Jivin' with Jerry
Exclusive Monthly Tip by Jerry Carlson, Staff Columnist
Winter panfish are fussy. On some days, they love to peck and pick and mess with a bait out of sheer rudeness. On other days, it is nearly impossible to get their attention at all as they ignore everything sent their way.
For those that fish with a spring bobber or use a tightline approach, a key factor in overcoming finicky panfish is to use very light line. When I say light I am talking about one, two and three-pound-test line.
In order to be able to detect the minute bites of finicky panfish, line has to hang perfectly straight with no memory curls in the line. If curls are present, fish must pull all the slack out of the line before a bite can be detected on the surface. This means the smaller the jig the lighter the line must be.
Both Berkley and Stren make winter line that has very low memory. They also make colored line for those that have difficulty seeing the line when tying knots. The colored line also shows up well on the ice.
Utilizing light line does not guarantee fish. However, my experience tells me it does increase your chances.
When it comes to sticking panfish in the winter months, everyone has their favorite lures, presentation and bait. When working a daytime bite for panfish, Euro larva, or spikes as they are often called, is hard to beat.
I would have to say it was a long learning experience that brought about my switch from wax worms to spikes. Although wax worms caught fish, spikes had some strong attributes.
When hooked lightly through the head end, spikes would bob tantalizingly every time I jigged. This added movement proved to be a triggering mechanism for getting fish to bite.
I have also found spikes to be tougher than wax worms. Fish cannot suck them off very easily which correlates to increased hook-ups and fewer missed strikes.
Spikes come in different colors which sometimes is helpful. Although I use the natural colored ones most of the time, there are days when other colors, such as red, are pretty darn effective. Spikes can be used two or three at a time or on tough days, try threading on more.
Spikes need to be kept cool but not frozen. When not fishing, I store my bait in the refrigerator. If they get too warm, they will pupate and turn into flies.
Whitetail deer are well adapted to survive in their environment. Some of their senses are far superior to ours.
When it comes to their eyes, their vision is no greater than ours in terms of magnification. They do see colors differently than we do and obviously don’t see blaze orange as blaze orange.
As for their hearing, it is again similar to humans in terms of inner ear development. However, their large ears allow them to hone in on sounds like two radar units. Their sense of hearing is far more efficient than ours.
A whitetail’s main line of defense is definitely their sense of smell. Due to the size of the olfactory section of the brain and to the number of nasal receptors whitetail have, it is estimated their sense of smell is about a thousand times greater than ours.
Paying attention to wind direction and scent elimination can pay big dividends. Anything a hunter can do to reduce their own human odor will ultimately help combat the incredible sense of smell that whitetails use as their main line of defense.
It took years of waterfowl hunting for me to understand one of the most important factors of hunting over water. Simply stated, the concept goes like this: Ducks like to fly over other ducks.
For too many seasons, I believed the purpose of decoys was to try to get ducks to land in them. Although this happens on a frequent basis, it is not the only reason behind using decoys.
Decoys are designed to tell flying birds there is a good place to feed or rest on the water below them. However, they are also used to change the flight pattern of passing birds.
For some reason, ducks like to fly over other ducks. I don’t know if this is due to curiosity or some kind of natural instinct. I just know it is a fact.
Hunters need to understand that not every group of birds wants to land in the decoys. Some are just flying by with no intention of landing or making another pass.
Decoys are utilized to bring birds within range. If they come close enough to present a good target, take the shot.
It happens every fall just like clockwork. Slowly but surely, the weeds in the lakes begin to die out leaving all but the hardiest of weeds left for fish to relate to.
On many of the lakes, these remnant weeds consist of cabbage and coontail. Both of these weeds may grow right to the surface and make it possible to visually see the weed structure that needs to be targeted.
As a general rule, bass and northern are the two species of fish that relate to this fall weed pattern. There are several proven methods that work well for targeting these remnant weed fish.
If you are working a flat with scattered clumps of weeds, spinnerbaits, twitch baits, lipless crankbaits and plastic swim baits such as the Mimic Minnow are ideal for covering water and hooking active fish.
If the weeds are located more on a drop-off situation, plastic worms fished Texas style or as a jig worm work well. Sometimes the bigger fish prefer bigger baits such as skirted weedless jigs.
Once a good remnant weed bite is located, it is a pretty sure bet that these fish will utilize the same area year after year.
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