Humminbird just made a good thing better.  If you haven't read about Switchfire it is worth taking a little time to look into this new feature on Humminbird Sonar units. Switchfire gives you two unique modes that all you complete control to adjust your sonar to fit the fishing conditions you are up against.

The first mode, MAX MODE gives you the ultimate detail with maximum return.  Max mode is great when fishing lakes without a lot of suspended particles and in non-turbulent water. If you want to see the thermocline, changes in current or everything under you, MAX MODE is your choice of modes.

The second mode, CLEAR MODE uses TVG or Time Variable Gain software to sift through sonar returns to display only fish, structure and larger sonar returns.  This mode is great when fishing shallow, in rivers, rough water or whenever you want reduced clutter in the water column.

Personally, I can think of hundreds of applications where I would have loved to have this option.  Last year while fishing the final day in the FLW Championship the stretch of the Oahe River I was fishing became very turbulent and the algae on the bottom was getting stirred up.  As the water became more turbulent it became harder and harder to distinguish fish from the bottom because of the algae layer being picked up by my Humminbird 1197C SI. You can't fault a sonar for being ultra-sensitive, after all that is what makes Humminbird the best.  However, it will be nice to have the ability to adjust the sonar now to the conditions!

While doing a talk last night I got several questions about the Minn Kota i-Pilot.  When I am talking to a group and they have common questions about a product I usually take that as a hint as a subject that I need to do a better job explaining.  For those of you that have questions about the Minn Kota i-Pilot, here you go.

The i-pilot is a a GPS based trolling motor control system.  Essentially the i-PIlot integrates a GPS with your current trolling motor and is available as an accessory for Terrova, PDV2, RTST and RTSP.  It includes features like:

Record a Track
Spot Lock
Cruise Control
Advanced AutoPilot
CoPilot

Record a Track feature is pretty simple, you hit the record button and start to move.  The unit will track and record your trail for up to 2 miles.  If you want to retrace the track ou hit the Start or End button and i-Pilot will steer the boat along the same path.  The nice thing is you can store and recall up to 3 different tracks which is nice for livebait fishing offshore.

Spot Lock works like an electronic anchor holding the boat in place with the push of a button.  The Spot Lock feature automatically corrects for wind, drift and waves and will adjust you speed and direction to keep you on that spot-on-the-spot. Once again, you can recall up to three Spot Locked locations.

Advanced AutoPilot is similar to the AutoPilot many of us are used to except it uses GPS technology instead of a compass to keep you online by projecting a series of waypoints based on the motor position.  The i-Pilot will maintain the boats heading while compensating for wind, current and drift.

cruise Control uses the GPS to maintain actual "on-the-water" MPH rather than trolling motor speed. So now instead of adjusting your thrust constantly to maintain a speed, the Cruise Control feature will do that by entering a speed that is adjustable to 1/10 mph.

CoPilot gives you wireless manual control of the trolling motor using the standard CoPilot functions.

I have always used a cable driven trolling motor.  First the Minn Kota Maxxum and lately the Minn Kota Fortrex but I have to admit the features on the i-Pilot have me convinced to make the change to the Minn Kota Terrova next year.  When you look at all the benefits the i-Pilot provide it is easy to see why this is a "must have" feature on your boat!
 

Ok, so you noticed I was gone.  Well, at least a few of you were wondering where I was and emailed.  The good news is I am alive and well.  I decided to take a little break from the ice fishing and take my family to Disney World and then a Disney Cruise to the Bahamas, which was a much needed break.

Normally I do not take vacations in the winter because I am busy with ice promotions and ice fishing but this year I made a promise to the kids that if I won a tournament we would take a vacation, and I did!

The fishing when I left was very tough and I didn't think I would be missing much.  For the  most part the bite was tough on most lakes and the fish were not staging in the classic spring spots yet.  Oh, how things have changed.  I believe the temps AVERAGED 40 degrees while we were gone.  This is exactly what we needed to get the late ice bite going and it is.

