand the basic rig, let's discuss how to fish it.  You have many options.  One way is just to cast it out to a likely fish holding spot, and let it sit until a fish hits.  Another way is to do that, but if you don't get a bite right away, give a the rod a twitch or two to "pop" the bobber a little bit.  How much to move the bobber depends on how active the fish are.  If the fish are active, a few sharp pops may do the trick.  If they aren't active and want a more subtle presentation, I've even gently pulled the bobber over just a tiny bit.  That little action will bounce the jig underwater a half inch or so and maybe move the jig a few inches in a certain direction. That may be enough to induce a strike.  This technique is effective if you know specifically where the fish are, especially in colder weather.

If there is a little chop on the water due to wind, you can just let the wind do the work, allowing the ripple waves to bounce the bobber while the wind pushes your rig along the drift that you wish.  Using the wind to cover water is a great way to locate where the fish are.  Once fish start biting, remember where you had your bite so that you can make sure to achieve the same drift on your next cast.  Chances are good that, once you have bites at a certain spot, more fish are there than just one.

My buddy Bill, with a slab crappie caught while bobber and jig fishing.  I don't know if I took this picture or not, but this is not how to take a good picture.  I don't think Bill would like to see the top of his head missing.  But, it's a nice fish anyway.

If it isn't windy, and the fish don't like the lure just sitting there, and popping it in place doesn't seem to draw strikes, or your not covering water, you can try a very slow retrieve, maybe mixing in a few rod twitch pops along the way.  This and the wind drift techniques are effective when searching for fish.  And, of course, depending on conditions, you can try a mix of all of the techniques above to try and draw strikes...and you should!  But, the basic thing to remember is that, no matter which method you choose, if you see your bobber stop, go under water, bounce, or move in a way that neither you or the wind made it do, set the hook, because it's likely a fish.  Anything different, set the hook.

When fishing a bobber and jig, for open water, I may try tying on two jigs.  Sometimes, when fish are aggressive, you may catch two at a time!  If I'm fishing cover, I will only go with one.  I always start by fishing my jigs about two or three feed down at first, then adjust either deeper or shallower if I don't get bites.  If I see fish dimpling the surface or cruising around, I fish shallower.  It it's cold or I don't see activity, I may try fishing deeper.  Let the fish tell you what to do.

I usually also fish small jigs when bobber and jig fishing.  I'll start with one or two 1/80 or 1/64 ounce jigs tipped with my favorite soft plastics.  I also try changing up colors until I find one that the fish like.  But, if I had to state a general rule, I'd say bright colors in darker water or darker skies, and natural colors during sunny skies and clear water.  However, I also think that white and chartreuse are tough to beat.  A former Potomac River fishing guide once told me, that when fishing that river, "If it ain't chartreuse, it ain't no use"!  Try different things until you get the results that you want.  You'll find your favorites once you start catching fish.

These are some of my favorite jigs for panfish.  On the left, you can see the small 1/64 oz. tube jighead that I use, and a selection of tubes.  On the right you can see an assortment of jighead sizes and colors that I use, from 1/32 oz. down to 1/64 oz.  Not picture here are similar colors in the 1/80 oz. size.  In the center, the top two larger "grubs", or twister tails, can be fished with or without a bobber.  The two jig/plastic combos below that are from Custom Jigs n Spins tackle company, called Ratsos, in 1/64 and 1/80 oz. sizes.  Below that are Bass Pro Shops one inch Squirmin' Grubs in pumpkinseed and watermelon colors.  I find BPS tubes and grubs to be very effective.  They're inexpensive and have a good color selection as well.

Here's the deal though, it's a cheap way to get into fishing, but, expect to lose some tackle.  Bobber and jig rigs are not the easiest, most accurate rig to toss, and you might end up casting your rig into trouble.  Even when experienced at this, people will still find a tree to hang their lures in, or cast too far into cover, or, just snag on a log while casting and jigging.  It happens.  If you can't retrieve it, break it off and tie on another one.  If you're shore fishing, maybe you'll get lucky and the wind will blow your float back to you.  That's why I carry a good assortment of lures and floats.  It's a good thing that this stuff isn't expensive.

Oh, another thing to remember, is that someone else's misfortune could help you find a good place to fish.  Good spots always seem to have bobbers hanging from them, or from trees just overhead.  We had a spot that was so good that we found, it has so many bobbers in it that it looked like a Christmas tree!  Just a good tip that may help you find a good spot on a new lake.

Now, a quick word about floats...there are many types out there.  You don't have to be stuck on my favorites.  Try different ones out and see what works for you.  I like the weighed round styrofoam ones because they're cheap and easy to cast a long way, and they work great for me.

For fishing really deep water, you can try using slip bobbers.  Basically, the way that they work is that you have a piece of rubber, called bobber stop, on the line, say, 15 feet from the jig, that is wound into you reel.  When you cast, it slips through the guides easily.  Then, when the rig hits the water, the line feeds through the float until the float stops at the bobber stop, and your jig reaches the depth that you want, in this example, 15 feet.  You may need to add split shot above the jig so that the line feeds through and gets to the right depth.  Anyway, you can cast these deep water rigs much easier than trying to use a snap on float when fishing deeper than four feet.  I usually use the snap on ones when fishing five feet or shallower.

Also, there are more expensive floats that are very sensitive, if you want to refine your techniques.  Here, I'm just giving you basics.  Now, as far as float shapes go, in general, the more resistance a float has to the water, the more fish can feel it and the more difficult it is to sink under the water.  You have to match the amount of weight of your lures to the right float.  Thinner, cigar or pencil shaped floats are very sensitive and go under easily without fish feeling them.  Fat, round, large floats are best used for heavier baits, as they provide a bunch of resistance.  You may never see a panfish biting a lure using large floats like these.  That's why I like the one inch size.

Where are the fish?  They can be hiding in weeds, in deep water near a dam, hiding in a log jam, or on the back side of a windy point or current break.  Panfish are predators and will find places to ambush their prey.  They can be found in tidal or non-tidal rivers, lakes or creeks.  Most likely, you can find them in a body of water close to home.  Just think to yourself, if I were a panfish, where would I hide so that the wind or current might bring me a nice minnow snack?  These places may vary depending on the time of year.  During colder months, you might find them around deeper water.  During warm spells during that time, or when it warms up, try areas where shallows next to deep water warm up from the sun quickly.

Slab perch like these may be mixed in with crappie, bluegills and other fish.  We found a bunch of fish on this day fishing behind a point that provided a wind break.  The fish were stacked up on the backside of the island, as the wind created current that pushed baitfish to the predators in wait.

