Articles and News

Dave Honored at the NAIFC

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 13:20:06 -0500

What an honor, while at the NAIFC Tournament Series in Minnesota, Dave was presented with a framed print. The picture is of Mark Stevens’ account of a day on the lake at the Ice Team University (know known as Ice Roads on Ice Clinics). When Mark present Dave with the print he read:
To Mr. Dave Genz
I wanted to thank you for all that you have inspired in the area of ice fishing, I have learned so much from not only in the way of ice fishing; but, the way people should be treated.
I will never forget looking out my Trap and watching you talk to gentlemen and their grandson.
You took the time to meet and greet them, then you came back with hats, and I remember watching that gentleman rip his truck apart to find a pen, so you could autograph those hats, and how the grandson must have felt to meet the GURU of ice fishing and the stories that will live within him about that day.
I wanted to say thank you in away that will last longer than just a thank you, so I had a friend draw a painting of my memories of fishing with you at the University.

Thanks for such great memories
Mark Stevens

Mark Stevens, all of us at Winter Fishing Systems, Inc, would like to say “thanks” for sharing such a wonderful story and memory, we know Dave will cherish it for a long time to come.

Recycled Fish 12 Questions: Dave Genz

Fri, 8 Feb 2008 11:06:57 -0600

Here we are in the height of ice fishing season for our series kickoff interview. There is one man more than any other who is responsible for ice fishing as we know it. He invented the “Fish Trap” – the flip style ice shelter, which has become a staple among serious ice anglers, and has now been adapted by a number of manufacturers. He’s got rod and reel combos, jigs, and all kinds of ice fishing accessories to his name. And that name is Dave Genz.
Dave, what got you interested in the outdoors in the first place?
“My father – I was lucky, I had a river in my back yard when I grew up. After school, I came home and played by the river all day. That was my childhood. But now, you know I’m an ice fishing guy. My dad was a road construction guy, so he wasn’t around much in the summer, but he was off most of the winter, so he went ice fishing every day. That’s what got me into ice fishing. That got me interested in what I’m doing.”
What is the biggest advancement in fishing that you’ve seen?
“Most recently, it’s the GPS and the lake map chips that go into them. That is by far the biggest advancement ever in fishing. It’s amazing how when the old green box came out they wanted to ban it – they said it was going to ruin fishing and there wouldn’t be any fish left. Then when cameras came.....

To read the rest of the story click here Recycled Fish

Ice Roads On Ice Clinics

Fri, 8 Feb 2008 09:34:15 -0600

The new cutting edge series of on ice clinics that were designed by fishermen for fishermen. After
years of guiding clients and fishing tournaments, on countless bodies of water throughout the ice belt,
professional ice guide Jim Hudson and professional ice fisherman Mike McNett have teamed together to share and show you their knowledge at the hottest ice fishing destinations in the country. Each destination was hand picked for it's opportunity to teach students specific techniques and to target specific species of fish. Each clinic will showcase in class seminars and tutorials along with bringing you onto the ice for hands on demonstrations allowing you to hone your skills to become a better ice angler.

Come join them for their first Ice Roads on Ice Clinic on the famous Lake Mille Lacs in the heart of Minnesota's Ice Belt, in search of late ice jumbo perch. This finned friend was the feature quarry of the Ice Team Annual, where they continue on that road to helping you track down and catch these bottom loving fish.

Guest seminar speakers for the 2008 Mille Lacs Clinic are Dave Genz, Corey Studer, Tony Roach, Adam Johnson, Brad Buys, and Randy Havel. Guest instructors are all of the above, including Roland "Doc" Kehr, Mike "Smitty" Smith, Mike Zickerman, Kevin "Capt Kev" Winkler, Chris Beeksma, Tod Todd, and Shawn Hennings.

For more information on the Ice Road on Ice Clinic click here.

NAIFC Tournament Series Replaces Trap Attacks

Mon, 21 Jan 2008 10:57:07 -0600

Our nation’s premier ice fishing tournament circuit has changed. Replacing the old Trap Attack series the North American Ice Fishing Championship (NAIFC) Tournament Series is taking competitive ice fishing to the next level. The NAIFC Tournament Series will conduct 4 qualifying tournaments across the ice belt this season, with 8 tournaments planned for 2009.

Dates and locations for this year’s qualifying tournament are:
* February 3rd, Channel Lake, Antioch IL.
* February 17th, Upper Turtle Lake, Turtle Lake WI.,
* February 24th, Silver Lake, NY
* March 9th, Chisago Lake, Chisago, MN.
Further information on the NAIFC Tournament Series can be found at The Fishy Spot.

The 2-person-team qualifying tournaments are open to the first 150 teams to sign-up; with the top 15 teams of each tournament qualify for the North American Ice Fishing Championship (NAIFC) to be held in December. The cost per team is $120.00 for each qualifying tournament. To sign up for a tournament visit the NAIFC Tournament Series website or contact Kathy Roberts at 320-252-0428

Why, Why, Why?