No matter what part of the state you are fishing, if you are after big Bluegill and Crappie they are on the chew.  It is time to start looking to those shallow late ice spots because for the most part the snow is gone.  The late ice bite doesn't usually start this early but it is in full swing right now and will only get better.  I will be targeting 9-12ft of water my next time out but don't be afraid to look shallower in the AM and PM and deeper during mid day.

Well, I have a lot of catching up to do.  I have some fun trips coming up before I head out to the Detroit River on April 1st.  Between now and then I need to get my new Evinrude powered Ranger and finish the Rigging.  So, keep you fingers crossed that my boat arrives early and the ice holds on for a couple more weeks! 

Another Eelpout festival has come and gone and being a second year veteran of Eel pout I thought I new better what to expect.  However, once again I was amazed at the creativity some people have.  If you can pull it behind a snowmobile or drive it on the ice, you most likely saw it this past weekend on Leech Lake in Walker.  But, in the end it all comes down to getting together with friends for a great weekend.

I had some personal highlights from the weekend but almost all of them include lots of laughs with some good friends.  One thing that was really impressive was the Ice Bar at the Chase on the Lake Bar.  The Chase puts out a tent bar and really outdid there selves this year.  I can't imagine how much time it took to do, but you really had to see it to believe it.

Also impressive was the Ranger Boat floating in the water.  Ok I am not exactly sure how the boat got in the water, as it was in by the time I got there, but that was pretty cool to see.  I can honestly say I have never seen a boat sitting in the water at an Ice event but seeing that Ranger on the water really made me want to get mine out and fish some open water.

So back to our Camp. This year there was a much larger crew at our Camp.  I have to use the term "our" camp lightly because this is one of the few outings I go on in a year where I don't do any of the planning.  The credit for our camp goes to Matt Grow and Kelli (soon to be Grow) who put a lot of work into making Eel pout a great event for our camp each year.  Well there are many others who deserve thanks also like Roger and Ashley, Lori and Craig, Charlie Walker Construction and all the other people that help set up and clean up. Like I said, I am fortunate to be part of the camp as all the hard work was done by the time I got there.

If you have never been to Eel pout, you may ask what is it really like.  I kept asking people  this weekend how would you describe this to someone who has never been there.  I guess the best description is a country music festival on ice, minus the country music.  OK, maybe it is more like the camping at a country music festival.  Lots of individual parties going on in individual "camps"  which cover the ice is some semblance of order.  There is actually a main street and then side streets, some cul-de-sacs and then some people who choose to keep their camp well distanced from main group which tend to yield better sleep.

Speaking of sleep, well when you come home from Eelpout you can expect to be a little tired or at least I tend to be a little tired.  Oh, did I mention that Matt tends to go up a day early and make sure our camp in not only on Main Street but at the center of Main Street.  Needless to say, the music stays on late and thus the lack of sleep.  One thing I find really interesting is that it may be Very loud at 3 AM but other then the hum of generators it is extremely quiet at 9AM.  This year I found that staying up late and sleeping in yielded the best sleep, so I made a mental note of that for next year.

Well that is the Eel Pout update for 2010.  I am already looking forward to 2011!

Here we sit, that time of year when most ice anglers are scratching their heads wondering why the fish aren't biting anymore.  Well, to be honest, I am left scratching my head this time of year also wondering what is the best way to put some fish on the ice.  Yes, there are lakes that have excellent bites going right now, but, for the most part it is that time of year. Typical Mid-February in Minnesota, about 3 feet of ice another foot of snow which equals tough fishing.  You know that time of year when people start thinking they have had enough of this cold and snow and are taking a vacation to a warmer destination.  Well, here we are!

So, what do we do to up our odds at putting some fish on ice?  First, you can forget those lakes that had great day bites going on early in the year.  When lakes first ice up, the dissolved oxygen levels are much higher than they are right now and fish are active throughout the day.  At this time of year I prefer to stick to the peak periods at first light and last light.  The bite may still be tough but I prefer to fish when they want to bite versus when they don't.  Fish have to move to feed and when oxygen levels get low, they keep their movement to a minimum and only move when they need to feed.

