Winter Time tactics

[Tarpon4me]

You know, if there is one thing I truely suck at, it's catching panfish during the cold winter months. I just can't seem to temp a bite.

I've tried deep with natural offerings. ( wax worms, crickets, night crawlers) I've tried lures at all depths and of all types. It just seems during the cold months the fish just aren't interested in feeding. I can't even seem to create impulse strikes from agitation and territory intrusion.

What ticks me off is I see people ice fishing further up north and catching panfish with great success. [] If anglers are able to land nice panfish through a hole in ice, why can't I catch panfish in 40+ degree bodies of water?

I know for sure that any anglers that lives in a climate similar to mine is having/has had this issue during this time of year.
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[tubeN2]

One time, there were two boys going ice fishing. They were sitting only a few feet apart. One boy noticed that while he was catching nothing the other boy kept catching fish every time he put the worm in the water.

So the first little boy asked the other boy, "What's your secret?" The other boy replied, " Ma mottameeh ma Mors merm!" the first little boy couldn't understand him and so he asked him again, " What's your secret?" So the boy again replied,"Ma Motta meeh Ma Mors Merm!"

The first little boy still couldn't understand him, so he asked a third time, "What's your secret?" the other boy said, " --PATEWEE(spit)-- You gotta keep your worms warm!"[][]
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[davetclown]

when fishing for gills in the winter, two feet can make the differance from a bucket full fish and a tub full of worms at the end of the day...

fish tend to forage in cirtain areas... they also what small slooooow presentations, jigs size 10-8, colors varie from one pond to the next...

gills hit vary lightly during the winter monts, as a matter of fact, many times you cant feel a fish bight, that is why many ice anglers use a method called stiff lining... meaning while waiting for a fish to bite, the drop thier rods down and they see any slack a gill is on the line.. time to set the hook and reel in..

you may want to switch over to crappie over the winter months if you are having problems stiff lining from a boat, crappie and perch hit much harder and run when they hit...

to put it simply if you are not catching gills in the winter, you are not tight lining....

your bait is right, gills want small offerings during the winter.. if you know where there are any dormant bee hives you can bust in to them on a cold day, gills do like bees and bee larve... even black wasp...
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[davetclown]

You may want to read over [url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?post=7799;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;forum_view=forum_view_collapsed;"][#333366][size 1]Ice Fishing Tip of the Day[/size][/#333366][/url][size 1] [/size] on the ice fishing board. Especialy tip number #59

it has refferance to stiff lining, because the fish hit so light, the type of bobber refered to in this tip allows anglers to lift thier rods as much as lower their rods to see if there is a fish present on the line...

another thing ice anglers are using with a great deal of sucess is Vexlars, vexlars have a light signal that watches your bait at what ever depth it is at, and it watches fish down below as well, you can watch the light of the fish "red" start to move towards the lite that represents your bait "green" and when the two lights line up you just lift your rod and reel in your fish even tho you never see the hit on the rod.

thats shows ya how light they hit
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[Tarpon4me]

I hear ya' on the "light bites." I know our native sheepshead in the ocean are famed for you not being able to feel the bite, and alot of time it's true. Now that i've switched to super braid line for many of my applications, I can usually pick up even the most faint of bites.

I know you're right on with the crappie, but i'm not much of a crappie fisherman. The reason for that is simple, I haven't put my time in doing it. I know the tactics and basic know-how, I just haven't applied them enough to be efficient at it.

What i'm really trying to do is atleast be able to snagg a half dozen or so of bream, or hand sized live bait for that matter, so I can catfish during the winter months. Sure I could drive to santee and buy live shad, but I don't have anyway to keep them alive during the trip. Shad are wicked hard to keep alive, and my smaller boat just doesn't have the room to add a proper round walled live well. It has an old school box livewell molded in, and that's pretty much how it's going to stay.

Maybe I should break out the old cast net and snagg a few like that. LOL I just hope the gamewarden isn't watching. (just kidding if you are) []
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[slabseeker]

I'm a big fan of vertical jigging for bluegill. I have had exellent success with small flys under a small float.. (watch for a very lite bite,and using lite line 2,3lb.) I would suggest approaching them in the same manner that one would while ice fishing.. starting with the edge of the weed line. then work your way out. i've caught them in 4 feet of water, and as deep as 30 feet. i fish the lower foot of the column 90% of the time.. and when the weeds fail i zero in on structure. once you find them it's on.
also in-fishermen has published alot on the coveted panfish... i love hunting all species of panfish and i feel that i do quite well in all conditions .. they fear me!![pirate]
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