– TIME TO GET REAL –
– TIME TO GET REAL –
on all orders
$119 or more
CHanging The Game
in Ice Fishing ELECTRONICs
Show Your Loyalty with Latest MarCum Apparel.
Show Your Loyalty with Latest MarCum Apparel.
subscribe for news & posts
Walking and wading quietly are vital aspects to success. Think Navy Seal-esque stealthy when you hit the bank. Be cognizant of shadows to go undetected to roaming trout. Task yourself to make long, precise casts to avoid spooking fish.
Minnesota and Wisconsin alone have more than 15,000 miles of trout streams. With so much trout water to cover, mobility is crucial for continued success. Don’t waste too much time in one area. A few casts per spot is all that is necessary. If limited success ensues, then it’s time to keep ‘er moving.
Trout will hold in a variety of areas depending on the stream and the conditions. Common areas that will often congregate fish include deep holes or pools, current seams, and log jams.
The “dog days” of summer mark the end of the early summer feeding binges that most fish including bass go through. Not only are lakes really warm but they are chock full of food including insects, frogs, crawfish, baitfish and fry from all species. Suffice to say that fish have plenty of food and cover available to them. So consequently it can make it just a little tougher to entice a fish into taking your presentation.
A lot of anglers will set their minds on fall when temperatures will cool down and fishing will generally be a little easier. However you don’t have to leave the boat in the garage until then, simply refine your strategies to start catching fish again.
There’s a lot of ways to catch fish during the lazy summer months, but it’s worth remembering that fish are pretty fat and happy right now. Weedlines are well defined, bait is plentiful in most lakes, and warm water temps mean fish are at peak metabolism. While they need to eat often, it’s not hard to find a great place to get dinner. The menu options are varied as well, so it tends to take most fishing patterns and nullify the amplitude of their effectiveness.
Who doesn’t have boxes of jigs laying around? No matter the species, it could be the most universal, widely copied, and versatile lure of all time. If we’re talking live bait, it’s the best delivery method for meat that I know of. If plastics, well there’s usually a jig involved here too.
Starting with a standard jig-head, you have to think about what you’d like to do with it. If you’re threading on a fathead minnow, a will be the logical choice. The same can’t be said if you’re looking to fish plastics, as plastics fish best with an aggressive wire keeper.
As for other features and color, think about the water clarity you’ll be fishing in. Anything with a blade or propeller adds flash and vibration, which may be a necessary part of the presentation. Big minnows call for a , and suspended fish call for a that rises above a weight on the bottom. So many jigs, so many scenarios, but you need to match the style of jig to the type of fishing you’ll be doing.
Throughout the summer months, schools of crappies typically concentrate themselves along weed edges, as well as pockets and holes in the weedy cover. In certain situations, fish will push further into the weeds and in others, push out away from the edges, but still remain in close proximity to the weeds. Focus your efforts on these keys areas.
As the season progresses, crappies will also inhabit other areas, often in slightly deeper water. Woody cover – such as man-made cribs or submerged timber – act as crappie magnet regardless of the time of year, but they tend to concentrate fish towards the tail end of the summer.