I don't want to get to into dissolved oxygen levels that much but next to forage levels in lakes they effect the bite the most.  Essentially when Oxygen levels get low fish go into survival mode and restrict their movement to things that they need to survive, which, for a fish, is basically breath and eat.  The good part about having low oxygen levels for the angler is that in general it concentrates the fish in the part of lake with the highest Dissolved Oxygen levels.  Usually this is the deepest part of the lake or near a water inlet.  When Oxygen levels get extremely low however, fish are usually found over deep water near at the top of the water column, just under the ice.  Occasionally these fish will bite but for the most part are just trying to survive and often times hard to catch.

If you want to up your odds at catching fish this time of year see the following list:

• Fish Deep Water
• Target Lakes that are River Fed
• Fish the Peak Times the Day
• Slow Down your Presentation
• Fish Deep Lakes
• Try Open Water Fishing While on Vacation

There is no doubt the bite gets tough this time of year.  There isn't anyone that would tell you different as it happens every year.  The list above should help you choose the lakes you fish this time of year and may help put some more fish on the ice.  The other option is to pack up your ice house and head up to the International Eelpout Festival in Walker MN this weekend.  Usually the Eelpout are willing to bite any time of year and even if you don't wet a line you can have a great time spending the weekend on the ice.

I am very fortunate to get to spend a lot of time on the water, whether that be frozen or open water.  While fishing I often reflect back on how the sport has changed over the years and what changes still need to be made.  I still enjoy eating a meal of fish and do quite often, I also know the importance of conservation efforts to keep the sport growing.  Most of us take our resources for granted and don't realize that we can all do a part to keep the sport of fishing and competitive fishing alive.

Recently, I was elected to the board of AIM.  AIM or Anglers Insight Marketing is a professional walleye tournament organization that is trying to merge the sport of competitive walleye angling and conservation.  AIM's new CRR or Catch, Record, Release format is a perfect example of what anglers can do to ensure their sport  not only survives but thrives.  While fish kill during a professional tournament is usually minimal and far less than that from recreational anglers, it is the perception that professionals are going out and killing fish that is the problem.  The new CRR format AIM has put in place is one example of Professional Fisherman getting together and doing the right thing in the name of conservation and the future of the sport.

While visiting the Costa Store the other day online I came across this VIDEO online.  The video is well put together and talks about the country of Belize and how they are facing some of the exact problems we are facing here in the United States with development of Lake Shore, loss of fish habitat and the effects of over-harvest of certain species.  While I have never been to Belize, I thought it was interesting after watching the video how they face many of the same problems we do here.  No matter where you live, conservation efforts are crucial to maintaining a sustainable fish populations.

These two examples of conservation could not be farther apart geographically, but essentially have the same goal in mind.  The idea of conservation is to not only leave something behind for future generations to enjoy but to leave them better than they were.  We all need to do our part toward conservation as it is not something that can be done occasionally, it is a way or life. 

This past weekend while on the road I got a lot of questions in regards to "flasher" or sonar basics.  Several people I talked with wanted to know more about the basics of a flasher.  How do they work?  What are you seeing?  This was a good reminder to myself that I need to take a step back sometimes and cover the basics for those that are just getting into the sport or are new to using electronics on the ice.

First, to get started you have to be able to turn your flasher on.  Basically you power up the unit and drop the transducer down the hole.  I prefer to have the transducer just inside the very bottom of the hole.  This will give you the best return but will keep your line from getting caught on the transducer when you catch a fish.  With the unit on you want to determine the depth you are fishing and set the scale.  On the Humminbird you can see I am fishing 26.5 ft so I am using the 2 setting which covers 0-40 ft of water.

With the bottom set, you need set your Gain now if you haven't already.  Drop your jig down and make sure you can see it fall in the water column.  If you don't see your jig falling or the signal is very faint you need to increase your Gain level.  Basically, Gain is the amount of signal return being displayed on the unit. 