A nice location would be on a northern shoreline, where the southern sun shines and warms the shallows.  If you find some nice cover there, like a tree or brush, that is a great place to try and cast to find fish, especially if that cover provides a current break.  Sometimes, when fishing a northern shoreline, if a south wind piles up along the bank, it will bring warmer temperatures to that area and along with it, active fish.  So, during colder months, try and find the warmest spot on a body of water, the best cover that will hold fish, and try your luck casting there.  Most likely, you'll get into some panfish.

When my buddy Bob, and his son, Carson tried some winter panfishing with me, they had a blast catching slabs like this all day long while casting jigs with soft plastic twister tails.

Once you find some cover, like a bush or tree in the water, you don't have to always cast into the thick of it.  In fact, unless you become an expert at casting a bobber and jig, just try to get close.  These rigs are not as easy to cast as only having a lure on the end.  If you're close to the cover, most of the time, active fish will come out of the cover to check it out.  Only during tough cold fronts, when fish may not be active, you may need to fish tighter to the cover.  But try out a foot or two, if you can, first.

Large bluegills are extremely fun to catch using these techniques.  Just look at the colors on this fish!  What a blast you can have when you catch dozens of these guys.

Once you get the hang of finding and catching fish, if the fish you're catching are small, then you can start the process over on other bodies of water until you find some bigger fish.  When you find actively feeding panfish, you will start catching good numbers of these fish.  You may have hundred fish days or certainly enough action to keep you entertained.  Once you find your favorite "honey holes", you may have days when fishing is tough.  This is where tipping your lure with live bait, like spikes (or maggots), waxworms, or just about any bait may trigger some bites.  If they're not biting after that, you can try changing locations on the body of water to find a new spot, or change lakes.  Don't sit and wait for fish or you may get skunked.  Move, that is the key, and it may save your day.

Rodger will tell you that catching panfish like these can really be a blast.  The techniques and suggestions described in this post will help you find fish like these too.

Another technique is to just tie the jig directly on your line without the float.  This is very effective if you're fishing an area with less snags, it's not that windy out, and the fish are aggressive.  I usually fish 1/32 or 1/16 ounce jigs when casting, depending on how much wind there is.  Wind will put a bow in your line, so more weight counteracts the wind.  If it's too windy, you may find it best to add the float and let the wind do the work.  When not using a float, if you're boat fishing, you can vertical jig or cast to spots.  Most of the time, if you shore fish, you may have to cast, but sometimes if you have access to boat docks, piers, or bridges to fish, you can try vertical jigging.  Just drop the jig down into the water, and twitch your rod tip to make the jig dance.  Dancing jigs attract fish.

My buddy Howard loves catching slab crappie using these techniques!  We were fishing deeper water winter condtions on this day, using both techniques.  The fish weren't deep, but they were over deeper water.

When casting, you can try jigging it, but sometimes the fish will hit the lure on a slow fall.  If they do this, you will see the line twitch or move at the water line or maybe even feel the bite.  For this reason, it's very important to watch your line where it enters the water.  Often, you may not feel it, so, if you see anything different, set the hook.  And, of course, if you feel a "doink", set the hook.  Sometimes, after letting your lure sink a slow retrieve might work.  Like bobber and jig fishing, try different things to get them to bite.

When to use the bobber and jig vs. casting a small jig for panfish?  It depends on how active the fish are, how big the fish are, and the conditions that you're fishing.  For me, if I'm fishing when the fish are active and it's not windy, I probably would start casting a larger jig, say, 1/32 with a two inch twister tail.  If it's windy, I may try vertical jigging if possible.  If the fish are finicky, or it's too windy to cast, then I'll go with the bobber and jig and downsize to smaller lures.  If the fish are really finicky, then I may go as small as a 1/80 oz. jig.

One thing that I love about fishing small jigs like this is, that you never know what you're going to catch when you get a bite.  You can catch almost anything.  In addition to the panfish that I've targeted, I've caught everything from golden shiners, trout, largemouth and smallmouth bass, chain pickerel to even catfish and carp!  It's a lot of fun.  Give it a try!

Large golden shiners will hit these small jigs too.  Usually, on some lakes that we fish, we will find them mixed in with the panfish that we target.  I like catching just about anything that swims, and bobber and jig fishing can do that for you.

You never know what you're going to catch using small jigs while targeting panfish.  While targeting yellow perch, I caught this nice largemouth bass on a 1/32 oz. jighead tipped with a two inch chartreuse plastic twister tail grub.  What fun, huh?

If you aren't catching fish now, doing what you're doing, then maybe try the techniques above.  If you do, you're sure to succeed.  Good luck, and give me a comment back and let me know how you do, if this post helped you.

The Century Mark on the Ice!

Last week I met up with a musky fishing friend of mine, Mike Carrigan, and a couple of his buddies on small local lake.  My buddy Wayne also met me there.  The plan was to find some willing crappie at first light, and for me to make a day of it.  Wayne planned to stick it out with me, while Mike and his buddies were only fishing a partial day.

My friend Mike Carrigan fishing out of a Clam Fish Trap and using a Vexilar FL-18 flasher.  Mike caught some decent trout and crappie throughout the morning.  He found some active fish out of this particular hole.

Most of the snow from the previous week had melted and refroze, forming a nice white layer of slick ice on top of a good nine inches of clear ice.  The weather was cloudy but pleasant, not much wind, right below the freezing mark all day.

I arrived after sunrise, getting a later start than I had wanted.  Wayne, Mike and his buddies were all on the ice already.  As I was getting ready, first Wayne showed up to greet me, then went back out and fished, followed by Mike a short time later.  It took me a while to get my stuff organized and ready to roll.

Mike and his buddies were about a hundred yards away from Wayne.  They were fishing the deeper water near the dam, while Wayne was working the deeper drop off out from a main point not too far from the dam.  I decided to cut holes in between all of them, to connect the dots, if you will!

Wayne had already located a school of active bluegills and a few crappie, out in the channel closest to the main lake point.  Here's he is using his sonar to watch the reaction of the fish as he teases them into biting.

I proceeded to cut half a dozen holes, scooped out the ice chips, and dropped my sonar down to see if I could mark fish.  I marked fish in every hole.  They weren't suspended, but were holding tight to the bottom.  I dropped my twin Ratso soft plastic rig down and drew the fish off the bottom  in each hole, but they either bit really lightly or lost interest quickly.  I went back and covered each hole with a smaller jig rigged with two maggots to see if I could get those finicky "sniffers" to bite something tipped with bait.

