Well my quest for panfish is still going strong. I was joined again this past Saturday with long time friend Ron; we chose to extend our panfish horizons a bit farther north to the Pelican Rapids area. After a long drive through some intense fog, it wasn’t long after our arrival that the fish were going to make the drive easy to forget.
We setup on an area that looked like a panfish mecca on the map. Shallow weed flat, adjacent deep water, with a few fingers/bars that slowly tapered off into the deeper water vs. just a quick drop. The game plan was to catch these panfish roaming along these fingers looking for something to snack on. We strategically drilled holes on the tip of these fingers and inside turns hoping that our eurolarve would be the tasty snack. I decided to change up my fishing style also, instead of hole hopping. I chose to wait out these roaming fish instead of chasing. As you can see in the picture the wait is sometimes worth it. How many sunfish can you count in this picture?
As you know where there are sunfish and crappie…….the northerns are not far behind. These predator fish played a big role in our fishing success today. They simply would move the panfish up and down these fingers. When the pike finally did move on, the bigger fish followed. I found that if the pike stayed close the bigger sunfish and crappie were also staying close to the hole as well. If the pike didn’t come around for a while I would tend to have a school of smaller fish hang out around my hook.
This pike doesn’t look to happy…..
I primarily fished today with a camera only instead of a flasher. In addition to detecting light biting fish the use of the camera enables you to pay close attention to the reaction of the fish in response to my jigging technique. I learned a lot…. I thought I understood by watching my flasher, but I was wrong. Taking the time to watch a reaction of fish teaches you a lot about the species you’re targeting and can turn a poor day into a very productive day in catching fish….
Till next time
Some other cool photos I took of fish on the camera.
This is the Marcum 825C camera…
Calvin,
Nice day on the ice, and sure are some plump looking Pike.
Jack.
Great report and photos Cal! It is good seeing you out on the ice!
Great report and pictures Calvin
Watching the reaction of fish on the camera sure has helped me speed things up, as far as figuring out what the fish want.
It is cool to be able to actually see the fishes different postures, you can almost read there minds when watching them eye to eye
Super photo’s Cal! it would be great to hook it up the a recorder to see the action.
John
Great report Cal
You have got to love that camera, very cool pictures 
Nice job Cal
Hard to believe you passed up fishing 4″ sunfish with Bob and I for this.
Love the pics man!! 
Great report Cal. Do you use Reel Weeds or anything on your camera to prevent spooking the fish?
I didn’t use any weeds….the “manta” style camera didn’t spook these fish one bit….actually a lot of fish would swim right up to the camera and give it a sniff.
Nice work
, those cameras are fun to play with arent they!
I got some live footage of this Pike cruising through with his buddy.
Pike video
You should have jigged the camera
Very cool
Bret….I bet I seen this pike at least 15 times throughout the day, I though for sure he was going to attack the camera.
VERY cool!
I have been using the weeds on the camera for perch fishing, and really do believe it helps hold fish to the area. You see a number of fish moving towards the bait from the camera. Having two cameras down one with a weed and one without a weed proved to us that the weed did in fact hold more fish.
Cool report Cal!
Loved the pics and video.
Boog
great pics, i think its neat to see the fish on camera like that
Good job Calvin
3 of us headed to Minnewaska sunday moring and had our limit of suns by noon. We took Hucksters new wheelhouse, its a biggie, 8 1/2 x 18 feet !!! We had the cameras going too. It is a blast and everyone should try it once…. 
big g
Good to see the “take a teacher fishing” worked out. My father in law often run into Ron on the lakes up that way. You got to love the central NW of the state…we have spend many, many hours over the past 5 years fishing a variety of lakes in OT county…enjoy!
Take care!
Very Cool Cal!
Just goes to show how long its been since I have seen footage of a decent camera……OMG are those pics cool.
Anyone have a used one for sale?
This would keep my 5yr old out there for days on end!
Those are great pictures, thanks for sharing them. Great report.
I am still very amazed at the picture quality of that new marcum!!
Thanks for sharing!!
Ted