Mon, 14 Jan 2008 09:56:58 -0600

Understanding why things happen the way they do under an iced-over body of water can help you catch more fish.

For almost 40 years now, Dave Genz has been a prime mover in the advancement of ice fishing To anglers throughout the ice belt, he is known for his ability to find and catch fish consistently, and accurately predict fish movements at different periods within the ice fishing season.
But there is a difference between knowing that something happens and understanding why it happens. To better understand the dynamics of iced-over bodies of water, Dave enlisted the help of Mac Strand, Ph.D., professor of entomology and aquatic ecology at Northern Michigan University, while writing his book," Bluegills!" The partnership between Dr. Strand and Dave Genz will no doubt lead to a better understanding of the 'whys' of ice fishing, that will benefit all of us who love to chase fish all winter.
For now, a few selected topics that should make interesting reading, and help you enjoy your ice fishing more this winter.

By Dave Genz

In the last few years, I've spent a lot of time using as Aqua-Vu underwater camera, lowering the camera down a hole in the ice and just observing things. Through the use of the camera, I have a much better understanding of what's down there under the ice, and what it looks like.
But I'd still like to know more about why things happen, so I can better understand why fish hold in certain areas at certain times of the year, why they move, what they're feeding on, and so forth.
By now, a lot of serious ice anglers know that fish go through environmental changes between the time ice first forms over their heads until it melts in the spring. Just what the changes are, and how severe the differences are between early and late winter, depends largely on how long and severe the winter is where you live. In some regions of the so-called 'ice belt,' you may only have fishable ice for a few days or weeks. In other locations, like my home state of Minnesota, winter hangs on for four or five months.
Let's look at the various stages of the iced-over-period, and the changes that fish face where winter lingers.
First Ice-At first ice, oxygen depletion is not a factor, so fish in many ways have the run of the lake. Now is probably the best time to fish smaller waters, like small natural lakes and ponds. Fish are often found in the same locations they were in during late fall.
Depending on the species of fish, and the specific makeup of each body of water, you might find fish in shallow weeds, other shallow flats, inside corners, points, midlake structures or the very deepest basin. Again, it all depends on the species of fish, its fall locational tendencies, and the food supply for that species.
Decreased Light Penetration-I call this 'the cloudy period. It's a transition time between first ice and midwinter. You can recognize this period by an increase in dying and dead weeds and cloudy water.
The water might have been nice and clear earlier in the winter, but now it's cloudier. Some people say the water got 'all riled up.' Well what riled it up? Ice is covering the surface, so there is no wind.
This period begins about the time we get 'driving ice' in Minnesota, and we notice a definite change in the fishing. The ice is thicker, there's less light penetration, and usually snow cover. In your area, it might be just thicker ice and snow cover. Even in the fringe areas of the ice belt where it can get warm enough to melt and thaw without losing all the ice the ice is not clear after a while. Sometimes, it floods and refreezes and that makes it milky, and there's less light penetration.
But regardless of how clear the ice is, and how much sunlight penetrates, many underwater plants have annual cycles governed by day length. So it's actually the shortening daylight hours (photoperiod) that cause ,amu weeds to into something of a survival mode, and sort of 'mark time' until spring. Still, this noticeable decrease in light penetration through the ice is probably the 'kicker' that causes certain weeds to brown up and start to decompose. When plants die off or when phytoplankton population growth declines, a feeding frenzy by decomposing bacteria follows. It becomes a cycle that causes dropping oxygen levels, as the population levels, and activity, among these 'primary decomposers' grows.
It's interesting that there are huge, and roughly equal, populations of decomposer bacteria in all lakes, regardless of how clear, dirty, fertile, or infertile the water. The differences become noticeable only based on how many are active at any give time in any give body of water.
The scientists who study the workings of a lake under the ice speculate on various reasons for this clouding of the water. One likely cause: dead and dying algae and weed particles suspended in the water, being attacked and consumed by bacteria and fungi.
But there are other known causes.
Sometimes, phytoplankton deplete dissolved carbon dioxide levels to a point that a calcium carbonate precipitate is produced. This phenomenon is called "lake whitening" because the water takes on a milky appearance. Fine sediments suspended in the water can also produce a 'cloudiness' and so can large number of microscopic organisms.
So it is the increase in activity level of decomposer bacteria (spurred by an increase in available dead and dying plants) that depletes oxygen levels. Oxygen levels can get too low for most fishes, and can be the reason many fish vacate shallow, weedy area places that may have housed good fishing in previous weeks.
Bottom line: It's common to see many fish species move into deeper, cleaner, clearer water once the cloudy period sets in.
Midwinter Fishing gets tougher. Many species are often in deeper, more oxygenated water. I think these fish, in a lot of waters, quit feeding for a time. I have a theory that it gets to a point where there just isn't much food in some lakes during the 'dead' of the midwinter period, and the fish go into a semi-hibernation state. They don't move, and they don't exert energy.
Where good fishing existed earlier in the winter, it can seem like no fish exist at all. Being cold-blooded, some fish may not have to take in any food for a time as long as they remain dormant, a condition biologists refer to as a torpor. When their body temperature goes down, fish don't die, bit perhaps they sense there is very little food available.
(It's probably true, though, that for some of the cold-water fish; lake trout, big northern pike the winter, in general, may be their most active time.)
This midwinter period is the time when larger lakes generally produce better than smaller ones. It's not the best time of year to fish a large lake, necessarily, but it can be the time to choose a large lake over a small one. But don't hit the large lake and go straight to where the crowd has been since first ice. Those fish have been tapped: they've gone home in buckets. Search out your own fish, at this time more than any other period.
One alternative strategy that I've been using in recent years is to chase the early-ice period by traveling to other states. Simply going south from my home base in Minnesota. I can get to early-ice conditions after the doldrums hit. Similarly, you can follow late-ice conditions north as they occur, as ice melts on the southern fringes of ice county.
Late Ice Shiny wetness appears around a branch or leaf lying on the ice surface. Snow starts melting, creeks start running, water collects on top of the ice and runs back down your hole when you drill it.
Runoff has begun, and many fish (especially bluegills) often return to the shallows that they vacated during the cloudy period or midwinter.
In shallow water, plants start growing again, in response to increasing day- length. They kick out oxygen during the daylight hours, which makes the shallows hospitable again. Insects, also in response to the lengthening photoperiod, show an impressive increase in activity.
At this time, it's common to see weeds growing under the ice. An Aqua-Vu camera can be a great tool, because the water can still be cloudy, but you can identify green weeds growing right among decaying weeds. The weed growing shallows can be like a flower bed in spring, where all these dead plants are surrounded by the new sprouts pushing up through and competing for the sunlight. If you find this situation, it's a good bet some fish have found it too.
Generally speaking, late ice is a time when many species become oriented toward shorelines and feeder creeks, or any other spots that have current, staging for the spring spawn. Some species, in fact, spawn before the ice even melts.
I'm going to be doing a lot more studying of lake dynamics in the coming years, as I strive to learn more of the "whys' when it comes to ice fishing. I have some theories on underwater currents, moon cycles, oxygen levels, stuff like that. I'll keep you posted as new information becomes available.

