6 minute read
CHASIN’ ON THE BASIN
The basin during late ice can be a phenomenal bonus place where we can put some extra fish on the ice with just a little bit of movement and creative rigging. It really doesn’t make sense that a 10 foot move on a 1 mile basin could make a big difference, but I’ve noticed through the years that it absolutely can. Not only getting up and moving a few feet but also changing your how you’re fishing for those roaming fish. I’m not talking about big change either… sometimes it’s just the small things that make a big difference. It doesn’t matter whether it’s big attack predators or panfish that you’re targeting on a wide-open basin, most of the time they’re moving around looking for food. They usually travel in smaller groups during this period or even individually. They’re hunting for an easy food source to pack on weight for the impending nest protection. So how we approach fishing them sometimes can mean the difference and putting that next fish on the scale or in a bucket. One of the things has become very obvious to me as that creating a finesse presentation sometimes makes the difference and looking very much like what they’re eating as a food source below, will also help ensure your success. So many times you have to downsize or upsize to meet the size of the actual meal they are eating that day. One of the ways that I figure out what that food is, is to cut a fish open and look or throw it in a bucket of water and take a look at what they spit out. Once I have this piece of the puzzle then I start to look through my arsenal of both jigs and bait to select my best approach to matching the hatch that day. Then select the best rod tip with it to create the illusion of being the actual food that they are eating below. This in combination with staying mobile during this period of time (even if that is a slight movement) seems to make a difference in my fishing. So usually when I set up even on a large basin I will drill a circle of 10 or so holes, that are about 10 paces away from each other, and I will hole hop even on a basin. Well hole hopping is usually thought of as a weed technique and it works very well there, it can work equally as well in a large basin. Sometimes fish once spooked out from under you, only move 10 or 15 feet, locating perhaps just on the other side of a patch of laid down weeds, rocks or any other structure that may be out there. Where there is no structure fish seem to spook easily, therefore they move a distance away, but will almost always return if the food source is still available.
Finessing these fish can be as easy as tying a drop shot rig or using a smaller jig head when the food source that they’re eating is negative or neutrally buoyant. If it is a year of young that is coming out of their belly, (that is a small fish that was born over the summer) then I will use whatever jig head and plastic works in combination with each other to look like that young of the year fish, in both color and size. Then the selection of the rod tip becomes
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ENVISION HOW THE FISH ARE MOVING, WHAT THE FISH ARE EATING, AND HOW WHATEVER THEY’RE EATING, IS MOVING DOWN BELOW THE ICE.
important. As you deliver the bait school that is roaming underneath to the fish, if it is an insect you are you on a large basin or flat. imitating, a softer more flowy look to the bait may work best. If it is a Envision how the fish are moving, dead or dying minnow, you may want what the fish are eating, and how a sharper or abrupt jig cadence and whatever they’re eating, is moving so you would use perhaps a little bit down below the ice. Then you can stiffer rod tip. If you don’t change make your plans accordingly with rods or each lake that carry you travel to, to multiple have what you rods with need to mimic you, then their food. Also change as you envision your what is occurring cadence or down below you, the amount look for areas of in which transition from a you raise soft to a changing and lower bottom of some your rod tip, speed and consistency sort whether that be a crib, a rock of how you jig. Remember the pile or matt weeds. Try to zigzag or important part here is to look like the jump around those areas of bottom food that the fish are currently eating change so that you can follow the below you in the basin. fish as they move out from under you. If you pull fish through a pile of As I am cutting multiple holes in a fish, they will almost always spook, basin to work my way through, if a so when you are dropping your line, hole cools off, or even if there are stop way up above where the fish are still fish in there, I will sometimes actually showing up on your flasher move to another hole adjacent to it, so not spook all of the fish out of the area. Another school of thought is to stay on top of the fish by moving with them. If you can get a sense of the direction in which they’re heading, you can jump around, hole to hole and chase them for a little while, again increasing the amount of fish that you’ll catch out of that small or a graph, and jig them up to you. Making the fish come up to you will spook less fish, and on a basin or in clear water, this is a big deal.
Fish roaming on the flats are almost always looking for something to eat, like me at a donut shop. Figure out what kind of donut they want that day and your bucket and belly will thank you. What they’re eating, how they’re feeding, rigging techniques, jigging cadence and hole locations, can greatly improve your success in what otherwise seems to be a barren wasteland. So each time you head out onto the lake if you’re going to fish a basin or flats that day experiment with all of these things to improve your success out on the ice and I hope see you out there, Scott
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