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I was headed to Fulton County in Illinois to fish the Herman Brothers strip pit lakes and I was chasing after my favorite fish through the ice...the bluegill. But not just any bluegill, these were stocked hybrids..these were trophies and like fishing for any trophy, it was a catch, photo, and release deal. In this part of the state, you get one month of fishable ice, then it's over. The water was shallow, under 8 ft. and clear, you could see the bottom or watch the action on the underwater camera. The presentation needed to be precise. Small jigs, light line, no noise and being able t …

A lot of fishermen will identify themselves by the species of fish they target, this is especially true in the open water season. There are bass fishermen, walleye fishermen, crappie fishermen muskie fishermen, and even cat fishermen! While ice fishermen usually aren't as species-specific, we do tend to get pigeonholed into fishing a specific species until the bite wears out and then we're lost. By becoming a better multi-species ice angler you can avoid the "dead bite" and the doldrums of winter! The benefits of multi-species fishing I've had many a trip where the walleye bite …

If I had the choice of one lure and only one lure to use in Canada, it would be the jig’n twister. Many anglers might choose a Daredevlil, Doctor Spoon or a Rapala Minnow but give me a jig’n twister every time! Why is it so effective, because it is so versatile. A jig’n twister can be used shallow, deep and everywhere in between! It can be used on all species from walleye to muskie. It can be crawled along bottom, swimmed at a brisk pace or even bulged just under the surface. My favorite jig’n twister combo is a little bigger than most anglers use. I like to use the 5" K-Grub made …

When a fish hits a blade bait, she'll try to rip the rod from your hand!  Even when you have 34-degree bodies of water, when walleye can only be caught on a jig head with a stinger hook, they will still hit a blade bait with reckless abandon.   While the trend on new lures is to soften them up, scent them up and adapt them to make the fish hold on longer, none of this applies to a blade bait.   A blade bait is a flat metal spoon with weighted nose that vibrates on the retrieve and vibrates on the lift.  Blade baits are fairly heavy for their size, so …

Ice fishing is a daunting endeavor, especially for the first time angler. On our first time out many years ago, we didn’t have much gear. We had a few Ratfinkees, two rods, two buckets and some wigglers for bait. We were after yellow bass and yellow bass supposedly liked wigglers. We walked out on our local lake, and found a few open holes. As luck would have it, we caught one after another and we were hooked on ice fishing forever! The next weekend we went back to the same lake, the same area and found our old holes. This time we had an auger and we drilled a couple of new ones next to t …