First printed in 2000

How clear is the Water, Momma?

Fri, 11 Jan 2008 12:03:48 -0600

A revolutionary new system for locating bluegills through the ice... an excerpt from the book "Bluegills!"

By Dave Genz

Water clarity and weeds are everything. Those are the two main factor when it comes to locating bluegills.
Clear or dirty. Weeds or no weeds. Standing, green weeds or dead weeds laying on the bottom.
Those are the lake types when it comes to bluegills.

The most important aspect of catching bluegills through the ice.... finding them.
The goal here is to make you a successful bluegill angler in any region of the ice belt, at all periods of the winter. I feel confident, at least most of the time, about making bluegills bite once I find them. Most days, if we see fish come into our holes when we're sight fishing, or mark them on our Vexilar, they'll bite.
So the finding can be the hard part, and the prospect of striking off on your own can seem daunting. The security blanket of the crowd on the community spot can be hard to break away from. But trust me, the rewards of setting the hook into stubborn resistance when you're the only one on the spot are worth the effort.
Let's prepare you for becoming a fish hunter.

How clear is the water, momma?

At least when it comes to bluegills, the type of system they are found in is not a huge clue as to location. In the ice belt, "gills are found in natural lakes, manmade reservoirs, rivers, ponds and pits. In my experience, bluegills are bluegills, and will tend to be in predictable places, regardless of the water type, based on what is available.
When it comes to finding bluegills, the number one thing in any body of water is water clarity.
When you're looking for 'gills ask yourself about the color of the water. Check a map, ask at the bait shop, drill a hole and see for yourself.
How clear is it? Are there weeds, or not? If there are weeds, how deep do they grow?
Water clarity and weeds are everything. Those are the two main factors.
All bluegill-holding waters can be broken into clear water, dirty water, or somewhere in between water. If the water is dirty, there may be weeds, but only in the shallows because sunlight doesn't penetrate and allow deeper plant growth. If the water is clear, there might be weeds that grow quite deep. In any fishery that has weeds, those weeds might be standing upright, laying on the bottom, or a combination of both.
When it comes to bluegills, those are the lake types.
Lakes, ponds, pits, and backwaters of reservoirs and rivers, all fall into one of these 'categories.' Also, based on the length and severity of winter, any given body of water might change in these important physical features from one period of the winter to another. In other words, there might be an abundance of healthy, standing weeds at early ice, but by midwinter, most of the weeds may be laying on the bottom heavy snow cover and resulting loss of light penetration having robbed the plants of their vitality.
These are the main factors that affect bluegill location.
Water clarity is going to dictate whether the fish are shallow or deep. In real clear water, you can have fish in 15 feet of water living in the weeds. In other systems, 15 feet can be the deepest water, and the water, and the water might be quite discolored, with very little weed growth at any depth. There are various stages between these extremes.
And the type of weeds can make a difference. Cabbage and coontail are two of my favorites. Junk weeds are usually not standing weeds in winter under the ice. An area might be 'weed-choked' in the summer, but a barren flat in the winter because all the weeds are dead and laying down. The weeds have to be up, at least somewhat, for them to offer protection from predators.
In some lakes, where the weeds all fall down later in the winter, if you have clumps of reeds you'll often see them sticking up through the ice bluegills will use them, too.
At seminars, I'm often asked by people who are going to fish a strange lake how they can find the bluegills. I ask them the following questions:

*How Deep do the weeds grow?
*Do the weeds stay green all winter?
*Are the weeds dead or alive?

It's critical to realize that a lake can make a transition in the middle of the winter, say from clear to dirty. Snow cover can cause weeds to die, and that can cloud up the water, and now this is a whole new lake from what it was just a few weeks before! Late in the ice season, melt-water can run back into the lake and dirty it up.
One thing I hear from people is "one year, we caught them over here, but we never caught 'em there again." Well, it has to have something to do with weeds or water clarity. Or both.
Was it a hot or cool summer? How healthy were the weeds in the fall? You get a good, hot summer, that can affect the winter. If a lake turns pea green in the summer (they don't all do this) and all the weeds go down because of lack of light penetration, how healthy do you think those weeds are going to be come winter? Sometimes, fertilizer or other manmade compounds can influence this, too.
The bottom line is: how clear is the water, and are there any weeds?
Like many things in life, it's as simple, and as complex, as that.

Other Considerations

*The size of the fishery is important. In the case of ponds and pits, for example, location can be simple, because they're generally small. It might take just an hour or so to determine where the fish are holding, because you can easily walk around drilling holes in every possible spot. A big lake, or expansive backwaters n reservoirs and river systems, require a more systematic search strategy.

*The relative size of a fishery based on where it is, geographically, is also important. In regions that feature long winters and heavy snowfall, smaller ponds, lakes and river backwaters tend to produce better fishing early and late in the season, and can be difficult to catch fish out of in the middle of the ice-over period. It's probably an oxygen thing. By comparison, a larger lake would probably be a better choice in the middle of the ice season.

*High and low water cycles are important to track. All systems go through periods of relatively lower and higher water levels. During periods of high water, the system tends to have more food per fish, and this seems to allow the bluegills to get bigger than they otherwise would. I love high-water cycles. High water can change fish location, too. For example, let's say a bay normally has about 3 feet of water in it. Bluegills will vacate such a spot before the ice even forms, and won't be there all winter, assuming deeper water is available. But if the bay suddenly has 8 feet of water in it, the 'gills might be able to winter in there.

*You need to know that a given system has good bluegills in it. Don't fish there if there isn't a good bluegill population. Reports created by your local biologists are more available ever, either by contacting their office or searching the internet. And many of today's contour lake maps include test-netting data, noting size and abundance of the fish species found in the body of water.

“Bluegills!” the book was printed in 1999

"Lessons I've Learned"

