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Pineview 1/12 Action
#1
I had work up in Eden, so decided to fish Pineview in the evening and mix in a little pleasure after the working was finished.  I like to double up on opportunities when I can, and after reading Backyard Boy's report from the previous day, it sounded like a good play.

Got on the ice and fishing about 4pm.  Found 40 FOW about 150 yards SE of the Port Ramp.  My initial offerings were ignored except for one apparently wayward perch.  There was a gentleman fishing about 50 yards to my west, so I went over to chat and met Old Scout from this forum.  He was just getting ready to leave and had more fish passing thru.   We had a nice conversation, and he invited me to try his holes, so once he packed up and left, and my holes were still slow, I moved over and gave them a try.

The perch picked up about 4:30 and were fairly steady until about 5:30 then dropped off.  I wanted to try and land some crappie, but man, the bite was extremely light and hard to time.  They would just kiss the bait, and only hit once maybe twice if you were lucky.  Started with the rod in the holder, but had to hold it in order to have any success because after the initial bump, they usually moved on.  Ended up landing 4 and missed twice that.  The crappie turned on about 6:30 and died off at about 8pm.  Ended the night with a banker's dozen perch (8" avg) and the 4 crappie between 8-9" (I'd post a photo, but all of a sudden, the site is telling me all my files are too large and haven't figured out how to compress then yet).  All in all, a nice night on the lake.

Fished the same green/yellow or yellow/green hali's with either yellow or white/pink glow ratfinkie above.  Hali tipped with worm and RF with wax worm.  The glow did seem to help.  Perch were tight to the bottom, and I got the crappie about 3-4 cranks off the bottom.  They preferred dead stick over jigging.

Spoke to another fisher who was off Browning Point, and he said crappie were thick there in 40 FOW too, but again, bite was extremely light.
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#2
MWScott, I was the one off Browning point last night with my son. I wondered if I’d read a report today Smile

We couldn’t get out quite so early. I’m guessing we finally got set up around 7:30. Those fish were thick but light biters.
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#3
The bite was really only good well after dark. We got there at 4 and fished until 10. People who leave before it gets dark miss the good bite! I probably should have included that in my thread...
Why do I like fishing so much? The same reason why you like breathing so much, It keeps me alive.
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#4
(01-13-2021, 05:39 PM)JArner Wrote: MWScott, I was the one off Browning point last night with my son. I wondered if I’d read a report today  Smile

We couldn’t get out quite so early. I’m guessing we finally got set up around 7:30. Those fish were thick but light biters.
Good to meet you and put a face to a name!
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#5
(01-13-2021, 05:45 PM)Backyard Boy T.V. Wrote: The bite was really only good well after dark. We got there at 4 and fished until 10. People who leave before it gets dark miss the good bite! I probably should have included that in my thread...
  That was how it was the night you went, and it's a good bet, but sometimes it's different.  I wish I knew what that depends on, though.  Cool
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#6
(01-14-2021, 03:56 PM)Springbuck1 Wrote:
(01-13-2021, 05:45 PM)Backyard Boy T.V. Wrote: The bite was really only good well after dark. We got there at 4 and fished until 10. People who leave before it gets dark miss the good bite! I probably should have included that in my thread...
  That was how it was the night you went, and it's a good bet, but sometimes it's different.  I wish I knew what that depends on, though.  Cool
I haven't had any first hand experience this year, but in past years the crappies have been feeding on huge thick schools of zooplankton after they rise up out of the mud after dark.  With good electronics you could watch the screen change as it went from a defined line bare bottom...to a gradually thickening and rising cloud coming up into a few feet above the bottom.  That was when the crappies moved in...at the same level of the bitty bites.  All they had to do was swim through the mass with their mouths open and fill their tummies.  They prefer small minnows and other larger prey items, but will gladly settle for green soup if that is all that's on the menu.

This accounts for the "light bite"...or nonexistent bite even though you see lots of fish on the screen.  If they are only feeding on the small stuff they ain't gonna smack a jigging spoon.  Or...if they are already stuffed with the green soup they got no room for anything else.