Starting near my sled,  I cut holes between Mike and his buddies and my friend Wayne, hoping to mark and find some active fish.

Spikes or waxworms as bait act as a nice tasty treat to the fish and provide a little bit of scent to trigger their feeding instinct.  When the fish are active, I prefer to use the soft plastics and not mess with constantly replacing bait when the fish pick the maggots or waxworms off the lure.  But, sometimes, they only thing they will bite are the baited jigs.

Mike was catching medium and small sized crappie now and then, while Wayne, over by the point was getting a pretty good bluegill bite going with an occasional crappie.  Meanwhile, I was having a hard time getting solid hits.  So, I kept cutting holes.

I walked over to see how Mike was doing, and he found a hole that held a few pretty aggressive fish.  I watched him fish for a bit while chatting about the fishing on this lake, and took a nice little video of him in action, showing us how it's done.  Please note that this fish is one of the small finicky crappie, not one of the bigger ones that he caught throughout the morning.  The fact that this catch is on video is merely because I spent way more time fishing than walking around taking videos.  Yet, it does illustrate how to use a flasher to catch fish.

Mikes buddies were catching some stocked rainbow trout on tip ups, and Wayne was jigging a few up too.  But one of the small trout had something sticking out of its gullet, a set of shooting ear plugs!  At least five inches were down it's throat.  We all got a laugh out of that!

These were the earplugs that were found in a trouts gullet that Mike's buddy Phil caught on a tip up.  We cracked up, saying that maybe he should put this back on a tip up and try for another!

I wasn't satisfied with the holes that I had cut so far.  I wanted active fish, not sniffers.  So, I cut another half dozen holes along the basin of a cove not far away where I'd found a good crappie bite in the past with similar results.  I caught a couple small bluegills and crappie, about one fish caught out of every four holes, with lot's of sniffers in each hole.  And the sniffers that bit seemed to prefer the tiny jig/maggot combination.

Every hole marked fish, but when I caught them, they were on the small side.  These were the finicky fish, the sniffers.  When you get this type of inactivity or finicky fish, move and find bigger more active fish.

My next move was back near where I started.  In one of the holes that I cut, I marked what I thought at first was a fish, but it was some sort of structure.  Perhaps it was a tree limb or something.  This particular spot didn't mark any fish, or at best, a sniffer or two.  It was almost what I was looking for, structure, but lacked the fish that I'd expect there.

So, I decided to cut a half dozen more holes around that area.  The first hole that I checked was loaded with fish, suspended off the bottom over nineteen feet of water from the bottom ten feet.  This was late morning, and the fish were stacked like cord wood.

I remember saying to myself, "This is the spot!"

My flasher lit up like a Christmas tree!  The bottom of the lake is at about 8:40, which was nineteen feet deep, and there was a tree branch at about 7:35, about four feet off the bottom.  The rest of the marks were fish, showing all the way up to ten feet off the bottom (about  3:20 on a clock).  The surface is at high noon, with a couple marks that are noise from the ice surface.  You can see the fish were stacked like cord wood here!  This was the spot!

As I've described in recent posts, my tactic when finding fish stacked like this is to set up and fish over them for a while.  Most of the time, you'll catch a good number then the bite dies off and you're off on the search again for more active fish.  However, this spot seemed different.  This was late morning, and the fish were suspended.  My graph was lit up like a Christmas tree (a popular saying among ice anglers when they mark a bunch of suspended seemingly active fish).  This is the type of spot that can make your day.

My way of setting up is to cut a couple holes, one for my electronics, and one to fish out of.  Since there were a bunch of fish showing up, I decided to set up my underwater camera.  It took me a couple minutes to set up my shanty and the underwater camera so that I could see my jigs, but it took even less time for me to start hooking up.  I can't see much on the camera out in the open because of the glare, so I need to close up Clam Fish Trap Pro (my portable flip over shelter ), so I could see the camera.  Please note that I don't waste the time or energy to set up this way unless I know for a fact that I'm on a hot spot.

When I find a good spot with lot's of fish marked, I'll cut one hole for my electronics, and one to fish out of.  I took this picture shortly after marking tons of fish.

I lowered my camera to about ten feet off the bottom, the upper range of the suspended fish.  The water clarity was a bit cloudy, not as clear as I'd like for this type of set up, but it would have to do.  I could see only about two feet at the most below the camera, which is set to look down on the fish.  As soon as I picked up my rod and jigged, I saw a crappie swim in very quickly and miss my lure.  The next attempt from a different fish resulted in the fish sucking my jig in.

When I set the camera up, I dropped down my tandem Ratso rig down there because they're easier to find. The top Ratso was the one that the crappie inhaled, so I set the hook.  These weren't the dink crappie that I was getting earlier, these were decent for this lake.  They weren't big, but they were fat mediums, most good enough for a nice filet at nine to ten inches long.

The fish were ferocious.  As soon as I dropped the Ratso's into camera view, a crappie would swoop in to inhale it, aggressively.  And my sonar was showing a lot of fish down there.  I was catching them one after another, giggling like a little kid.  So, before the school left, I decided to coax Mike over to give the camera a try.

Mike spent about fifteen minutes in there playing with the camera and catching a few.  I heard him laughing as he was getting used to fishing versus what he was seeing on the camera.  It takes getting used to for sure, but he was having fun.  He didn't want to take up my fishing time, so he turned my shanty back over to me.

For the next two hours, the crappie kept showing up, actively attacking my soft plastic jigs.  I lost a couple nice crappie at the hole but for the most part, I landed about eighty percent of the fish that decided to bite.  I lost some time when crappie or bluegills decided to wrap themselves around my camera cable during the fight, but landed those fish.  The time lost was setting it up again so I could see my jigs.

By now it was snowing lightly.  I've always seemed to have good luck with the crappie while it was snowing, so this seemed to be the case again.

Over the next two hours, I managed to ice thirty four crappie and seven bluegills.  Then, they seemed to disappear.  But, one solid mark remained about four feet off the bottom and didn't more or react to any of my lures.  I couldn't see it on my camera, but I was pretty sure it was a larger branch of that tree that I found earlier.  I felt that the fish would return, so I decided to stick it out.

During the following few hours, I picked up crappie and bluegills now and then.  But, the fish became a bit finicky.  I could see them on the camera at times, and they'd move in and check out my lure and either bite or swim off.  I also was able to fish off the bottom and coax a decent bluegill into biting every now and then, below the tree mark.