Thu, 10 Jan 2008 11:08:27 -0600

By Dave Genz

For the past ten years or more, I've traveled a lot to fish through the ice on new waters. It has become my full-time job in the winter, a dream come true for a kid like me who grew up loving ice fishing.
When I packed tackle and gear for my first log-distance trips, I also brought along my own set of experiences. I was pretty smug about how effective my friends and I had become, and assumed that we had the best approach figured out for any water that iced over.
You might guess what happened in more than one case. We'd go into a new area and have trouble catching fish with our "sure-fire" methods. Local guys would be catching fish and we'd struggle...at least at the beginning of the trip.
Good thing for us, we're not stubborn. We drove along ways in many cases, and we wanted to know what these guys were doing that we weren't.
While the things I had learned on my home-state waters of Minnesota will always be the core of my approach, I've learned to head into new areas expecting that the best local anglers have worked out important details necessary to catch fish on their waters.
I still bring what I think I need, but I go onto new turf with a wide-open mind. I found out that if you ask questions of the local hotshots, and listen carefully, and watch closely, you can add important insights that will help you catch fish no matter where you go.
I've dedicated this winter to passing on an idea that I've learned that is really important: broaden your horizons if you want to become consistent.
This means a lot of things, but one of the most important is watching and listening and learning from the best anglers, whether you're fishing on your home waters or a brand new pond.
The best local ice anglers in any area have spent many hours figuring out how to catch fish. They may not have fancy names for what they do, but through a process of trial-and-error they've arrived at a winning formula.
Here, as a few examples of what I mean, are some of the valuable details we picked up just the last couple of years by traveling to new areas and learning from the local hotshots:
Clear water calls for natural, horizontal, swimming lures.
We went to Okoboji, Iowa in search of big bluegills, along with the other fish the area offers. Because of the extremely clear water, the locals had figured out that a horizontal presentation is important.
These fish can see your lure, and they've seen it all. You had to use light line, you had to limit the amount of light penetrating through your hole, and the bait had to be swimming naturally.
A tiny ice jig with the eye positioned on top of the lead head (as opposed to on the end) was the right lure. And you had to position the knot so the lure hung horizontally in the water. If you snagged a weed or hooked a fish, you had to check the knot, and re-position it if it had moved..
The best locals went so far as to begin jigging and swimming their lure just under the ice, and slowly settled it into the depth the fish were. A lure that plunged quickly to the right depth and then started swimming won't fool the local bluegills, they believe.
(In dirtier water, it often takes a "vibration" lure to call in fish and trigger strikes,)
Fish that are tight to bottom might not show up easily on sonar, but can be caught.
Now, we're up in Canada, on Lake of the Woods. We're after walleye and saugers. We're fishing with good locals who know where the fish are.
The locals, many of whom don't fish with sonar, just go along catching fish, by presenting their baits tight to the bottom then slowly work their way up. They use maps to decide on location looking for narrows and humps. They've learned that's where most of the catchable fish are, much of the time.
We use Vexilar's FL-18, extremely sensitive flashers that display in 3 colors. If anything can show you fish tight to the bottom, the FL-18 can. We learn to fish tight to the bottom and not just believe fish are in the vicinity. We learn to notice a thickening of the bottom signal, showing a fish that is being tempted upward to our bait. We try to tease the fish up to strike, but don't raise the bait too far if they don't willingly follow.
There are ways to deal with heavy underwater currents.
Now we're on Lake Erie, after the big walleye out there. Current was a huge factor. I'd fished current in other areas, like rivers in winter, so I knew it was had to use depthfinders.
Your lure is never directly under your hole, because it gets swept down current. You can try rotating the transducer in the direction the current is taking the lure, but it's still hard to see tight to the bottom, because of the "dead area" you create in your sonar signal.
One good idea: drill a second hole in the direction your lure is being swept, and put the depthfinder in that hole.
When current is strong, fish will be tight to the bottom, just like they are in rivers. When the current was roaring through Lake Erie, those walleye were tight to the bottom. But when the current would slow or stop (which happened), the fish would rise higher.
Hot spots don't stay hot forever.
Now, we're in Nebraska, on some sandhill lakes, after big bluegills. The lake we're on is shallow and weedy, and the lesson learned can apply to any similar waters.
The lake is about 4 miles long, and about 4 to 8 feet deep. There were scattered areas of cabbage weeds, you could catch 1 or 2 big "gills,"some of them over a pound! But that would be all the big ones for that area, for the time being.
To catch more big fish, you had to find a new patch of weeds. Returning to your old holes only produced small fish.(We only kept a few of these big fish; most of them went back. Big bluegills are a precious resource that's almost impossible to bring back if you take them.)

First printed in 2002

How To Choose An Ice-Fishing Lake.. And Find Its Ice-Covered Fish

Wed, 9 Jan 2008 14:21:46 -0600

By Dave Genz

You can't catch fish if you can't find them. It's as true in ice fishing as it is in open water.

There are two things most ice anglers have a lot of trouble with: choosing the right type of lake to fish during the ice-up period, and finding fish once the good "first-ice" bite slows down. Let's address both of these issues in some depth: (Get it? Depth? Lots of fish go deep during the iced-over period?)

Choose The Right Lake At Early Ice
You should, simply put, fish smaller bodies of water early in the iced-over period. It's often fairly easy to locate fish on smaller lakes, because it's a high-percentage move to look in the deepest basin area. Many, if not most, of the fish in a smaller lake will spend the winter in the deepest basin, especially if there's only one, and it's significantly deeper than the rest of the lake.
The problem with many smaller lakes is that they develop an oxygen problem as winter wears on. Where those "small-lake" fish are in a biting mood at early ice, you return to those lakes later in the winter and often find no takers.
The fish are still there, of course (unless they suffer a die-off), but they are often severely stressed due to the low oxygen levels.

Bigger Lakes Stay Better Later Into The Season
We're oversimplifying things here, but it's generally true to say that larger bodies of water will hold better fishing later into the winter season.
One of the most difficult aspects of catching fish through the ice on larger bodies of water is finding them. With so much turf to search, you can feel lost before you even start. One clue is that you should always fish anywhere you drill a hole and find green weeds. As long as sunlight can penetrate the ice, weeds can actually grow, something many anglers don't realize. But if you drop down your lure and come back with green weeds on the hook, make good notes on where you are.
Also, don't just blindly follow the crowds. Many anglers, from past experience, know of good spots. And groups of fish houses pop up over these spots every winter.
Sometimes, even just getting off to the edge of the group of houses, off to the fringe of all the ruckus, can help you find fish that aren't as "on guard." Activity moves the fish, especially at midday.
One of my strategies is to go to the crowd of fish houses just to see what type of spot they're fishing. Is it deep? Shallow? Hard or soft bottom? How close is it to really deep water? By studying the characteristics of the spot, you can often find similar spots by looking at a contour map of the lake, and get off to a new hot- spot that's all yours.
Another hint: At "prime time," when the sun is setting at the tree tops, fish often move right into those "community spots" where all the fish houses are. They are pressured and on guard, but they still return to that spot, because it's where most of their food is in many cases.

