I tried scroll speed changes, just seems like I’ve got something else going on. It’ll freeze up totally for 5-10 minutes, start working perfectly again, then just skipping and back to frozen after a minute. I talked to Garmin, they wanted me to try a different battery so I did, no change. Update didn’t seem to help, and I swapped with another head unit I’ve got, so possibly am zeroing in on the transducer…hopefully I’ll get an answer soon.

Near Perham- maybe gonna get an inch tomorrow night?

I found the video very informative and Aaron seemed to really hit on all the main points very well. I’ve experienced the same things, and couldn’t believe the hooking mortality was as high as stated when originally reported a year or two ago, so it’s not surprising there were some issues with the study. It seems easy to me from a DNR standpoint to just put a little tag in the fish to track the fish for a few days after they’re released, is that not the case? Why don’t they just run a study like that quick and see what’s really going on with the fish instead of the nets and all the apparatus?

I would really expect to see more dead fish around if they were truly all dying upon release? When there’s a low O2 die off, those fish all show up on shore, not eaten by scavengers under ice so the hooking mortality number just seems off to me and other anglers I’ve talked to about it before.

Thanks for posting, keep up the good work!!

Well I got my house back on last night, now after Friday, may have enough snow to bank it!! Hoping to have a little storm bite this weekend, here’s to hoping!

Same experience. I bought some hawg outdoors lights, and while they aren’t as bright, seem to be robust. Time will tell.

Are you seeing crappies deeper or shallower on lakes you fish? I’m almost solely a deeper basin fisherman (too many kids with to do much prospecting). So for me it’s kinda trying to learn the shallow game if they’re not in the bigger schools out deep, at least not yet.

Ok, I’ll give that a try tomorrow, thanks for the help!

I’m not seeing scroll settings other than on-off. I looked through every menu I could find. I’ve got it shut off, not sure though. It’s intermittent. I did a software update that seemed to make it go back to normal, but after a few trips it’s acting up again.

Power source is a Dakota lithium, shows 16.1 v on the display..noise rejection I’ve tried off- high, and no change on any setting.

Could be that the transducer is going out, but hard to believe with the small amount of use it gets, and the care with which it’s handled. I’ll look for scroll speed but haven’t seen that as an option to adjust on any of the menu screens. Will check it out tonight. Thanks for the responses!

Tom, thank you for the insight! When I’m referring to “supposed to be” with sunfish, I’m mostly talking about shows, articles etc. where the formula is laid out – “find green weeds, find fish!” I’m sure it’s true in lots of lakes, I was just really surprised that I couldn’t find a single straggler in the green weeds during first ice. My experience with crappies has been sort of so so on early ice in the basins, then it gets great toward Jan 1. It made me wonder if there was something bigger at play, like if your lake has x type of bug, fish will be magnetically attracted to it over all else. I’ve been doing pretty well lately, actually catching sunnies until 9:30 on Monday while watching my beloved Vikings lay an egg against the Packers….good thing the fish were biting!

If you’re fishing in 30 plus feet, most of the winter they’ll be suspended and I wouldn’t think they’ll be goners when you get them up. Maybe I’m wrong, but I’ve released a million crappies that way and they seemed fine?

Take a snowmobile out and pack a trail to your spot. The water will fill in the snow and it’ll freeze solid after a cold couple of nights.

Glow early and glow often. I do it every couple minutes. Full minnow on a demon single hook spoon and a head on a treble hook demon spoon.

Anyone fish bass up in the Park Rapids/Walker area?? It always seems like you can’t find any fish over 12″ until the cabbage just starts to creep up at the edge of the lillies, but after that, there’s some real dandy lakes up here with no fishing pressure at all. Not to mention a few bald eagles and ospreys soaring overhead. People don’t know what they’re missing!!

Nice report, how many did you end up getting? I just spent 3 days up at Red and am looking to go back out on a lake closer by that won’t be as big of a let down as Fish hook has been so far.

We fished Monday-Wednesday and had phenomenal walleye fishing. 250 plus walleyes for the 3 days, including most of our time on Tuesday chasing the illusive crappie. We never did find any, and had heard no one had really gotten into them since Thursday last week. A few nice bonus fish for the week though, we boated a 39, 35, and 40 inch northern for the trip. That’s not a bad change from catching 15-21″ walleyes consistently all day long. It was an unreal trip. Thanks to the guys at Bearpaw Guides for our accommodations, I recommend them to anyone looking for a great fishing cabin.

A few springs back, up here by Park Rapids, my dad caught a 21.25″ smallie, it literally pulled the boat around for about 10 minutes. While we were all high fiving over this unbelievable fish, I had casted back up to the same spot and got a bite. I set the hook and couldn’t ever quite get a feel for what was on the line, I was using a 7″ Motor Oil power worm, so I figured a largemouth hung up in some cabbage, but when she got up to the surface it was a 30″ walleye!! To this day, we’ve never caught another walleye on that lake, but that was one hell of a 5 minute span of fishing. That’s why we keep going I suppose…

I’ll be heading up with some friends the Monday after opener and will be staying at the Bearpaw. Any idea on where the crappie bite typically is at in mid-May? We were thinking a good strategy is to switch to Northerns and Crappies after our arms are tired from catching walleyes…if we have the same luck as last year that is!

We fished just on the deep side of the break and drifted North to South in 10′ with pretty good luck. No real monsters to speak of, but that’s to be expected for a few years yet, I suppose.