“If I’m fishing big perch waters, I want to use a big bait,” Jeff Sundin said as he unhooked a genuinely large Devils Lake perch. “It helps you get past the smaller fish and get the attention of the ones you really want.”

A northern Minnesota fishing guide who shifts his focus from guiding to play fishing, sport shows and other promotional work for sponsors (which includes a lot of ice fishing) every winter, Sundin was plying the famous perch waters of North Dakota’s Devils Lake with guide and fellow Lindy pro staffer Jason Feldner. Sundin was armed with a Frostee that most anglers would consider oversized for perch fishing, but it was paying big dividends.

Sundin actually began the morning with “walleye size” Slick Jig, and caught his first jumbo perch almost immediately. Then the perch turned finicky for everyone for a while, in large part due to a hard cold front that had come crashing through, so Sundin tried downsizing to a small Rattl’N Flyer Spoon before taking the finesse approach a step farther with a 1/32-ounce Lindy Ice Jig. When downsizing didn’t make a noteworthy difference in the catching action, he decided that he was at Devils Lake to catch its famous big perch, so he tied on his “old standby.”

Sundin’s standby for jumbo perch is a No. 4 Frostee Spoon (usually in a glow color), which he matches with a big live minnow. “I always hook the minnow near the tail because it never stops trying to swim away from the lure and that creates great action,” he said.  Sundin generally doesn’t jig his offering very hard, instead letting the minnow do the bulk of the-fish attracting work. However, he always experiments with presentations and he watches his flasher continually, allowing the fish to dictate his approach.

At Devils Lake, Sundin noticed that most strikes were occurring very soon after he dropped the bait down through the hole. After a while he begin reeling the spoon up several feet from time to time and dropping it back down to capitalize on the reaction bites that seemed to occur soon after the bait fell into the zone. The plan worked, and that became his default approach for the rest of the afternoon.

Sundin’s Frostee/minnow combo looks like it would be a mega mouthful for a yellow perch, but the perch have shown him again and again that it’s not too big for them.  He likewise sees the evidence of a big yellow perch’s hefty appetite when he uses chubs and sucker minnows to target big walleyes during the summer. It’s not at all uncommon for Sundin to catch a giant yellow perch on a bait that many anglers would consider too large to put down for walleyes.

Crappie Too

It might be worth noting that Sundin’s “big ideas” are not exclusive to yellow perch. He utilizes many of the exact same approaches for waters where crappie tend to grow shoulders. A crappie actually has a very large mouth when compared to other panfish, and even an average-sized crappie will nab a far larger offering than most anglers ever opt to offer when crappie are the target species.

For Sundin, the major deciding factor regarding the size of ice lure he’ll drop through a hole for crappie is the reputation of the lake. If he’s fishing waters that are known to yield slab-sized fish, he doesn’t mind drawing questioning looks from other fishermen. He likewise doesn’t mind waiting longer between bites as long as he believes that upsizing his offerings increases his chances of upsizing the crappie that he catches.   In addition to the larger sizes of Frostees and Slick Jigs, Sundin likes a 1/8-ounce Rattl’n Flyer Spoon for heavyweight crappie, and occasionally he’ll even dance a Lindy Darter with big crappie in mind

Time & Place for Everything

Despite an obvious willingness to buck norms in search of big crappie or perch, Jeff Sundin does not maintain a “go big or go home” mentality. He can jiggle a Lindy Ice Jig or twitch Micro Slick Jig with the best of them when a finesse presentation is needed to make fish bite.

As alluded to, Sundin doesn’t typically start big if he’s fishing in a lake that’s better known for fast action panfishing than for coughing out jumbos or slabs or if the big fish-bite hasn’t been happening. He matches his starting line-up with expectations. Likewise, he’s not too stubborn to change if everyone around him is catching fish, and everything coming through the ice is a little on the small end for the baits he’s been using.

It’s not all about big baits for big fish, though. There are times when the biggest perch or crappie in lake are much more inclined to eat something small and subtle. Usually that has to do with a hard cold front, recent heavy fishing pressure, or extra good visibility caused by very clear water and/or minimal snow cover on the ice.

For Sundin, though, the fish on the flasher are his biggest indicator. When fish keep showing up and giving his bait hard looks and then turning the other way, he begins making changes, and if conditions suggest that it might be a day for smaller offerings, he’ll scale back from his big stuff.  Often, that works. Other times, the bite is simply slow. In those cases, he’ll usually go back to a big Frostee, figuring that if he’s only going to catch a fish now and then, it might as well be a big one.