Finding Fish At Midwinter
It's probably tougher to locate fish at midwinter than any other ice-fishing period. Here are some high-percentage haunts, to shortcut the hunt:

Walleye-Classic midwinter walleye locations include deep edges of remaining green weed growth, and good-sized hard-bottom points and sunken humps. First find large expanses of deep basin water, then look for these structural elements close by. Fishing pressure will force walleye off the most obvious spots. Check around the perimeter of groups of anglers, even out over deep water. If you find stair-stepping dropoffs, fish each small "stair" or flat.

Northern Pike-Eating machines that bite good in winter. Sorry to be vague, but they can be anywhere the food is. If a bay is full of small panfish, tip-ups can take pike. But also look for them to drop relatively deeper as winter wears on. Check the outside weed edges, but pay special attention to deeper rock and other hard-bottomed areas near good-sized shallow food shelves.
Largemouth Bass-Often disinterested in feeding at this time of year. There are disagreements about winter movements. Considered by some, including me, to be roamers. By working shallow cover such as weeds or stumps you can catch some on small minnows, but don't expect to catch a lot of largemouths very often at midwinter.

Smallmouth Bass-Generally, a much deeper midwinter fish, and more catchable, than largemouths. Smallies like expansive areas of rock or other relatively hard bottom, in "deep, but not too deep" zones from about 20-40 feet.

Yellow Perch-Notorious as bottom feeders, and midwinter is no exception. Keep those baits puffing up or sitting on bottom. They tend to be in deeper water, down to 40 feet or so. Don't look on drop offs, but instead along the flats out from them. Perch feed on insects and larvae that live in the mud, and breaklines tend to be along harder bottom!

Bluegills and other Sunfish-"Where aren't sunfish?" might be a better question. On some lakes, it won't matter where you drill a hole; small sunnies will be there waiting. But in general, organic (mud) bottomed bays and flats the bigger the better hold the most consistent sunfish action. If the areas are close to deep water, so much the better.
If you're willing to hunt for rod-benders, seek out the biggest areas of shallow or deep weed growth. Do your best to get away from the crowds, and be quiet in your approach. And even though sunfish, befitting their name, have a reputation as good daylight feeders, the twilight periods of dawn and dusk are prime big-fish times.
You'll have to fish your specific water, because some lakes hold big sunfish shallow all winter. Heavy fishing pressure, though, can "cream off" most of the big bulls, making deeper weed- or mud-related fish a better bet. We've caught most of our biggest midwinter bluegills in deeper water lately. We look for mud and weeds in 20-30 feet, and sometimes even deeper than that.

Crappies-You will find some nice crappies in shallow flats areas, mixed in with sunfish. But many midwinter slabs are in deep water, often suspended. Look over the areas just away from deep weed edges, or edges of other cover.
Deep points, and deep inside turns, can hold concentrations of midwinter crappies. Searching vast areas of deep water can turn up big schools, but it's a needle-in-the-haystack proposition.

First printed in 1995

Don’t Float Your Boat Just Yet!