There are several areas around Pineview where the mud bottom seems to produce a lot of green soup after dark.  Some longtime regulars have their spots where they can usually rely on the nightly drama to play out.  And they have their assortment of little glow goodies to try to attract attention.  When it works, it works very well.  At other times...it's just fishing.
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#7
You know Pat - I saw exactly that last Tuesday. Nice to know what I was seeing and why the little buggers were so finicky. Thanks for the explanation!
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#8
Hmmmm, then I wonder why the zooplankton rise out of the mud after dark? Don't they know crappies are dangerous? Scared of the light? What type of bottom do they rise up from? What kind of mud?

I was just commenting about the bite timing because I've caught a lot of early morning and afternoon crappie up there, too, and the bites seem to change on me, a lot. Good here today, good there tomorrow, good here this year, good there next year, moon cycles, temps and storms, whatever else..... I'd love to find that ONE consistent, always-on spot, though. I've seen those clouds on sonar, but I'm making due with cheap electronics.

Interesting enough, (to me) I generally use a fairly large jig or chain-spoon on them, because they are so deep. Certainly nothing that looks like zooplankton. I've never had too much trouble detecting bites on a spring-bobber, IF I was getting bites.

I had a pretty good handle on it for about 5 years, then they just lost me, and I still aven't re-figured it out. It's good to see a crop of little ones that will grow up, though.
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#9
(01-14-2021, 10:46 PM)Springbuck1 Wrote: Hmmmm, then I wonder why the zooplankton rise out of the mud after dark?  Don't they know crappies are dangerous?  Scared of the light?  What type of bottom do they rise up from?  What kind of mud? 

I was just commenting about the bite timing because I've caught a lot of early morning and afternoon crappie up there, too, and the bites seem to change on me, a lot.  Good here today, good there tomorrow, good here this year, good there next year, moon cycles, temps and storms, whatever else.....  I'd love to find that ONE consistent, always-on spot, though.  I've seen those clouds on sonar, but I'm making due with cheap electronics.

Interesting enough, (to me) I generally use a fairly large jig or chain-spoon on them, because they are so deep.  Certainly nothing that looks  like zooplankton.  I've never had too much trouble detecting bites on a spring-bobber, IF I was getting bites.

I had a pretty good handle on it for about 5 years, then they just lost me, and I still aven't re-figured it out.  It's good to see a crop of little ones that will grow up, though.
The good news is that crappies are not as "match the hatch" specific as trout can be at times.  They are usually more opportunistic...and will feed on multiple food items.  That's why they will still hit lures larger than zooplankton while heavily feeding on the green soup.  And a good glow goodie can attract them from several feet away...unless they are already stuffed.

There have been a lot of cycles in Pineview over the years.  For a few years there was a good balance of perch and crappies...with lots of young hatchlings in the food chain every year.  When both the perch and the bigger crappies were patterning on young-of-the-year perchlets...about 2" long...the narrows became the place to fish for both species after about mid November.  That's when the small perch followed the zooplankton down to the depths in 40-50 feet of water...and the bigger fish followed.  The game plan for anglers was to look for schools of baby perch on the bottom and fish around them.  Usually resulted in goodly numbers of good sized perch and crappies.

Under those conditions, I caught most of my larger fish on 1/4 oz. jigging spoons with a piece of perch meat sweetener.  And the hits were almost always hard enough to easily detect.  The fish were hunting for meat and they weren't bashful.  You mentioned the "chain spoon".  I have been effectively using my "holy jigs" on Pineview for years...1/4 oz. glow blade with thin wire and a small "flat rinkee".   They get down fast, attract the fish and then the fish hit the smaller offering.  

I haven't been fishing Pineview during the winter for a few years so I haven't been tracking the food chain changes.  But I suspect that there are still some good sized fish showing up near the buoy line...and that they would accept larger offerings with some meat on the hook.
[Image: SLAB-ON-TIGER.jpg][Image: TENNER-ON-TIGER.jpg][Image: OLYMPUS-DIGITAL-CAMERA.jpg]
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#10
Thanks TD.

As usual, what I'm missing is good electronics, it seems. I did make a big green light this year, so maybe that will help.
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