Pictured above is a screen shot of my Humminbird ICE 45.  At 12 o'clock or right above the "MM" in Humminbird you see a red line that represents the top of the water column, wherever your transducer is. From there, as you move clockwise, that is the water column.  At 22ft you can see my split shot and just below it you will see my Demon Jig tipped with a wax worm.  Believe it or not, when the wax worm is gone, the signal will come back green instead of yellow.  But, anyways, we can cover that in the advanced lesson.  As you continue deeper you will see bottom at 26.5ft just as the unit reads on the LCD in the center of the screen.  Anything you see after the "bottom" is not important for right now as we are concerned with the area between the transducer and bottom.

The signal below my jig and split shot is a crappie coming in from outside the cone.  The return signal for this is green.  As the fish moves toward my jig the signal return will get stronger and it will turn from Green to Yellow.  As the fish moves to grab my jig offering, the signal will turn Red.  In order to coax the fish I see to bite I place the deepest or second return slightly above the fish and continue to work them up slowly.  Once the signal of the fish and my jig line up on the flasher and appear on top of each other or as one signal, I stop watching the flasher and watch my rod tip.  If the fish bites, the easiest place to see the bite is a bounce of the rod tip......fish on!

The Humminbird ICE 45 has two beam options and since I was fishing over 20ft I was using my narrow beam transducer so the image (approaching crappie) appears a very faint green.  Because the return is a weak green signal I know the fish is sitting toward the outside of my transducer cone, as I mentioned earlier.  If I were using my wide angle cone, this light green signal would appear as a much stronger return, maybe even Red.  In deep water or when fishing around other people with flasher units I like to use my narrow beam to avoid giving out excess signal or also receiving it, in the form of interference.  When alone and in the absence of thick cover or other fisherman, I do prefer to use my wide angle cone, as you can see fish approaching from farther away.

There are a lot of things that I omitted from this to keep it short and to the point.  There are also many other things that I will be covering in regards to flashers that will go more in depth as far as how to read bottom content, how to determine what type of fish you are looking at, etc.  But, for today we will stick to the basics and save that for another day.

Saturday AM started just like the day prior, brutally cold temps and some very stiff equipment.  However, today we were going to be fishing the local Lake Trout Derby.  What was particularly exciting about this Derby was the fact that you got to fish wherever you wanted as long as it was in Regina Bay.  You drilled your own holes and fished as hard as you want to.  All fish had to be weighed in by 4 PM and had to arrive at the scales alive and capable of being released.

At first I was a little skeptical of the fact that we could get a fish to the scales alive but we had a plan.  First we had to catch a fish to weight.  Second we would immediately put it in a cooler full of water and head to the weigh-in with the fish in the cooler.  Matt from Crawford's Camp assured me it would work, and it did, just great.

Using the LakeMaster chip we split our group of seven into 3 groups covering 3 nice breaklines in 50-70 feet of water.  All the spots were pretty similar, nice points extending out to deep water with sharp breaklines.  Again, this was my first year having the LakeMaster Data on this trip and it yielded big results.

Spot one for Noah and I ended up being a dud.  Lots of baitfish and tullibee but not the big laker's we were looking for so we headed to spot two, near where Greg, Matt and Brian were fishing.  After a short 5 minutes of jigging I tied into a decent trout.  It was very interesting fighting the trout with money on the line as it brought me back to my summer walleye tournaments.  I honestly love that feeling, it just adds a little pressure to the situation!  The fight didn't take long and off we were on the sled to weigh the first trout of the day a nice 9.9 pound fish.  Hey, we were on the board.

Upon arriving back at the group I was told that Moreno was hooked up with a fish so off Matt went with the sled to pick up Moreno's fish.  As it turns out Moreno and I were fighting our fish at the same time, his was just a lot bigger and took over 20 minutes to land.  Off to the scales went Moreno and weighed in a nice 17.5 pound fish, good enough for second place at the time as someone had weighed in a 23.5 pound fish inbetween Moreno and I.  That was going to be tough to top for sure!