Wed, 7 Mar 2007 00:00:00 -0600

Genz starts by worrying that he will sound like a broken record if he urges people to keep ice fishing until the ice honeycombs and rots away. Then he is reminded that lots of younger ice anglers don’t know what records are, and that he should maybe worry about sounding like a broken iPod. “Whatever you want to call it,” says Dave. “I’ve been saying this for years, and I can still tell that most people give up on winter too early.” Genz’s point: through March— into April in many places—there is good ice in the northern reaches of the ice belt. And it’s not like you’re just trying to extend the season for no good reason. “It’s the best ice fishing of the year,” he says, “and nobody’s out there doing it.”
Finding Late Ice
It’s easy to find places to fish through the ice at this period. Open an atlas and look across the northern reaches of states that border Canada, and gaze up into southern and middle Canada. There are exceptions, but in that band there is much good ice fishing that goes begging for participants as cabin fever causes a rush to the boat ramps on river systems and other places with early ice-out. “Make a few phone calls, look on the Internet, check the message boards and ice fishing forums,” says Dave. “Local chambers of commerce can get you in touch with local bait shops, and they will tell you what the ice conditions are in their area. It’s not hard to find late-ice bites.” Traveling to ice-fish is still an unusual concept for many anglers, but is gaining popularity. Mobile ice anglers can quickly pack and roll down the highway to wherever the fish are going. And, once they get there, to search for fish until they find them.  Conditions are Ripe  It’s not just the ice cover that is ripening. Late ice conditions spur the activity level of many species, leading to fish ripe for the picking. “If you’re a perch fisherman,” says Genz, “this is the time of year when scattered pods of fish turn into big schools, and they move toward the spawning grounds. Look shallower than you do at midwinter. Look in reeds and weed beds. If you’re fishing in an area that’s going through a high-water cycle like they have in the Dakotas right now, check flooded brush. “Perch string their eggs on something; they don’t lay them on the bottom. They string them across weeds or brush, so those are the areas to fish at this time.” In regions where walleye season is still open, those fish also school together and move toward spawning grounds. Look for staging areas near rock/rubble shorelines or large midlake reefs, and deeper water near newly flooded grass flats. (“Staging area” is just a fancy term for nearby waters, often at least slightly deeper than the actual spawning grounds.) “If you like to chase big northern pike,” says Dave, “this is the time to do it. Where rivers enter big lakes are key areas. I don’t mean right in front of the river. You have to be careful anywhere there is strong current. “I mean out in front of those rivers. In that bay, or that general area, because the pike will be milling around before they head up the rivers to spawn. The lake itself still has ice on it, but the water flowing in from those rivers and creeks is drawing the fish up in there. It doesn’t have to always be this big river, either; it can be around a small creek, even one that only has water in it during the springtime.” Panfish, too. We’ve written about that in detail before. Big sunfish and crappies are also invading shallow-water haunts they avoided during midwinter. Even dead weeds that held no fish at midwinter can become panfish central, as they look for places to feed and avoid being eaten. A key factor at work in iced-over lakes at this time: shallow water is getting re-oxygenated. That draws the cycle of life into the shallows. “Exactly when this happens depends on where you are,” explains Genz. “You can find these conditions in late February, or March, and it gets to be April in some of the places where I go to fish. “You can follow these conditions north as spring progresses, and continue to find late-ice opportunities.” Genz should know. He does it every year. And he typically drives down the highway between spots looking a bit out of place, the lone snowmobile trailer among boaters looking to rush the soft-water season. Safety reminder: caution is always important on the ice, but especially so at late ice. Ice can be thick but beginning to degrade, so inspect it every day. Always wear a life jacket, and fish with another person.
Note: All photos were taken last ice 2007, Dave officially stepped off the ice on April 19 @ 4:39 p.m.