Sometimes finicky fish, especially bluegills, will prefer a smaller jig tipped with a couple spikes.  This tiny Northland Tungsten Fireball jig fishes heavy and shows a nice mark on my sonar.

I took a break and socialized a little bit, and during the meantime checked some of the other holes out without electronics while jigging a Salmo Chubby Darter, a jigging lure that resembles a lipless crankbait and an effective technique for catching bass, trout and jumbo crappie.  I didn't get any hits, but Mike and his buddies, Phil and Nick, were pretty much calling it a day during early afternoon.

Meanwhile, Wayne was consistently catching bluegills and the occasional crappie out of his spot.  I went back to my hole and noticed that the suspended fish had returned, with more and more of them appearing on my flasher.  They snubbed my tandem plastics for the most part, but willingly hit the tiny jig/maggot combination.  They were bluegills.  Not the sniffing dinks from the morning, but decent sized ones.  I wouldn't say they were big, but they were decent, averaging seven to eight inches long.

Wayne with a small crappie caught earlier in the morning.  Later, we both caught quite nicer ones.  Like I said earlier in the post, when the bigger fish are really biting well, it's tough to be a camera man!

Bluegills fight like crazy and easily wrap around the camera cable, so I quickly pulled the camera out.  They were so active that using the sonar was highly effective.

These fish became very active and aggressive toward my smaller offering.  Every now and then, I'd hook a crappie.  By late afternoon, the bite was frantic again. The bluegills were all around the tree, both above it and below it, and sometimes suspending ten feet off the bottom, and extremely aggressive.  The crappie bite earlier in the day was quite impressive, but this bluegill bite was something else!

The bluegills preferred this small round ball jig tipped with a couple spikes.

Our hope was to fish into the dark for the crappie, that since we found them during the day here in decent numbers, that they'd return.  Usually, that's a good plan for setting up for a night time crappie bite.  But, I didn't want to leave this great bluegill bite to go back to my truck and get my lantern!

Wayne had moved closer so we could share the lantern light once the night bite began, and also was getting into the bluegills at a rapid rate.  He also had a knack for catching several trout on the day while jigging, and also a couple largemouth bass as well.

In between catching crappie and bluegills, Wayne caught trout and a few small largemouth bass, which are fun on the light ice panfish set ups.

I finally decided to quickly go get my lantern and return before it was too late.  But the bluegills didn't let me down, they kept on biting.  It was a great evening bite.  I managed to also catch a small bass.  Then, the sun dropped as well as the temperatures.

This hand sized bluegill liked that Northland Tungsten Fireball jig!

Wayne and I caught a few bluegills and crappie after dark, but the bite wasn't what we'd hoped for.  The fish became finicky but we marked them regularly.  I've noticed this before when fishing murky water, that those lakes don't make for great night bites for crappie.  So, we called it quits.

My numbers were my best trip of the year, and the size of the fish, although not large, was decent.  At least it was from the standpoint of having a good time.  I finished with forty two crappie, sixty three bluegills, and a largemouth bass.  That one hot hole produced 101 fish!  That is a great day on the ice, for me, a total of 106 fish on the day.  I'm sure Wayne had similar numbers.

Any time you hit the century mark with numbers of fish, on or off the ice, it's a trip to remember.  Hence, I thought that I'd share it with you!

What a fun day on the ice!

Hot Start to a Cold Winter...Hardwater Heaven!

Call it Polar Vortex, call it unusual, call it whatever you wish.  I call it winter, a normal winter that reminded me of winters past, where our local ice fishing opportunities lasted two to three months.  No matter what it's called, I'm thankful for it.  The mild winters of the past few years were painful to ice anglers like me, who had to travel further to find ice.  Now, my inner conflict, the open water musky angler in me, yearns for flowing rivers free of ice, but part of me is happy now!

As an ice angler, I couldn't have been much more happy about my first four trips on the ice.  I had the opportunity to meet new friends and fish with old friends.  And the icing on the cake, or on the lake, was that we caught a bunch of fish in the process.

My first three trips took place at the lake where it all started for me too many years ago to mention.  Yeah, I'm the guy that I used to call "old".  This lake was home to my first ice fishing adventure of my life, as detailed in my previous post, "Remember Your First Ice Fishing Trip?"  Jeff Redinger turned me on to this gem of a lake along with the sport of ice fishing.

My old friend Glenn Cumings met me up there, the same guy that hosted Jeff's ice fishing workshop that got me addicted to this past time.  Glenn is as equally responsible for my ice fishing exposure as Jeff is.  The ice was anywhere from four to eight inches thick where it looked “safe” that first afternoon.  The lake was drawn down about ten feet for the past few years because the dam needs
to be repaired.  The usual twenty something foot deep hot spots were now ten feet shallower.  But, the fish were there.

My first trip always seems like an orientation for me, not only to find the fish, but also to get the rustiness of not being on the ice a while out of me.  My hook setting reaction time seems to get slower each year, yet improves daily the more that I get out and fish.

I fished near an old spot where twenty foot depths were ten, hoping the fish wouldn't care about depth and remain on the structure.  I picked up a few fish here and there, but it wasn't a banner day for me. I finished with eleven medium sized crappie, seven nice bluegills, and five decent sized yellow perch.  I was only on the ice for just a few hours, so it wasn't all that bad.  In fact, it wasn't the fish, it was me.

One of my favorite rod and reel rigs for fishing soft plastics is my tandem Ratso rig.  I rig two Ratso's in tandem, one about eight inches higher than the bottom one.  The rod is an ultralight inexpensive fiberglass rod with a broken rod tip.  Being the cheap person that I am, I converted this to my ultralight jigging rod for these baits by adding a homemade “spring bobber” as a replacement tip top.  If you've read my other ice fishing posts, you know how much I rely on this rig.  It's my bread and butter panfish catching set up!

This rig really shines during that night time crappie bite.  Usually, when a fish bites, you see the spring move down with the fish pulling on the line.  Sometimes crappie will hit and the spring, normally loaded by the weight of the jig, actually rises and the line goes slack.  When fish hit like that, they’re pushing the bait up.  Crappie are notorious for that behavior.

Glenn introduced me to one of the guys on the ice, Tanner, who also frequents Iceshanty.  He fished with two of his buddies that had never ice fished before.  He let his buddies use his flip over shanty, tackle, and sonar units.  That's a true friend right there, hauling all that extra gear out just for them.