After a flurry of action we decided a move was in order.  While Matt Carlander and Moreno stuck it out in the place that produced the 17.5 pounder the rest of us moved a couple miles to a nice steep shelf that extended out into Regina Bay.  As I was clearing holes Noah hooked into what appeared to be a whitefish, until it made that long, drag screaming, 60 foot run down to the bottom.  Yes sir, it was another trout and the move was paying off already. 

This was Noah's first battle with a trout and at one point he asked for the "fighting belt" which you saltwater guys can appreciate.  Noah patiently battled his trout for over 18 minutes before we were finally able to get the big head of the fish in the hole.  Out came our second biggest trout of the day a nice 16.73 lb fish.  Man this was getting fun!

As Noah and I arrived back at the group Matt Crawford and Greg were working another fish that would not bite.  Finally after some coaxing Greg had our 4th trout of the day hooked up.  Greg battled this fish as it made drag screaming run after run.  With cold hands and a sore back Greg wasn't sure if the fight was ever going to come to an end, but it did.  Out came a 16.2 pound trout and left our group sitting in 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 10th place.  Despite over an hour of fishing time left, we decided we should try to catch the evening walleye bite so we put a quick end to our tournament day and headed out across the lake for some quick walleye action before the tournament awards.

Being short of time we opted for a spot close to camp to fish walleye.  The walleye bite would best be describes as slow but that didn't stop us from having a great time.  I should clarify that slow means each of us only caught a "few".  Hardly slow by certain standards, but after all, we were in Canada, eh!  We ended the night absolutely exhausted from laughing and making jokes about the days fishing and how lucky we were to catch those nice trout.

Before heading back to camp for the night we headed over to the weigh-in to see if we ended up in the money and sure enough, we took 2nd, 3rd and 4th and all 4 of our Trout were in the top 10.  Not bad considering there were 67 anglers fishing the Derby.  It was truly a great ending to a great day of fishing!

I just returned from my first trip of the year to Crawford's Camp at Sioux Narrows Ontario.  Once again we had an excellent trip filled with fun, friends, food, fishing and photos.  Despite the extremely cold temps, which touched -32 Fahrenheit, we were fortunate enough to get a chance to fish Lake Trout, Crappie, Walleye and Perch.  A true multi-species paradise, the Sioux Narrows area offers it all.

Since we had very little time to fish and lots of bites to sample, we kept a strict schedule on this trip that would allow us the chance to fish a local Lake Trout Derby on Saturday.  You will hear more tomorrow on how that Lake Trout Derby worked out and of course the results.  But, lets get back to the fishing Friday.

Friday morning started off a little slow as everyone unpacked their gear in -22 degree temps .  For the most part all the gear started with the exception of one auger and one snowmobile, not bad considering the extreme cold.  By 9AM we were on the ice jigging for Lake Trout and anxiously awaiting the first "hook up".  This was my first time fishing the Sioux Narrows area with LakeMaster surveyed data and I can say it makes a HUGE difference.  Not only does it make navigation much safer but in makes finding that spot on the spot possible, which tended to yield big results.  Our first spot of the morning produced only only one large fish, a nice 11 pounder that I hooked into just after setting up.  Despite seeing 5-7 other larger fish on the Humminbird's and several misses, we couldn't put anymore on the ice.

So, with mid-day approaching we opted to make a run for crappies.  Since the area we fish crappies has some dangerous narrows we had to make several portages, which is typical when fishing the Northern reaches of Lake of the Woods.  However, at the first portage we were greeted with fallen trees, and lots of them.  The area had received 7 inches of new, wet,  heavy snow prior to our arrival and it knocked down lots of trees that needed to be cleared before we could fish.  Matt Ryberg from Crawford's Camp and Greg spent an hour clearing trees as we inched along behind with the sleds.

After our hour delay we caught just the tale end of the midday crappie bite, which we thought we had timed perfectly prior to our delay.  I believe I had 6 nice slabs on the ice before the bite turned off as the were just SLAMMING the tiny Demon Jigging Spoon pictured to the right.  We all got to see a glimpse of what is usually an excellent crappie bite, just before it shut down.  But, that is how fishing goes and that is exactly what we knew we had to do....go!

