Wabasha Area Backwater Gills & Crappies 12 13 07

The sub title for this report is “Sight Fishing for Old Guys”. Plan A for Thursday was to fish walleye and saugar out of Everts at Red Wing but the wind forecast scared me off. I know there are a lot of ices fishing aficionados out there but ice fishing will always be plan B for me. But it is winter in the upper Midwest and if a guy needs a “fishing fix” you need to be ready to go with what ever Mother Nature affords us. Even thought its plan B I have to admit I enjoy ice fishing once I’m out there. One option that adds to the experience is sight fishing (looking down the hole). Much of the panfish fishing in the Mississippi is in relatively shallow (under 5’) so if you look for it you can usually find a spot that lends it’s self to sight fishing. However, the years and a pot-belly have made it hard for this old boy to sit bent over a hole to look live for any length of time. An alternative is to use an underwater camera pointed down (vertical) the hole. I prefer over lowering the camera horizontal for one reason; I want to stay mobile and want to drill one hole. With a short cord and a one-man shelter I can hop from hole to hole dropping the camera head just as quickly as a sonar transducer.

I purchased my camera before I became enlightened but all of the manufactures cameras can be adapted to this style of fishing. One of the obstacles is to get the camera to hang as close to vertical as possible. AquaVu has a notch on its stabilizing fin but with the stiffness of the cord, and the position of the clip the camera tends to point to far to the side. I get better results by using a twist-tie to hold the camera head pointed down. I usually have to move the camera around the hole to get the best position to see my lure. The camera head can be lowered or raised to match the depth and the range in the water column the fish are using. Because the cameras have a very wide angle lens and most of the panfish lures are small you need to be within 4’ of the lure to see it. The light level in not the issue, it’s simply the size of the lure.

There a lot of advantages to watching the fish react to you lure and it’s surprising how many fish reject our offerings. It’s also amazing how the “sniffer’s” can mouth a lure without getting the hook in their mouth. Being able to watch really improves the hooking percentage because you see when the fish has taken the bait. A huge advantage to watching is if the sniffer’s outweigh the takers you know it’s time to change lures. One can also judge the specie and size of the fish and you also know if you lure is messed-up or if your live bait has been stolen.

The fishing was great for numbers and OK for size. There were spurts where it was a fish every drop and periods where you could watch fish milling around and showing no interest. I did most of my fishing with plastics and added a wax worm when things slowed. The waxie’s did convert a few sniffer’s but most were small. Changing lures usually resulted in an immediate strike but after a few minutes the fish lost interest in the lure. The most productize lure throughout the day was a purple and white purest. Some of the interesting observations for the day were how sensitize the fish were to shadow. When the sun was out the quality dropped till I adjusted the position of the shelter to minimize the shadow. I ended up with one corner over the hole and the sled positioned away from the sun. Changing lures frequently seemed to sustain the action and artificial out-fished live bait.

If you are in the right area give sight fishing a try. It’s very educational and entertaining. If you over fifty, a camera might be the best option.