Devil’s Lake

Famous for its giant yellow perch, Devils Lake is serving up one of the best winters of ice fishing that guide Jason Feldner can remember. Perch of any length are incredibly fat in this highly fertile lake, and legitimate 2-pound perch don’t even turn heads in the bait shop.

Feldner normally begins and ends most ice-fishing days fishing for walleyes in fairly shallow water and spends the middle part of each day over deeper water, primarily targeting perch. Devils Lake also supports a big population of pike, which can provide furious action through the ice. That said, most fishermen who travel to this lake during the winter understandably have jumbo perch in mind. Devils Lake is located in northern North Dakota, so there’s normally good fishable ice at least through the end of March.

Making Plans?

Before you head anywhere to fish, be sure to check out Lindy’s Exclusive National Audio Fishing Reports. Jeff Sundin and Jason Feldner both contribute regular audio reports. Jeff Sundin also posts daily written reports about northern Minnesota on his website, jeffsundin.com. To learn more about fishing at Devils Lake, visit Perch-Eyes Guide Service.

The channel that separates Ludlows Island from Lake Vermilion’s south shore isn’t terribly wide, but when you step aboard the classic wooden boat that shuttles guests to Ludlow’s Island Resort, you step into another world – a world strangely distant from modern day worries. A self-contained island resort with waterfront cabins connected by woodland trails, Ludlow’s has been operated by the Ludlow family for more than 70 years.
Despite stretching over more than 40,000 acres, northern Minnesota’s Lake Vermilion seems intimate in most places because of the 365 islands and 1200 miles of shoreline that break up the lake’s clear but dark waters. It has the feel of a somewhat smaller Northwoods lake, but around every bend the lake just seems to keep going. Forests of birches and evergreens line rocky banks and cover most islands.

“Breathtaking Sunsets Included,” Ludlow’s boasts on their website, and the name Vermilion is a translation of the lake’s original Native American name, which spoke of glowing sunsets.

“We like to say it’s a Canadian experience, without the need to cross the border,” said Bill Rosner of Wild Country Guide Service.

Lake Vermilion isn’t just another pretty face, though. A tremendous amount of quality structure, vegetation beds and abundant forage equate to outstanding fishing for a variety of sportfish species, among them muskellunge, northern pike, walleyes, smallmouth bass, crappie and bluegill, and some of the best fishing occurs during the first part of the open-water season.

Muskies, which open June 4, are Lake Vermilion’s marquis gamefish. Stocked annually with extra-large-growing Leech-strain muskies and ultra rich with habitat and forage, Vermilion has developed into one of the world’s finest muskellunge lakes and annually produces some of the biggest fish caught anywhere.

“We’re probably a little spoiled,” Rosner said. “A 50-inch muskie is huge anywhere you catch it, but around here, no one gets that excited about a 50-inch fish.”

Rosner, a fourth-generation fishing guide, targets Lake Vermilion’s big muskies with a combination of trolling and casting strategies. Trolling an M/G Buck-A-Boo Muskie Spinner or M/G in-line spinnerallows Rosner to cover a lot of water and can be highly effective for finding fish. However, he likes casting best, both because of the “hands-on” fun of working lures and feeling every strike and because this approach allows his clients to work individual weedbeds or other cover in the backs of the bays more thoroughly and to present lures over much shallower water.

Early in the season, Vermilion’s big muskies and northern pike use many of the same shallow bays and eat a lot of the same foods as one another, so Rosner commonly catches the these big toothy fish together. Prior to the muskie opener he keeps his baits a little smaller and targets specific areas where he most commonly catches pike. Once muskie season opens, the muskies become his primary targets because that’s what many anglers have in mind when they travel to Lake Vermilion.

Rosner also spends a lot of time guiding anglers for walleyes during late May and June. The walleyes have finished spawning and often spend their days in deeper water. He’ll focus on the edges of structure, where rock gives way to sand or mud in 25 to 35 feet of water. Typically he will fish either with 3/8-ounce Lindy Jigs tipped with minnows or he will pull Lindy Rigs. As the season progresses, he’ll switch from minnows to leeches and night crawlers fished on the same rigs.

Toward evening, the walleyes will move shallow to feed atop points and bars that are close to the deeper water. When the fish move up, Rosner will target them with a Size 5 Lindy Shadling, which can be cast or trolled, and focuses mostly on structure that is 8 to 18 feet deep.  His favorite Shadling colors are Perch and Tulibee.