Since I didn’t arrive at the lake until about four in the afternoon, I didn’t bring my underwater camera onto the ice simply because of the lack of daylight.  I relied on the sonar to detect the fish and observe their behavior.  I may have missed some fish during the night bite because my lantern wasn’t working properly, and I didn't have the right tools to fix it on the lake.  Glenn and the other guys did well, maybe slightly better than I did, possible because of that.  I thought at the time it was because they were using bait, but that wasn’t the case.  I wouldn’t discover why my limited success until the next day.

All of my fish were caught on glow Ratso 1/64 jigs with blue glow 3/4 inch Ratso soft plastic finesse tails (stinger style) made by Custom Jigs and Spins.  On this lake, glow blue or glow pink are hot colors for some reason.  That day, blue worked much better than the pink.  As far as color goes, I'm not convinced that it makes a difference as it's more of a confidence thing, but the glow does make a difference in my humble opinion.  I think that how you work the lure and the lure size are far more important factors.  But it was a fun start for my ice season.  The fish weren’t big, but not quite dinks either…mediums I’d say.

It looks cold, but it was actually pretty toasty inside my shanty.  I had to peel off a couple layers of clothing to keep from sweating inside there.  The lantern provides both light and heat inside, even in frigid temperatures.

I fished the same lake the next day, starting around mid-afternoon.   The bite was slow at first.  I only caught one bluegill for the first hour.  I spent quite a bit of time searching for active fish, cutting holes and checking them with the sonar.  Every hole I cut seemed to be the same, eleven feet and featureless, and not marking many fish.

I dropped my camera down for a horizontal look around, and saw nothing but mud and a clump of algae here and there, with no fish in site.  I checked four separate holes where I caught fish the previous night and found nothing.  Then, I found one spot that was about two feet deeper and marked a fish.  I didn’t catch it, but did mark it.  I figured this spot was different.  Later, that hunch would prove to be the reason that the fish were there.

I dropped down the camera for a quick 360 degree scan, and saw several bluegills.  This was a good spot to set up.  I cut one hole for my flasher, one for my camera, and one to fish out of.  Within a half hour, I had a few nice bluegills iced, not great, but a start.  I set my camera to look down on the fish at about six feet from the bottom.  This way, I could see them approach from any angle.  I could see my jigs and the bottom pretty clearly.

I spent most of the afternoon fishing inside my shanty.  It’s easier to see the camera in a dark house.  Of course, inside the shanty, you're also comfortable and out of the elements.  Every now and then I'd flip my shack open to chat and not be an unsociable hermit.  Tanner had arrived with his buddies, Ricky and Chris.  They also began to take advantage of the late afternoon bite.

Pictured here are Tanner to the right, his buddy Chris in the chair, and Ricky inside the other shanty.  The guy furthest away is named Rich.  I met Rich the day before.  He’s a nice guy and really tore up the bluegills both days.  As you can see, not only can you catch a lot of fish, but it’s pretty sociable out there too!

While using the camera, when the fish moved in, I could see them inhale my lure, and I’d set the hook. That extra time made up for my slow old age hook sets and allowed me to land the light biters that gave me fits the day before.  Bluegills are notorious for being finicky light biters.  The camera helps to see them bite.

Later, even more fish showed up, and showed up in bigger numbers.  The fish chased down my jigs as quick as I could get them down there.  They competed with each other to get to them.  At one point, the bluegills pecked at my camera!  Then the crappie moved in.  They used my camera as structure!  I’d jig right up to the camera and a crappie would appear right there and inhale it.  They looked huge right in front of the camera like that.  They were extremely aggressive.  You can't see stuff like that on a flasher, which makes ice fishing with an underwater camera that much more fun.

I watched this yellow perch show up suspend right below the camera and engulf my offering.  You can see the Ratso firmly embedded in its upper lip.  Also, you can see my set up, the flasher and camera both in use.  During daylight, the camera was effective.  Deeper fish that were out of view had to be watched on the sonar until the camera could pick them up.  As daylight diminished, the camera's effectiveness did as well.

As we lost daylight, the camera became less effective.  My camera doesn’t work well at night.  The zooplankton are attracted to the camera lighting and they show up in huge clouds after dark.  Plus, it's an old undewater camera and the lighting isn't really all that great.  I've heard that the modern cameras work much better at night.  So, as it became dark, I had to focus on the sonar.  It didn't matter, as the bluegills and crappie stayed aggressive most of the evening.

This particular lake isn't open all night.  In fact, they will ticket you after a certain time.  There was a slow spell about an hour and a half after dark, but wouldn’t you know it, when it was time to get off the lake, the crappie showed up again, more aggressive than ever.  We managed a few bigger ones to close out the evening with some over ten inches long.  But most were mediums like the previous day.

Here’s a typical bluegill from that trip, measuring about six inches (average was 6-8”), with the Ratso in the upper lip.

That night, I finished with 44 crappie, 31 bluegills, and 5 yellow perch.  I caught my last crappie to round out eighty fish just in time to pack up and get out before getting ticketed.  Tanner was using maggots on a small moon glow jig and easily did as well as I did, and better than I did the previous night.  The difference for me between the two nights was that slightly deeper depression in the bottom that seemed to hold the fish.

The last crappie of the night, a small one.

Of course, after those two afternoons, visions of ice fishing danced through my brain all week at work.  I had the day off this past Friday, and went back to the same lake, this time toting Glenn with me.  We hit a local tackle shop for bait to pick up some spikes, just in case the fish were finicky.

We arrived at the lake and were fishing by about one in the afternoon.  A week after my first outing, the ice had more than doubled, now over ten inches thick.

Glenn heard about a spot that had a hot bite of bigger fish from a buddy of his, so we cut holes in that area and searched for fish.  I marked fish in every hole that I cut.  This area of the lake was nearly the deepest at fifteen to eighteen feet.  The fish actively checked the baits and nipped at then.  This behavior is typical of smaller fish, or very finicky larger fish.  You won't know for sure until you catch one.

After cutting a few more holes and having the same thing happen, I downsized to a tiny ice jig tipped with one maggot.  I had to catch one to see if they were worth fishing for or not, just to be sure.  I caught one fish after another on that rig, but they were literally three inch bluegills and four inch yellow perch, confirming my suspicion.  So much for the magic hole.

I didn’t want to waste time feeding baitfish, and moved further up the lake to the more shallow thirteen foot depth that had been productive the week before.  Again, every hole marked fish, so I had to fish them to see what those fish were.  I wasn't satisfied with my catch, so I kept moving, cutting and checking holes. Up until then, I had a dozen fish under my belt that wouldn’t have weighed half a pound collectively!

