Don't slap the bottom! (Always)

[barrebobber]

I know a lot of us got our starts ice fishing for perch, well at least I did. Where do you catch the perch, on the bottom. Well many of us have broadened our skill and species target. Early ice allows for the weeds to still have a lot of life to them. Think about this when presenting your jig to say a crappie. Those weeds are lush and have a lot of life left to them. They are holding all sorts of feed for crappies and bluegills, all through the water column. One of my favorite and most productive techniques is sight fish early ice, one because the ice is thing and the water is clear which gives you a lot of visibility and two being that most of the gills and the crappie have the feeds bags on feeding high in the water column. One of my favorite crappie spots on the river is a place where 90 % of the fish I catch are higher than 4feet in 9 fow. Something to keep in mind, it might help you be more successful.

[dylan8351]

Prior to a flasher, I did my fair share of pounding the bottom for perch and always had at least some success. I use to utilize many techniques every day just to find the fish in the water column but that is no longer... With my Vexilar fl-18 I am on the fish. I have learned more about fish and their daily migrations through my use of a flasher than I ever would have imagined. Although you don't need a Vexilar for every type of fishing it does help figure out where and how to start.

Late last winter (April 9th to be exact) I was sight fishing for gills on a small lake with a buddy. The ice was 21" thick and the weeds grew tall. On average, about 18" shy of the bottom of the ice but were not super thick. I was fishing in 3 to 7 feet of water. I could not get a single gill to poke its head out of the weeds so that I could actively sight fish but I could see them below in the milfoil. As soon as I dropped it into the weeds I would catch fish after fish. The deeper into the weeds I went, the more abundant the fish seemed to be. This lake was also home to a decent population of perch. The perch fishing was very sporadic that day as they were being chased by bass and pickerel constantly. When they came through they would pause for long enough for us to pull one or two then move on followed by a predator. The strangest thing was the ice had an assortment of aquatic vegetation froze in and the perch were swimming right below the ice. I assumed they felt sheltered because of the darkness above even though it was a bluebird day.

I think the most important thing that I have learned that day was that I had to pick my target species and fish accordingly as I could not seem to get both at the same depth. Later that afternoon I hit a different lake and didn't find a single fish in the weeds. I adjusted my tactics, fished high, and went home with a good meal for the guys in the sugar shack.

[dw]

I always thought of perch as being found primarily near the bottom like most folks do. At Carmi last winter I found that the active fish were suspended any where from 6-12feet off the bottom. Without my vex I would have never even attempted to fish that far up the water column. By active I mean the fish that would eat. You could often get those right on bottom to rise a foot or two and look but gettin em to bite seemed next to impossible.

[barrebobber]

That is a very common characteristic of crappie, but perch when they are active and chasing bait around will suspend off the bottom and be much more apt to chase your bait up the water column, great bit of info there dw.

[wey]

Nice there is some great info there that is for sure .

[luntfrnd]

Dec 14, 2011 23:09:04 GMT -4 dw said:

I always thought of perch as being found primarily near the bottom like most folks do. At Carmi last winter I found that the active fish were suspended any where from 6-12feet off the bottom. Without my vex I would have never even attempted to fish that far up the water column. By active I mean the fish that would eat. You could often get those right on bottom to rise a foot or two and look but gettin em to bite seemed next to impossible.

I found the same thing at Carmi. Perch up to 15 feet off the bottom, big perch too. I liked my fl8 better in this situation compared to the fl18 for seeing the water column and those fish up high. I feel like the 18 kept me on the bottom more bc of the zoom and it didn't pick up those suspended fish as well..just my experience.

The Crappie I saw on the camera and caught under the ice were all right tight to the bottom at Carmi.

[barrebobber]

Dec 15, 2011 11:28:18 GMT -4 luntfrnd said:

Dec 14, 2011 23:09:04 GMT -4 dw said:

I always thought of perch as being found primarily near the bottom like most folks do. At Carmi last winter I found that the active fish were suspended any where from 6-12feet off the bottom. Without my vex I would have never even attempted to fish that far up the water column. By active I mean the fish that would eat. You could often get those right on bottom to rise a foot or two and look but gettin em to bite seemed next to impossible.

I found the same thing at Carmi. Perch up to 15 feet off the bottom, big perch too. I liked my fl8 better in this situation compared to the fl18 for seeing the water column and those fish up high. I feel like the 18 kept me on the bottom more bc of the zoom and it didn't pick up those suspended fish as well..just my experience.

The Crappie I saw on the camera and caught under the ice were all right tight to the bottom at Carmi.

Thats why crappie are so awesome, they'll act different in almost every place, Carmi is at the top of my destination hitlist for this winter.

[wey]

If you don't mind I would love to join you

[luntfrnd]

Get a small crew up there and you could cover some water. Worst case you leave with a pile of jumbo perch and eater walleye.

[barrebobber]

So justin, did you walk on from the state park side? is that plowed during the winter?

[luntfrnd]

As long we are bringing Carmi up, I do best on smaller jigs in glow colors. Specifically, my favorite jig there is the red glow Genz worm tipped with maggots.

I've had some luck on the smallest size Lindy Darter in natural perch too. No luck with minnows or Swedish Pimples.

[wey]

State Park Side ... Is where we went on ...

[barrebobber]

we'll def get together and figure those crappies out.

[luntfrnd]

Dec 15, 2011 11:58:11 GMT -4 barrebobber said:

So justin, did you walk on from the state park side? is that plowed during the winter?

Yeah, left from the state park. Not sure who maintains it but it gets plowed. There is also a pull off at the north end, haven't spent much time up there but that's one big weed bed up at that end.

[barrebobber]

state park is the north end right? I wanna try the point off to the right of the SP boatlaunch.