Watching the crazy good crappie bites that James, Joel & Cal have experienced the past couple weeks has left me with a serious case of panfish envy so I couldn’t wait to get out on the ice this past weekend. Joined on my panfish mission by good friend Taylor Patnode we loaded the Otter with warm clothes exra warm clothes, grabbed a few snacks, and headed out hoping the cold weather hadn’t locked the jaws of too many panfish.
Our first lake was one that I’ve had my eye on for while but after about 50 holes and a stuck ATV we still hadn’t put a fish on the ice by early afternoon so we decided a change of scenery was in order. Since we were dealing with unstable weather conditions that most likely were slowing the bite down it we decided that getting bit would be tough enough even if we know where they were hiding so it didn’t really make much sense to keep trying new water so we packed up and high-tailed it to another lake that I’ve had some experience on in the past… And it turns out we made the right call.
Arriving at our new lake we quickly punched a half dozen holes and instantly were on fish. My first drop resulted in a 12″+ crappie and Taylor had one just a hair smaller… A couple more drops resulted in another crappie and 2 healthy gills and it quickly turned into a competition with Taylor fishing plastics and me using a pug bug tipped with euro larva. After about a half an hour of steady action we were staying pretty even but my fingers were getting cold from having to re-bait so I decided to make a switch over and I started tipping my Pug Bug with a Red VMC Nypth plastic. The bite didn’t slow down a bit and in fact the quality of the fish was much better as compared to larva.
Not only were we quickly accomplishing our mission to ice some dandy crappies & gills but I was also working on quickly checking one of my fishing resolutions off the list as a goal of my this year was to become better at fishing plastics for panfish. The pictures speak for themselves but if you need a hint as to how my 1st time fishing the new VMC ice plastics went let’s just say I won’t be stopping by the bait shop on my next panfish trip.
Thanks Taylor for the great trip and helping to teach this old dog a few new tricks!
Nice fish, Will!
A couple more pics from our adventure. We ended up having a ridiculously good day for catching larger fish with many 13″ plus crappies, a handful over 14″ and several 9-10.5″ gills that were in serious need of Jenny Craig. I can’t say for sure if it was the plastics but I’d say the they definitly weren’t hurting
Well done Will! Now you have got me scheming up a Crappie outing.
Niiiiice gills!
Great looking fish Will! Now you’ve caught to ice plastic bug!
Nice fish.
Nice fish guys. The red Trigger X nymph for me this year has been tough to get fish, I have had great luck on the Orange/Chart color or the white. Might just be a confidence thing. Panfish on plastics is a very fun way to fish.
Now I know I need to make a trip to fish slab crappies after your post and the IDO shows. I was wondering what your rod and reel set up was for the crappies? Guessing a noodle rod 34″?
Nice work William! I know how big a dude you are, which makes esp. that gill much bigger than the pic looks. Congrats on some good fishing. Was great reading about “lake #1” that you tried and didn’t find fish. There have been so many “lake #1’s” over the years which makes finding them like you guys did so enjoyable. It’s all about the story and the adventure. Thanks for taking us along!
Joel
32″ TUCR Precision Noodle with the Eagle Claw inline reel with free spool and 2# suffix 100% flourocarbin.
We had our best luck using Red when it was overcast, but as soon as the sun came out the seemed to want white.
Nice crappies Will!
Great Job Will on the panfish bite !!!
It’s driving me nutz not to be able to get out there hitting the hard water with the Jigs and Plastics bite…
I was on a nice lake down south the last time ice fishing and I can only go over in my head so many times as to where and when I will get out next..
I know one thing, I will be using the Trigger X Nymph and the pug bug.. I love that profile !!!
Keep up the good work.. it’s reports like yours that keep my sanity !!!
Great report Will! You’re passing on the bug, now I want to get out and chase some gills and slabs.
Hang in there bud… With all of this cold weather you’ve got plenty of time left to fish and the best is yet to come!
And hopefully I’ll be fishing with you come March