I moved toward the creek channel, out of the thirteen feet and and back to fifteen, but further up the lake.  My first drop resulted in good hit on my tandem Ratso soft plastic rig.  The bite resonated up to my elbow!  I set the hook and immediately pulled my flasher transducer out of the way.  I back reeled and the fish took drag, and I didn’t want to lose whatever it was, even if I was using one pound test.  Finally, I brought it to the hole, head first and lipped it, yanking it onto the ice.  It turned out to not be a monster, but a nice bass at fourteen and one half inches long!

This chunky fourteen and a half inch largemouth fell for my Ratso tandem rig.  Here you can see my modified broken inexpensive rod with my home made spring tip top.  Not bad for one pound test, huh?

Well, I figured that was the hot hole.  But, maybe there were more like him down there.  My flasher marked a lot of fish, so I dropped something that usually tempts the bigger fish like this one, a Salmo Chubby Darter, which looks like a lipless crankbait but is a vertical jigging lure.  You lower them to the bottom, then rip them up about three feet or so, then let them drop, keeping your light tight as it falls with the fluttering lure, but not so tight that it kills the action.

After jigging the Chubby Darter three times, my sonar showed the marks moving up for the bite, then, a big hit!  Fish on!  "Whoooo hooo", I’m thinking, "I figured out the bass here!"  But, only to my disappointment, it was a bluegill, albeit nice one. That gill thought he was a largemouth!

This bluegill thought he was a largemouth, jumping all over my Salmo Chubby Darter!

After that, the fish vanished and I stopped marking fish.  By now, it was the magic hour, four in the afternoon, and too late to pull out the camera and set up.  The week prior, this was the hot bite time, and it wasn't happening for me now, especially since the fish had vacated.  It was time to go in search mode again.  I thought, “What a difference from last week when they were so active.”

So, I moved up the channel a little ways, cut another hole.  This time, I marked fish from literally the bottom to about three feet under the ice, and it remained like that the rest of the afternoon and evening.  I dropped my Ratsos down there, and the fish were shooting off the bottom to hit them.  At first, it was bluegills, not big but bigger than before, maybe a six inch average, and some decent yellow perch, males mostly.  Mixed in were some medium crappies.

But the bite never stopped.  In fact, it intensified.  I hit the thirty fish count and pulled out my golf counter so I wouldn’t lose track.  I could remember in my head the perch and bass count, since they were less numerous.  All I had to do is let the golf counter count the total, and remember the crappie count, and deduct that to calculate the bluegills.

My jigs wouldn’t make it to the bottom without fish inhaling them.  They literally hooked themselves.  If I missed on a hookset, another would shoot up to bite before I could lower the bait down.  I caught two at a time on a few drops.  This action, out of one hole, took place from four until about seven in the evening when my lantern ran out of propane.  During that time, my fish count went from a dozen fish to seventy one in total!

My lantern ran out of propane during the hot bite.  On my way back to my truck for more fuel, I ran into Tanner, who introduced me to his Father and Uncle.  They offered me a can of propane to get my lantern working again, so I could get back on the bite.  Thanks guys!  But, by the time I had the lantern fired up, the bite had slowed drastically.  For the next hour and a half, I caught only five medium crappie, but did miss a few bites.  All of the crappie were seven or eight inches long with a  few nine inchers mixed in.

Of course, we had to be off the lake their closing time.  With a half hour to go, talked about packing it in.  Then, like clockwork, they turned on again.  Those fish knew that we had to get off the ice!  All of a sudden, they chased my Ratso’s again.  But now, the crappie were bigger, averaging nine inches, with two fat ones that were over ten inches long.  It was really hard to quit fishing and avoid getting fined, but we did.  I finished with 86 fish, 35 of them were crappie, the one bass, five fat yellow perch, and the rest bluegills.

It was one of the hottest bites in such a short time frame that I can ever recall, even better than the week before.

The next day, I set my sights on another Central Pennsylvania lake further North, to fish the hardwater with one of the best musky anglers, check that, anglers, that I know, the founder of Keystone Outdoor Addiction, Jeremy Tyson.  Jeremy has been ice fishing most of his life, but never really gave using electronics a try, so he wanted to check out my system and see what it's all about.  My friend, fellow angler Wayne Chmielewski, also met us there.  Jeremy's friend Jay was also to meet up with us.  I hadn't met him yet.

When I was setting up, this guy walked out on the ice straight toward us.  He wore a green jacket and black hat, sunglasses over the hat logo, with a backpack and no fishing stuff.  I'm thinking, "Well, here's the game warden checking licenses, starting out with us, the furthest out first."  I figured I'd get it over with so that I could set up and begin fishing.  I walk over to him and showed him my license.  He said that everything looked in good order and asked how the fishing was.  As I was telling him about the fishing, Jeremy yelled out, "Hey Jay, you didn't just check his fishing license, did ya?"

It was Jeremy’s friend, Jay, who was coming out to fish with us…If I was an ostrich, I would have stuck my head down one of the hole in the ice to hide!

Usually, the panfish at this lake are on the larger side but more difficult to find and catch.  The trick is to find fish.  When you do, the size will come.  At least that's been the M.O. of this lake for many years that I've fished it.   We found fish, but nothing big, and they would turn out to be very picky all day.

We were fishing thirty four feet of water.  I gave Jeremy and Jay a tutorial on how to use the sonar as neither had used them through the ice before.  The fish were active enough to effectively teach them about the electronics, but the bluegills and crappie were much smaller than what I’d caught during my previous trips.  We did manage a few nice fat yellow perch though.

I also showed the camera set up to Jeremy and Jay, gave then each turns at attempting to catch fish with it.  They had fun with the system, but I think that they didn't want to infringe on my fishing.  I didn't mind, I was out to have fun.  Them having fun was rewarding to me.  But I admit, it's very easy to close the shanty and sit there and watch the camera and fish. It's mesmerizing, and time goes by.

At one point in the late afternoon, the fish showed up on the sonar in big suspended schools.  I then saw them on my camera.  They were crappie.  I'd watch them zoom in and miss my lures and aggressively attempt to eat them.  They’d surge to attack and miss, often, like they were blind!  But, it was deep, probably nearly thirty feet down down over thirty four feet of water, right under my camera, and there was snow on the ice.  It was dark down there.  I think that they had a hard time seeing the bait.  That does explain why at night they will follow and not always bite.  They may be trying to eat the lure all along and simply miss.