After only fishing crappies for roughly an hour, we decided to make up some time and head out to fish walleye a little early.  Fishing Walleye always yields a few huge jumbo perch so we decided to get out early and try to hit the perch before the walleye moved in.  And, just as planned, the perch were hitting the ice fast until the walleye showed the last hour of the day.  The group decided a fish fry was in order so we kept our limit of walleye and about 15 perch. Now that is some good eating!

We ended the day back at our Cabin at Crawford's Camp enjoying a few cold beers and telling fish stories.  Since we were fishing a Derby the next day we put together a game plan as to how we would set up to jig for trout.  Despite the laughs and fun it is jigging trout together in the same area, we decided our best chance to win some money was to spread out and cover some water.  With that, we shut it down for the night all anxious to tie into that winning Lake Trout tomorrow.

People the read my blog and keep up with the new material know I love to fish for big Bluegill.  And, based on all the email and questions I get, apparently other peole enjoy fishing bull gills also.  Last week I had the opportunity to hit one of my favorite lakes in Northern Minnesota for Giant Bluegill and once again it did not disappoint.  So, what lake were you fishing you ask.  Well, that is not important, I have talked plenty about this lake.  What is important is the way I go about targeting trophy bluegill this time of year.

Since we are basically in the middle of winter, you know that point where the average temps are suppose to rise each day but never seem to do so.  That point where the ice is over 20 inches thick and you can just about drive anywhere as long as the snow allows.  That point where the local anglers in most spots are complaining about the bite and how tough it is.   Yes, we all know what I am talking about.  So, what do you do?

First, you have to realize that the fish have been under the ice for almost two months now and oxygen levels are getting low in most lakes.  Low oxygen leads to inactive fish in most lakes and a void of fish in many of the shallow water hot spots that are popular early ice.  It is time to change your old ways and use technology to put some fish on the ice.  They are still there and willing to bite with a few modifications to your program.

When I say technology, I mean get out your GPS and LakeMaster mapping chip and find a new spot that incorporates deep water near a shallow feeding shelf.  On a LakeMaster map it will look like steep contours near a point or shallow flat.  However, for the most part you can forget about the shallow feeding flat and concentrate on the deep water.  With low oxygen levels fish spend very little time feeding in shallow water.  In fact, unless you fish just at first light or at dark, the shallow water in most lakes may be void of fish right now.

Those fish that you are accustomed to catching shallow are roaming the deep basin near that feeding shelf.  You need to get out your auger and drill out that deep water using your flasher to look for fish.  If you don't find fish, drop a bait down each hole and see if you can get them to show up.  I generally give each hole less than a minute while looking for these fish.  For the most part, they will be relating to the bottom 10 feet of the water column but may not be on the bottom.  The higher off the bottom you find them, the more likely they are to bite. 

Once you locate these basin fish you should have an excellent bite between 8-11AM and 1-4 PM.  As I mentioned earlier, before 8 AM and after 4 PM you may want to look back in that shallow water because despite low oxygen levels the fish will still use shallow water to feed.  However, locating the fish is only half the battle.  These basin fish don't stay in one spot very long, sot is not uncommon to continue to have to move from hole to hole to stay after them  If you chose to stay in one place it becomes a waiting game as the schools of roaming fish move around but they do generally come back.  If you want to up your odds, you have to keep after them!

It is that time of year to get out and look for those deep water fish.  By doing so you may be rewarded with some of the biggest bluegill in the system.  I was fortunate to connect with this 10.5 inch giant bluegill last week while targeting these basin giants.  We did catch about 30 bluegill on the day with most averaging 9 inches.  This one was the only bluegill that broke the 10 inch mark and being big and fat like it was, I would estimate about 1.4 pounds.  It is interesting to note that last year I got a 10.25 inch bluegill in the same spot and it weighed 1 pound 3 ounces.  So, keep after those big bulls, they are out there and are still willing to bite when you find them!