2021 Articles
View Article AchiveJanuary 2021
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Hunting for Big Perch Through the Ice
by ERIC BRANDRIETThe "Hunt" for BIG perch is on the minds of most ice wranglers here in the South Dakota prairie pothole/glacial lake region as first ice is formed. How are the biggest perch found and caught every winter? Drilling holes on the right water, understanding their behavior and having a variety of baits...
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Proven Patterns For Hardwater Largemouth
by JASON HALFENWhen most anglers think about largemouth bass, their thoughts turn to the warmth of summer, lush green growth above the water's surface and below, bone-jarring strikes and tail-walking fights. Yet, as snow blankets the landscape and open water recedes to a distant memory, those same finned adversari...
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Dead Sticking Walleye
by JASON MITCHELLSticking a lively minnow in front of fish hasn't really changed a whole lot over time. With all the technology, sonar, map chips and other tools to help us catch fish... there are times each winter when we have to go back to the basics. The mantra lately has been a power fishing approach where we ...
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Blade Bait Fishing for Winter Bass
by KATHERINE FIELDSome of my favorite fishing all year occurs during the winter. There is little fishing pressure on the lake, pleasure boaters are long gone; the cooler water allows me to search those deeper humps and points for winter-time bass. While the colder water temperatures demand a slower fishing presentat...
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For Love Of Hardwater Trout
by JASON HALFENTrout represent one of the most unique ice fishing opportunities throughout the ice belt. Unlike most of the typical hardwater targets - especially walleye, pike, and panfish - trout sustain very high activity levels beneath the ice. Indeed, as a group of coldwater species, trout thrive in chilly wa...
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Early Winter Crappie Tactics
by CRAIG RITCHIEWinter is not my favorite fishing season, if I'm perfectly honest about it. I like to cast, and I like to fish in moving water, working with the currents and solving the challenges they always seem to present - things that are pretty difficult to do when the water is hard enough to walk on. But ...
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Fine Tuning For More Walleyes
by BOB JENSENAvid ice angler John Crane and I talked on the phone recently. He has been doing a lot of ice fishing in his home area of north central Minnesota and on this particular day he had been after walleyes. After my usual questions of "wadja' catch" and "wadja catch'em on", the conversation got a little...