Although Rosner doesn’t spend much time targeting them, Lake Vermilion also supports an outstanding population of smallmouth bass and decent numbers of big black crappie and various other panfish. Early in the year, these species all tend to be shallow and will relate to visible cover.

Ludlow’s Fishing

Ludlow’s Island Resort offers fishing/lodging packages that include a boat and 20 hp motor and fish cleaning, and some of the best fishing in the lake is within easy range of the island. The lake narrows substantially through the section that surrounds the island, creating a funneling effect for game fish on the move and providing great opportunities literally within sight of the boat dock. In fact, the main channel between the island and the lake’s south shore and a flat just up the lake produce a lot of really big muskies and pike.

Early in the season, many of the lake’s sport fish will be shallow, feeding over rocky points, along edges of cabbage beds and near other visible cover. Equipped with medium-sized spinning gear and a Shadling, Fuzz-E Grub or a Lindy Jigand a grub or live minnow, you’re apt to catch good numbers of chunky smallmouth bass and smaller pike and possibly some crappie or walleyes. It is fun fishing because you don’t have to know the lake well to find good action. Simply work the banks and cast to stuff that “looks fishy” and you’re apt to find more than ample reward.

Ludlow’s guests, both young and old, actually catch a lot of fish from the island’s shore and from the resort docks. Big live minnows produce pike and occasional muskies, while live worms and smaller artificial lures produce everything from smallmouth bass to sunfish.

Want to Go:

To get the latest word on the bite at Lake Vermilion, check out the Lindy National Audio Fishing Reports. To plan a trip with Bill Rosner, visit www.vermilionguide.com or give him a call at 218-666-2880.

To learn more about Ludlow’s Island Resort, visit www.ludlowsresort.com or call (877) LUDLOWS.

Bottom Bouncer Live Bait Rigging is a great tactic to use when walleyes are relating tight to deep structure and are considered to be in a neutral or negative feeding mood.

The weight of bouncer you choose will depend on the depth you’re marking fish at, but a typical range would be 1.5 to 2.5 ounces. A six-foot snell tipped with a crawler or leech will trigger bites, but large minnows often are more productive especially on western reservoirs. This is a slow and methodical technique for targeting walleyes that are tight to specific structural elements such as deep breaks, cups and points. This is not a search technique, but rather a tactic used once you’ve located a tight concentration of fish on deep structure.

Use your electronics to scan likely points, cups and deep structure. Working from the bow and using the bowmount trolling motor to position the boat, lower the bottom bouncer rig when you locate fish, making sure you let out just enough line so that the bouncer’s leg just touches bottom.

As you slowly work the immediate area, make sure you’re keeping the bouncer as vertical as possible. This will give you much better control and help allow you to feel even light bites. Often, when using large minnows, particularly large Creek Chubs, you’ll be able to feel the bait get very active when a predator walleye is close. The bite may feel like nothing more than the rig getting heavy, or you may feel a “tug”. At that point, drop the rod tip slowly toward the fish, giving it time to take the bait and turn its head. When you feel the fish has the bait and the line is tight, set the hook with an upward sweeping motion and fight the fish in.

Make no mistake, this is a finesse technique, demanding precise boat control and a sensitive touch. A good quality set-up for bottom bouncer rigging would include a 6’6″ to 7′ medium action baitcast rod and reel combo spooled with 10 pound test Berkley FireLine tied to a bouncer rigged with a 6 foot leader of 8 pound test Berkley Vanish Fluorocarbon and a super sharp live bait hook. The rod coupled with the no-stretch FireLine give you excellent feel of what’s going on below, and the Vanish Fluorocarbon makes the leader virtually invisible to the fish.

It’s a deadly technique for those situations where walleyes are tough to catch by most any other method.

In some states throughout the Midwest, the ice-fishing season for walleyes and northern pike is coming to a close, or has, in fact, already closed. If you live in one of those areas, now is not the time to hang up the ice-rods and put the shelter and auger in storage. There are still some very good opportunities for ice-fishing action. Some of the best perch, crappie, and bluegill ice action is still to come. Here’s how you can get in on it.

Perch can be in different places in different bodies of water, but most of my perch catching late in the season has been in deep water, sometimes down to thirty feet.

In other lakes they’ll be shallower, but when they’re shallow, that’s usually because there is no deep water in that lake.

Crappies can be kind of strange. In some lakes they’ll hang close to the bottom just like a walleye, in other lakes they’ll suspend. In my past few ice-fishing trips we’ve taken crappies that looked just like walleyes on the sonar because they were hugging the bottom, and we’ve taken crappies that were six feet off the bottom in twelve feet of water.