Flasher Masters Win Minnesota Trap Attack

Mon, 6 Mar 2006 14:53:03 -0600

Smiles were brighter than the skies as Johnny Vedaa (purple stocking cap) and Randy Kucera (second from right) posed in a snowstorm with some of their winning catch at the Minnesota Trap Attack on Rainy Lake. At far left is ‘Woody’ Woods, and far right is Dave Genz, tournament emcees. (Photo: iceteam.com) Clouds and snow make bite quite slow, but local team teases top catch from Rainy Lake basin waters
International Falls, MN— There was a fishing tournament to be held, so of course there was a front with clouds and precipitation. We always talk about how tournament competitors are forced to produce regardless of the conditions, and it’s amazing how many times the conditions are truly testing. The weather was sunny and the bite good during practice, but things slowed considerably on Sunday, March 5 during the final qualifier for next December’s North American Ice Fishing Championship. In the end, the Gander Mountain Super Trap Attack on Rainy Lake—where the target was a mixed bag of walleyes and saugers—was won by a local team that knows these waters well.
Johnny Vedaa and Randy Kucera, both of Ranier, Minnesota, who sounded almost apologetic for how much time they spend on the ice, fished hard and confidently despite the finicky bite and won with an 8-fish limit weighing 5.9 pounds.
They moved often from hole to hole, but stayed in the general area of the sand breaks in Sand Bay, the closest deeper water out from a known shoreline spawning area. Even though it’s still winter, spring is right around the corner. Increasing daylength and ripening eggs are calling fish to stage near spawning grounds.
“All of the locals around here know about it,” said Vedaa moments after he and Kucera were declared the winners. “Those fish are staging to move up and spawn. We spend so much time out here that we probably know the area as well as anybody.” Also aware that saugers typically hold a bit deeper than walleyes, the winners started off in about 27 feet of water until they had four solid walleyes under the 17-inch maximum tournament length. Then, they moved out to 32-33 feet to target saugers, and the strategy worked perfectly.
(Contestants were required to bring a mixed bag of four walleyes and four saugers to the weigh-in.)
Flasher Masters
Both Vedaa and Kucera credited their flashers for helping them diagnose the bite. “I can’t fish without my Vexilar,” said Vedaa. “Or, let me put it this way: I wouldn’t fish without it. First thing in the morning, the fish were quite aggressive and it was a no-brainer. But after about 11 o’clock you had to finesse ‘em. By paying attention to detail on the Vexilar, you could tell how they wanted it.
“If you watch (a Vexilar) long enough, you can just tell. It’s kind of hard to explain, but you can see what gets them excited and what makes them drift away.”
Kucera chimed in on the same subject: “When they get skittish like that,” he said, “you can’t move your bait too fast. And you can’t drop it down, either. You have to keep it rising, but not too fast. They’ll come up and hit it, but if you drop it toward them, they’ll drop back down to the bottom and won’t attack it any more.”
The winners relied on a horizontal swimming, minnow-imitating lure tipped with just the tail of a minnow.
While they were excited with the victory, the biggest prize this team took away was a spot in next winter’s championship, to be held in Alexandria, Minnesota. “Now,” said Kucera, “we get to go to the big one and see if we can do good down there, too.”
Schick and Webb Second
Runner-up position went to the relatively new team of Kevin Schick and Steve Webb. Still getting used to each other, these two are accustomed to posing for pictures at the end of Trap Attacks. Schick (Beaver Dam, WI) and Webb, (Jerome, MI) already won the North Dakota event a few weeks back on Devils Lake, and both have a history of top finishes with other partners.
What this team did was a study in tournament strategy. After a disappointing finish in the recent Wisconsin Trap Attack, they decided to play for team-of-the-year points rather than going for a homerun.
As things turned out, they got both.
“We had bigger fish going in the deep water off some of the reefs,” said Webb, “but it was real hit and miss. So we decided to go for points, and stayed with the fish we knew would be there.”
Still, he said, they had to remain on the move throughout the event to find and catch walleyes and saugers that were roaming across the deep basin of Sand Bay. “From where we started to where we ended,” said Webb, “was probably two-and-a-half miles. We stayed in about 30 feet of water, but we had to move constantly.”
Schick noted that they also had to downsize their presentation and slow it down, in order to tempt picky biters. It might not sound like classic walleye fare, but they relied on Size 6 gold Genz Worms and 1/8-ounce Frostee Jigging Spoons in Techni-Glo Perch finish. On both baits they attached wedge-shaped red plastic tails and extremely small (1-inch) whole minnows. The red plastic, they said, was meant to imitate bloodworms, mayfly larvae, and other burrowing insects the basin fish were feeding on. The minnows were hooked through the tail “and swimming backwards off the hook,” said Webb. “When the fish came in to look at it, the minnow was right in their face.”
The key to triggering bites, said Schick, was to drop slowly into the zone and tease the baits away from fish that appeared on the Vexilar display. “In pre-fishing,” he said, “they were smacking it. But it slowed down today.”
Said Genz, about this team’s bait selection and presentation: “It doesn’t surprise me one bit. Especially during the daytime, a Genz Worm or Fat Boy XL, loaded up with maggots, is probably my best walleye producer. It still sounds strange to a lot of people, but it’s what works.”
Mr. Ice Fishing himself, who closely observes Trap Attacks and often serves as weigh-in emcee, noticed how hard the top finishers worked to adapt to the changing conditions. “Yesterday (Saturday’s final day of practice), everybody had a good day,” Genz said. “A lot of people caught 16-inch and bigger fish and thought they would do really well in the tournament. And then, like it always seems to happen, the weather changed and the fishing changed.
“It wasn’t snowing right away (on tournament day), but when it came in the bite deteriorated throughout the day. The weights were down, compared to what was being caught in practice. But like always, a few teams figured out what it took to keep catching fish after things changed.”
Notes: Rainy Lake was the final qualifying event for next December’s North American Ice Fishing Championship, to be held in Alexandria, Minnesota. Unfortunately, poor ice conditions forced cancellation of the Michigan and New York Super Trap Attacks. For results and information, go to www.iceteam.com.
Ice Team partners include Gander Mountain, Vexilar, StrikeMaster, Fish Trap, Clam, Ice Armor, Aqua-Vu, Genz Stix, Buzz Stix, Lindy, Arctic Cat, Mr. Heater, Floe, Arctic Fisherman, and Alexandria, Minnesota.
FINAL RESULTS – TOP 15 Gander Mountain Super Trap Attack Rainy Lake, MN, March 5, 2006
Name Weight (pounds)
1. Johnny Vedaa/Randy Kucera 5.90 2. Kevin Schick/Steve Webb 4.69 3. Thor Thompson/Joe Edens 4.18 4. Dan Reinking/Jeremy Jeppesen 4.1 5. Jim Kusuda/Terry Rogers 4.00 6. Doug Bussian/Mike Dahl 3.74 7. Kris Rainsberry/Evan Burt 3.63 8. Jason Yackley/Pat Burmeister 3.57 9. David Lemke/Carl Doty 3.47 10. David Peters/Carl Brown 3.38 11. Scott Wherley/Phil Underdahl 3.34 12. Jody Johnson/Kelly Kopplin 3.33 13. Duff Peddycoart/John Perusse 3.3 14. Loby Lobenstein/Joe Mislivecek 3.20 15. Monte Kerzman/Ron Mason 3.11 15. John Schultz/Brad Overmyer 3.11