Later, I watched my jig while trying to entice a crappie below, when a big flash of a fish swooped in and engulfed my jig.  I set the hook and the fight was on.  It wasn’t as strong as the bass from the day before, but the fish was much bigger than I had been catching all day and I didn’t want to lose it.  Fortunately, it didn’t wrap around my camera cable, and I was able to get it though the hole.  As it turns out, rather than the big fat perch that I had hoped it was, it was another bass, but it was significantly smaller than the bass from Friday at about ten inches long.

Here's the little bass that attacked my Ratso rig, with Jeremy Tyson in the background.

Here's a picture of Wayne, searching for fish down by the dam.

Jeremy called it quits before dark. It was a good call, because his arrival at home earlier saves him brownie points with his wife for future trips, and these dinky fish weren't worth it.  We stayed in hopes that the bigger crappie would appear.

After dark, my flasher lit up like a Christmas tree with fish.  Looking at the round shape of the sonar in the picture below, the bottom is at about 8 o'clock.  All those marks to the right going counter clockwise are fish.  The bottom group were mostly tiny bluegills.  The ones the the right, at about ten to fifteen feet were small  to medium crappie, the biggest that we caught were nine inches, but most were only six inches long.  The fish about ten feet down over thirty four feet of water were the more active fish, suspended like that.  The ones toward the bottom were suspended and active too, but were too small to get even the tiny jig hook in their mouths

My sonar was lit up like a Christmas Tree!

I hoped the lake would have produced a hot bite with bigger fish.  There was enough action to keep us interested, but fish fish were very picky during the day and, other than the perch, were on the small side.  I finished with a six bluegills, two yellow perch, a largemouth, and twenty two crappie.  Not bad, but not great, and the size was a real disappointment, especially for this lake.  We could have stayed and caught more, but Wayne and I had a long drive home.  So, we made a pact that we'd each get one more and then call it quits.  It took about fifteen minutes, and we succeeded in fulfilling our pact, and packed it up.

My first four trips were a huge success though, because I fished with Jeremy and Wayne for the first time on the ice, and met some new anglers (Tanner, Jay and Rich), and spent some time with an old friend who is partly responsible for my ice fishing addiction, Glenn Cumings.  And, two of the four trips had some of the hottest action that I'd ever experienced in such a short amount of time!

I'd say that was a hot start to a cold winter, wouldn't you?

Why Do You Love to Ice Fish? i.e. Why I love to Ice Fish!

I haven't done a generic type post about ice fishing in a long time.  But after discussing a certain topic about ice fishing with someone on my favorite web forum, Iceshanty.com, I got to thinking...why do I still love to ice fish?

I mean, after all, most people, my wife included and most of my friends (since I live South of what is really ice fishing territory) think that I'm nuts.  And, we ice anglers really are off our rockers!  We spend all kinds of money on stuff to keep us comfortable to cut a hole through the ice and fish, and in some cases (even though we know it's "safe") there is enough risk that we always have to be careful, and often we're out there in cold nasty weather when 99% of society would rather wrap up in a blanket next to a fire and rent movies all day.  I won't go into how ice anglers spend a ton of money on ice fishing tackle, gear, and clothing just to catch fish through a hole in the ice.  All anglers are considered crazy for our fishing spending from the viewpoint of the non-angling crowd.

So, why do you love to ice fish?  What is it about our sport that pushes your buttons to keep on getting out there, year after year, in sometimes brutal conditions to try and catch fish through the ice?  Please feel free to post your answer in the comments section.
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OK, for me, here it goes.  First, I like the fact that I can catch fish all year, and ice fishing extends my fishing season.  I like the fact that you really never know for sure what you're about to catch.  I like that you can pretty much get to fishing holes that only a boat can get to, and sometimes get to hot spots that boats can't even get to.  And, not only that, you can find fish and stay over them and not worry about drifting away.  No boat control to worry about!  And, you can catch fish, often a lot of them, and sometimes bigger than any other time of year.  And, you can haul all kinds of gear out there to catch fish and to keep you almost as comfortable as those folks wrapped in their blankets next to their fires watching movies.  Ice fishing can also be a great social activity shared with friends, or to make new friends.

Of course, a joy of ice fishing is when you can share it with friends, or even make new friends.  Here, my good friend Jim Cumming sports a fat largemouth bass that he caught while tending his tip-ups.  I was fortunate enough to introduce Jim to ice fishing many years ago when he lived down my way.

But, that's all great, and many of you probably share the same views.  But here's what really gets me stoked up, why I love ice fishing more than just like to do it:

I have always enjoyed vertically jigging for active fish.  On the ice, I mostly target panfish.  I still primarily target panfish but also bring enough tackle to jig for predators.  But really floats my boat is jigging over active fish and watching it all on my underwater camera, inside my portable shanty, and doing it productively.

Many ice anglers appreciate the seclusion of fishing in a shanty.  It's quiet.  Just you, your gear, and the fish, and you're out of the harsh elements.  But it's also quite beautiful out in the open air.  I always try to spend some time jigging outside too, to gain that appreciation and beauty of my surroundings, and move around and hit a few holes nearby to cover water.

So the crux of this post is basically that I really get my jollies while using my underwater camera.  When fishing with an underwater camera, the question I always read on forums is:  "Do you need to or not?  Or, do you wish to be more challenged or not?"  I guess it's like cheating to some, but I think it's more fun to watch the fish eat your lure than to watch a rod tip.  So yeah, I'll "cheat" for that extra fun.  Heck with the challenge.  If I want challenge, then I'll find some open water and musky fish.  If I find active panfish, then I'll watch, fish, and catch them.  If they are finicky, like most good ice anglers, I will move and use my sonar to find another school of active fish, then drop the camera down there again if I'm getting multiple fish.

This is my set up under my portable shanty...you can see the bottom and my jig easily.  It's great once you find a school of active panfish like yellow perch especially when the schools hang around for a while.  I can observe their behavior, figure out exactly what they want or what turns them off, watch them inhale my lure, and...SET THE HOOK!  It's so much fun.  

Sure, you can catch a bunch of fish using your sonar and not bring a camera!  But I think that the camera nets me even more fish under certain conditions than I would if I didn't use the camera.  Why?  Because I can see bites that I would definitely miss watching my sonar, a rod tip, a spring bobber, my line, or while trying to feel a bite.  I used to come home from a trip and dream about my spring bobber.  Now I dream about watching my camera and catching fish!