Not relating to panfish but still kind of on the topic of fish location, on an ice-fishing trip for walleyes two years ago on Lake of the Woods, the walleyes were running twelve feet down over twenty five feet of water. They were biters, but you had to bring the bait up to where they were.

Back on the topic of panfish location under late ice; Expect to find bluegills along weedbeds or around brush piles. They might be over the tops of the weeds or suspended along the deep edge of the weeds, but if you find good cabbage weeds, you’re probably close to some ‘gills.

These panfish can be very active, but you still need to present the bait correctly. For ‘gills, go with two pound test Berkley Trilene 100% Fluorocarbon. It’s invisible underwater, and sometimes that’s what it takes to put finicky bluegills on the ice. Go with a 1/64th ounce Fire-Fly jig for gills. Lots of anglers like black, as they feel it best copies the tiny bugs that are in the water.

Crappies and perch both like Forage Minnow spoons tipped with a piece of minnow or a couple of Berkley Gulp! Maggots. A lot of colors will work, but Super-Glo Perch is a real winner day-in and day-out.

For perch, drop the spoon to the bottom, let it rest a second or two, then give it a couple of good snaps. That attracts the perch. Let it sit still for a few seconds, then snap it again. Keep a close eye on your sonar to see how the fish are reacting to the snapping-resting action.

A more subtle action is usually best for crappies. Put the spoon just a bit above the crappies, then quiver it. If they want it, they’ll eat it.

Keep a close eye on the ice conditions, but if it’s safe, get out there for some late season panfish action. I’ve always found that late ice panfish are a great way to start the new open water season.

This is a quick and easy recipe that has great flavor yet still lets the fish be the star of the show!

Ingredients per pound of fillets

1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

1/2 cup Panko (Japanese bread crumbs)

2 teaspoons paprika

1 tablespoon chopped flat-leaf parsley

Fish fillets (about 1 pound total)

3-4 Tablespoons Olive oil for frying

1 lemon, cut into wedges

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a shallow dish, combine the Parmesan, Panko with the paprika, parsley and season with salt and pepper. Drizzle the fish with olive oil and dredge in the Parmesan Panko mixture.  Fry fillets for approx 2 min each side in hot Olive oil in an oven safe frying pan to brown.  Then place the pan in the 350 degree oven to finish. Bake until the fish is opaque in the thickest part, 8 to 12 minutes for approx ½ to 3/4 in. thick fillets fillets. Serve the fish with the lemon wedges.  Enjoy!

 
How many of you have heard your mother  or   sister  or  wife  talking with  a friend   maybe  about  a wedding or some day plans and ask each other,  ”so, what are you going to wear”?. If you are like me you think  to yourself  ( trust me, it is wise to think this  to yourself for real, too! ),  ”good God woman its only  an  hour  long  procedure to marry  off  that  fool, so what’s  is wrong with  jeans  and  a  ’I  hate weddings’ T-shirt?”.  It seems that women can put more thought into dressing than into practicality. After years of making my thoughts verbal and more years of learning how to keep my thoughts to myself, I just shake my head and walk away any more.

This same sort of scenario is posed upon each of us, though, when we hit the water….”What are you going to start with today?”. This is a very valid question and , unlike the one your wife asks her companions, one you cannot walk away from if you want to start the day off with some modicum of success. So…..what is the tag end of your line going to wear?

When I hit the drink I look at a number of things. Is the weather in a stable pattern? What were the fish hot on the last time? What is different about today than the last time? Is the water warmer? Did a color or profile pattern emerge that last trip out that might be a place to begin? I think of a ton of things. And then I do the obvious….I go to what was the best producer the last time out, regardless of the changes in weather and water. Why? I have to start somewhere and, sort of like the clothes issue, I don’t like to think about it that much. I’d rather just fish….and let them tell me what to use.

If the weather has been relatively stable, profile and size issues are going to be stable too. Changes in the color and retrieve are going to be your biggest challenge. I always go back to the presentation I was doing well on the last trip out. Once you find the fish and determine what they are like “bite-wise”, lots of variable can be employed.

Like those decisions that women belabor themselves with regarding dress, anglers too are going to be faced with some decision making challenges and maybe the biggest is going to deal with color, after it has been established what the fish want profile and action -wise. Any one ever seen their wife change clothes when company comes because some else is wearing a color that is close to what wifie originally had on? The rational is that with two women in the same room (more like city block) with ALMOST the same color of clothing is just too much color for that small of an area. The same will apply to fishing. Especially when crappies are being fished in a tight area. If too much of a certain color of plastic is working a school of them, they will get wary of that color quickly. So I do what I have learned from the girls….I change colors…..often. And I usually stay in the fish.

