Fly the Team Iceshanty Flag! Iceshanty Proshop
this one pond i fish allways has them on the bottom to,,must be the pond or lake
every lake is different....some New England lakes they never go anywhere near bottom throughout winter...others they very seldom move off bottom.....
I was getting soft bites but no takes on smallest size swedish pimple with a teardrop a foot up tipped with spikes. The crppie were definitely suspended ten to fifyeen ft off the bottom 20 to 30 fow. I could see them on my showndown but they weren't biting mode.. tried but, they wouldn't hit in several areas of the lake so the bite was off both Saturday and Sunday for me and my fishing buddy. My fishing lunar watch wasn't showing any fish either We also our limit of tipups baited with lively shiners suspended off the bottom a few feet. Not one flag.. either day.. and we tried three different locations on this lake. Sometimes the bite is off but I wish I knew why.
We have been nailing crappies this winter. 95% of them are within 3 ft of the bottom. Silver Swedish Pimple or Forage Minnow tipped with a mealworm or minnow head/tail. They can't resist...Good luck
yes , I watch the column, the depth/my lures/the fish easily show up on my showdown. I caught a few teasing them up by slowly twitching and than still the rod tip as I slowly lift.. see the fish react and follow.. look at it and move back down.. as I said, this weekend the bite was off,, perhaps they were eating some tiny hatch or just were not in feeding mode. Me and my friend know Our jigs and do quite well when the bite is on. Hoping to get out this week again on a different lake. I really want to jig and will leave the tipups behind for this lake is good jigging water.
It's prob because he was fishing active fish. Did you try to move around any? You need to move and find active bitters. Do t waste your time of locked up fish. About every time when crappie bite is on first drops down a fresh hole will get you couple fish. So keep moving.
kabob with all due respect, I know you are very knowledgable and appreciate your help. I first want to point out that this is a hydro electric power reservoir with little weed line even the flats have little weeds because there is consistant water level changes in this reservoir. The only thing I can think of are points and dropoffs and the deep end which has been too thin to ice fish last few seasons.