Sure you can catch plenty of fish using just your sonar.  I used to do it all the time, and still often do.  My buddies Geoff and Jack are doing just that in this picture.  It's a ton of fun too.  While they were catching a ton of fish, I was doing the same thing using my camera and took a break to get a picture of them in action.

Sometimes the fish bite so light that even a spring won't detect it.  But that camera doesn't miss the bite.  When you see your bait disappear, set the hook quick enough and you will get that fish.  If you miss, then it's not the fault of your electronics, it's probably due to slow reaction time (old age can cause that speaking from experience).  I just get a kick out of watching the fish and their reaction to what I'm doing.  When fish leave my bait or lose interest, usually I can see exactly why (like the lure spinning thing or if they've cleaned the maggots off my jig).

But even cameras have limitations.  For the type of productivity that I describe above, you really have to find a good school of fish or have a great spot.  It takes some time to set up your gear over them.  You lack the mobility and ability to follow a moving school.  Using the flasher, you can stay more mobile.  When you're having one of those "one fish per hole" days, those are the days that the flasher works much better than a camera.  Both are tools, use them under the right conditions to maximize your catch and your fun.

My underwater camera model doesn't work well at night for that evening crappie bite.  At least, I haven't figured out how to make it work.  The light needed to generate an image on the camera end attracts zillions of zooplankton grouped in a cloud that is so thick that you can't see anything, much less your lure or fish.  The newer models of underwater cameras have come a long way though, and may have solved that problem.  Some day I will investigate and get back to you on that.

I recommend bringing both a camera and sonar for your day trips.  Use the sonar to locate large schools of active fish.  Cut a ton of holes if necessary, but be active and find them.  Once you find them, set up your camera and have fun.  If the fish disappear and you stop seeing them or stop getting bites, start the process over and find new fish.  Also, the sonar will save you at night for fishing for suspended crappie.  At least in my case, the camera isn't that useful after dark, but the sonar always shines.

A huge advantage using the underwater camera is that I always know what type of fish are down there, whether or not they are dinks or fish worth targeting.  And it's really cool when a predator stops by.  Yeah, you can see the blip on your sonar, but you really don't know what kind of fish it is.  With the camera, you can identify it and see their mood and why they appeared.  Was it random or did you jig that fish in?  It's a big fish, but is it a carp, a bass, a pike, or a big walleye?  If it's a larger predator, then I can quickly adapt and drop something down there that might tempt them more than a tiny panfish jig.  Also, it's pretty fun when you're fishing for, let's say yellow perch, and all of a sudden a bass, pickerel, pike or musky shows up and tries to eat the camera!  My camera is an Aqua Vu and the camera is shaped like a fish.  I guess I need to attach a treble hook to the camera!

But using a camera can clue you into bigger fish too!  I dropped a bigger gulp minnow down the hole to catch this bass that was drawn in with my smaller panfish jig and wouldn't bite it.

With sonar, you can get a general idea of what the bottom is like, if the bottom has weeds, or is soft or hard.  But with the camera, I can see exactly what makes up the bottom.  I not only see weeds, but what type of weeds.  I can see logs, stumps, rocks, algae, if it's a muddy or a rocky bottom.  I can see baitfish move through and predators follow.  I can see why the fish are there.  I can see pretty much everything.  It's like fishing TV and I'm the producer.  I wish I could be the director and then I'd even catch more fish!

I've seen other guys hole hop and use the camera in shallow water flats to search for pods of fish, and that's effective too.  But for deeper water (10 to 25 feet deep or deeper), which is just about everywhere in the lakes that I fish, I cut a lot of holes and use my sonar to find fish then hone in and watch and fish with the camera.

My friend Scott using his old Aqua Vu to check a bunch of shallow water holes to locate schools of fish while positioning  it to view horizontally so that he could see all around the hole, not just under it.  He'd drop the camera down and spin the cable 360 degrees to check out the areas around the hole to look for schools of fish.  If he spotted a bunch nearby, he'd stop and drop a jig down there and catch a bunch of fish.  It's a great technique to find shallow water bluegills and other panfish, and also to get an idea what type of cover is down there.

Another thing that I do that most people don't like doing is that I like to set my camera to look down on the fish.  I feel that I can more effectively target them while viewing down on the fish.  I can see the fish come from any angle.  Sometimes, if the water is clear enough, I can set the camera about six to eight feet off the bottom and see all the way to the bottom.  It's not right or wrong if people like to watch horizontally, in fact, most people probably fish with their cameras that way.  I simply prefer to look down on 'em..  I rarely see fish approach from above the camera, but sometimes they surprise you and do just that.  But if you're using your camera to find fish in the shallows, then it's probably better to set the camera to view horizontally for sure.

Here's a nice sunfish caught while jigging and using my camera.  You can see the actual camera unit laying on the ice showing that it's shaped and painted to resemble a sunfish.  Maybe this fish was attracted by the camera thinking he met a buddy?

It's so fun to fish that way to me that I think that it's kept my interest up in ice fishing even more than ever, especially given the lean ice years we've had the past decade that really make me wonder of those long drives to even find ice are worth the effort or not... Now I'll make those long drives like I used to do when I was younger and first addicted to ice fishing in general.

These fat yellow perch and a nice chain pickerel were caught using a camera while jigging.  It was so fun to see that pickerel move in, literally with it's snout right up against my lure.  When I gave the jig a quick snap up, he attacked with lightning speed and the fight was on.  Not only did the camera help me set the hook, but I was able to witness the entire scene!

You know what is funny?  When the Aqua Vu first came out, I was a skeptic.  I thought it was a waste of money.  Now I think it's the most fun thing about ice fishing to me.  It's like I'm down there diving with them!  So really, I can be warm and toasty in my portable shanty and watch TV all day long just like those folks wrapped up in a blanket on their couch renting movies on TV, but even better because I'm a participant!

So now you have somewhat of an understanding about my approach to ice fishing.  I love to jig, I try to use my electronics effectively, and most of all, I have fun doing it.  That's what it's all about.  Since we've had some cold temperatures, snow and our lakes are icing up recently, my mind has been occupied about getting out on the ice again to do some jiggin'.   Maybe I'll see you out there!

Please also visit Iceshanty.com if you are interested in learning more about ice fishing.  If you're an avid ice fisher, then I believe that you'll enjoy the site just as much.  It's free to join, no spam and it's a very friendly web forum with plenty of people to interact with that are more than willing to help you about our sport.  Hope to see you on the forum!

So, please leave a comment and tell me why you love to ice fish!