I don’t like to hammer on one spot with one color for a long time. I will fish it with one color, change color and then leave the spot after a bit. But I will come back to the spot later and do the whole color change thing again. Sometimes I can do this using just two colors all day. Sometimes I have to change up the colors four or five times.

I fish heavily stained water and my favorite of all baits, regardless of profile or action, will have purple body and chartreuse tail. And my favorite is based on what’s working for me at the time. If it worked three days ago, I will start with that as long as it has purple and chartreuse in it. But I will not stay stuck on this color pattern if I do not get into fish within 10 minutes. Those who have fished with me know of the plastics arsenal I drag along with me and know too that I will be digging through the color chambers in the box on a search until I find one that works. If I am forced to change profiles, I will start with purple/chartreuse regardless and then go through the gamut of colors again. I might, no…will, always end up with that which I stared with on the line.

So how many color patterns do you need? Go check out the wife’s/ girlfriend’s wardrobe closet and then the chest of drawers or sweater storage area. Got the picture here? I always preach about going to the lake prepared. Not only in
profiles and actions, but also in the color department. Why so many colors? I have seen where crappies are hitting great guns on an overcast morning on my beloved purple/chartreuse only to have the haze burn off and they quit.
Switch to a blue/chartreuse and ,bingo!, right back in fish. I have seen this progression go through as many as eight color variables in three hours, once starting with black/chartreuse and ending with a pink body and an orange tail!

That closet at home keeps the little lady of your life happy, so I say let her have it. Fill that sucka up honey! Those overflowing tackle boxes are my closet and her closet is my defense for what I have. My toys keep me happy and in the
fish. Now Ma has asked why I have so much tackle of the same colors. I explain that it is much like her closet. She doesn’t have just one pair of jeans in this color….she has nine. And she has six different brands of jeans, so go do the
math. And sweaters? Well, let’s just say there are some very bald sheep out there. But one in one color? Yea, right.

Part of the plastics challenge is color. In my opinion, no panfisherman can have too much of it. Profile choices and action choices … color choices all equate to a lot of tackle to carry, but I am prepared. In spite of that, time has taught me
what to start with. So what should you start your fishing day with? Go to your “go to” bait and begin. Make your adjustments based on what the fish dictate for the day beginning with that bait. It is OK to fashion your tackle after
the women, but if you don’t have a definite starting point, you’ll end up like the little lady standing in the closet for two hours wondering what to wear. That’s a lot of good fishing time, my friends.

 By: Tom “CrappieTom” Sawvell

 Now as I am savoring the soon to be warm and green days of spring I am struck with a bit of fear and trepidation.  Although not yet here it seems that it will be over all too soon and there is still so much to do.  There are still Panfish and  Mille Lacs  jumbo Perch to be pursued on the ice, all the while  trying to get as many days as possible on the river in search of pre-spawn Walleyes.  This year looks like the Mississippi River will be in great shape early in the season rather than the blowout we dealt with last spring.  Hopefully I will have a couple hundred Walleyes under my belt before the statewide opener arrives  to take the pressure off.  Few things are as satisfying as not have to worry about battling the crowds on the opener becuase your Walleye itch has been scratched real good.  As if that was not enough there are still the April Crappies and Stream Trout to deal with.  Ok, I guess I can handle that I tell my self until that nagging little voice (not in my head mind you) says “what about the boat?”

 The boat does need to be cleaned, waxed, carpet cleaned, trailer bearings greased and have the motor and gear oil changed.  Reels cleaned and fresh line put on.  Tackle sorted and a couple trips to mega tackle world to fill in the blanks in the tackle boxes.  And the Northwest Sport Show starts in a few short weeks.  No problem, I can git er done.  Pssst!, says that damn voice again.  What about the Morels?  You can’t forget about them and they wait for no man.   

 Feeling a bit smug I tell myself and that pesky little voice, no problem, I can make time to find some Morels and still get in a camping trip in May.  As I am about to heartily congratulate myself in advance for getting everything done in such a highly efficient manner over the coming months.  I come to the dreadful realization that my better half has committed us to attend 2 out of town May weddings, on top of her unreasonable expectation that I help her with the spring yard work after I did all of the snow shoveling this past winter.

 Its starting to feel like its over before it has begun!