Monday, 22 January 2018

Weekly Morning Trail Mix 01-22

Trail Mix

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Friday, 19 January 2018

Hit and Run Perch

By: Jason Mitchell

Schools of perch often seem to continually be on the move. When there are several mouths to feed, sitting in one location doesn’t work. A school of perch can devour everything in its path. I would hate to be a minnow or crawfish when jumbo and all of his friends roll through. Because schools of perch are typically here today and gone tomorrow because of their nomadic lifestyle, finding and getting on top of fish can be always fleeting.

How do you land on a moving target? Sitting in a good location where fish are likely to roll through isn’t a bad strategy. If the fish are moving through and you have good traffic underneath you… why move? The other strategy is a run and gun mentality where you approach the ice much more aggressively and move when you are not on fish and move when you stop catching fish. If you are experiencing some success, cycle back through the holes until you wear out your welcome.

Finding and landing on fish is half the battle but the other factor that can enhance your success on the ice is how you capitalize on the opportunities. Perch fishing is often intense where a ten percent window can often produce ninety percent of your catch. You can go from zero to hero in a hurry. This all depends however on how quickly you can get back down into the water and how long you can keep these drifters down below.

The “turn around” is probably one of the most important factors that dictates how many fish you catch. How fast can you get the fish up into your hand and unhooked and how fast you can get back in the water. There are a few ways to increase the turn around.

Choosing lures that fall fast is one angle. Fast dropping lures include the classic Buckshot Rattle Spoon and the Northland Tackle Puppet Minnow. On a really torrid bite, using lures that can be unhooked more quickly (one hook versus treble hook) can speed up the turn around. You can also bend out the hook slightly and pinch off the barb so that the fish can pop off the hook easy. Lures like the Forage Minnow or the classic Russian Spoons. The final way to increase turnaround is to speed up the elevator ride. Stiffer rods allow you to reel in fish faster, heavier line also allows you to lift the fish out of the water and can make you more effeicient. So in a perfect world on top of a crazed school of perch, you want to throw a fast dropping lure with one hook on the heaviest line you can get away paired up on a heavier rod so that you can just windmill fish.

Of course we don’t live in a perfect world all the time so often, we can’t get away with maximizing the turn around on every front. Usually, we can only incorporate pieces of the basic formula above. What can often happen however is that while the overall conditions or tone of the day might require more finesse like using three pound test and a Meat Stick, when the fish finally do get wound up, you can do a lot of damage having that extra rod nearby that is rigged up for total destruction. So often, we might get the school started on the more subtle and finesse and do the real damage once we get into a rhythm where we get the school to rise up higher and start competing.

Besides being conscience of and manipulating the “turn around,” the other variable is how you can manipulate the school. Keeping fish around and staying on fish is much easier to do with a few other anglers. When you get a good school below you, get your friends in as tight to you as possible. Often, in shallow water especially…. I am not a big fan of drilling holes right next to somebody catching fish. If there are no holes close to you and you have fish stacked below, tag team the fish. When you reel up a fish, have your buddy drop down. That way there is a line in the water as you are unhooking the fish. When the bite gets intense, you can literally double the damage.

Besides keeping a line in the water, some other ways to increase your success is to pick fish off the top of the school, lift the fish higher in the water column by either fishing above the fish or using a fish on your line to pull fish up higher.

All of these variables can enable you to maximize your opportunities. In the end, you have to take what the fish will give you but the more things you can get going in your favor, the more perch you can catch. Only on the best days do all of the factors above work. Usually, you can increase your success exponentially with each facet you can incorporate.

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Thursday, 18 January 2018

Bowhunting.com’s Top ATA Show Products

10 Most Buzzworthy Products of ATA 2018

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Wednesday, 17 January 2018

Invading the Midwest

Spin-n-Glo’s: Invading the Midwest for Walleye

By Captain Pat Kalmerton

When fishing the Midwest for walleye there is always a “must have” in every angler’s arsenal. However, those “must haves” are changing ever so rapidly it is hard to keep up with what is new on the market yet actually works. Sometimes there are those hidden jewels that have been around for years that maybe couldn’t be found in your area, therefore, you would have no idea what they are or if they work.

I am co-owner of a business, out of Sheboygan, Wisconsin, named Wolf Pack Adventures. We guide salmon fishing charters on Lake Michigan, walleye fishing charters on Lake Winnebago, as well as the Bay of Green Bay, up into the tip of Sturgeon Bay and travel all over the United States chasing the elusive walleye. When your means of survival and putting food on the table for your family depends on putting fish in the boat, we are always looking for the next “must have” lure or technique.

A few years ago, while I was packing and doing research on Lake Winnebago for a walleye tournament, I was studying the lake maps provided on Lake-Link and reading forums. I ran across a person talking about a lure that had wings that spun at the slowest speeds and did not drop into the rocks, due to its floating body. He was crushing fish on this lure as the bottom walker was dragging through the rocks. He could run these on his extra rods while jigging rock piles.

This intrigued me to the point that it became an obsession. I was going to find these come, “hell or high water.” The more I talked about them, the more people became intrigued as well. What in the world are these things called? I got on the Lake-Link forum and found out who was talking about them and messaged him. He sent me pictures, told me they were called Spin-n-Glo’s, but I still could not find them. That tournament was over, and then I was doing my research on the Bay of Green Bay for the next upcoming tournament and, again, here is a person talking about these Spin-n-Glo’s.

BINGO!!! SPIN-N-GLO BY YAKIMA BAIT COMPANY! This is a company from Yakima, Washington that has been around forever. This is a lure people have been crushing fish on out west for years but it just has not come across the plains due to tight lipped secrets. LET THE SECRET BE KNOWN…. THESE THINGS WORK! Spin-n-Glo’s come in bulk bodies and then can be rigged however you wish, or can be purchased pre-rigged with the Bottom Walker or Rufus Special, a blade combo spinner with a tandem hook design, in a variety of colors and sizes.

I ordered a bunch and started playing. To no surprise, I started catching more money fish, and here is why. When trolling any weeds or rocks, and using bladed meat rigs, you need to be trolling fast enough so that the blade creates enough tension or drag to keep from falling to the bottom and getting gunked up by weeds or hanging up on rocks. With the Spin-n-Glo I can be completely stopped, if I wish, and have no worries. This bait floats, keeping your bait up and off the bottom at all times. Not only that, but it spins so freely. Let’s say I want to jig an area or rip cast…. this bait can be drug behind also fishing by using a Bottom Walker with desired lead, and your set.

It runs differently though. When first trying these Spin-n-Glo’s, I used my average lead lengths and it wasn’t as productive as I would have liked. Here is why…. it floats. I shortened my lead to keep my bait in the magic striking area and caught more fish. When running lead core, shorten your lead because your Spin-n-Glo’s will ride up on you.

Do yourself a favor, if you are fishing the Midwest and put some of these in your boat, or better yet, in the water….you will not be disappointed!

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