Nice to see everyone is just as happy with the Panfish as they are with the bigger ones. Great show and a good tune to go with it.
Fatman
Someone's been busy putting the bend in rods. Real nice. Love them blues.
We had started the week our ice was to go out by hitting a town....Kewanee... over on Lake Mickigan which has a river that leads to a hatchery. Hit Steelhead for 3 days using a 6'6" med light Grandt rod and a Pflueger president 6725 reel with 6 test mono. The tactic was simple. I used a 32nd oz hair jig in black tipped with a waxie under a pencil bobber 3 foot down.Toss it up current and let it drift down...when the bobber stood up it was time to rear and fight those 6-10 lb. runners.
An average fight was 15 minutes and half of the time you'd loose them.The ticket was to run a light drag and give them all of the courtesy possible until they tuckered out.....definitely no horsing them.
Then 4 days after ice out I started to target rivers and small lakes that warmed up quick for those slabs.
6-8 foot was the depth they seemed to hold too.
The tactic was simple once again. I fished them like I do in the winter with small hair jigs under small bobbers and 3 test mono. Although I've made the swith to Gama copoly as of late.
It seems much tougher of a line...lays straight and has minimal stretch.I tried fluro carbon but it sinks ....not what I'm looking for.
We worked the deeper water for the 1st couple of weeks then went to the shallows 2-5 fow.
Still working a hair jig and small bobber.
Recently they have moved back out to the intermeadiate depths again.Although the gills are up tight now getting ready to spawn.
Bass also seem prevelant up in the shallows and the walleyes are moving in too .
Pike are also shallow with the water warming I'd expect to see bigger quality fish being caught.
We have also targeted some trout in the mine pits and they are hitting 2-10 feet down.
A F-3 orange rapala is very deadly out there trolling slow...1.2-1.4 mph. Cow bells added can also help draw in those bows.
With June under way the weed edges are developing and becoming a place to work fish.
We hit numberous walleyes with a slip bobber in 10 of water next to the cabbage bed line with leeches the other day.
When July gets here we will see that hot weather driving those eyes back deep. Running top water like buzz baits,jitterbugs,spooks and of coarse scum frogs next too or in weeds will produce great bass'n and pike action.
Have fun out there and try a new tactic this year!
Also ....get a kid out for some pannies. Nows the time to turn a kid on to fishing!
Great video - zig zag blues is good - also