CrappieNOW Editor Richard Simms and wife, Barbara, from Tennessee, are proud to
show off one of their first-ever crappie caught ice fishing. (Photo: Scott MacKenthun)
Newbie on Ice
NEW PRAGUE, Minnesota – Three years ago, I met Scott MacKenthun, a Minnesota fisheries biologist and fellow outdoor writer who had come to Tennessee to catch his first-ever blue catfish with me. With great similarities in backgrounds, Scott and I hit it off and he has since become a contributor to CrappieNOW.
Since our meeting in 2019, he has been asking me to head north for an ice fishing adventure. In my lifetime I had never had the opportunity to venture out onto “hard water,” to try my hand at fishing through a hole in the ice. This winter I decided it was time to broaden my crappie fishing horizons, so my wife and I saddled up and flew to Minneapolis.
I’m not going to lie – I was nervous. I was not nervous about going out on the ice – With 30 years of experience, I was sure Scott knew his way around ice safety.
“I’ve got two kids at home and a wonderful wife so I’m very careful measuring (the ice) and being cautious,” he said.
Rather than going through the ice, I was nervous about the cold.
All my life I have lived where it is relatively rare for the temperature to fall very far below freezing. Here I was heading to a land at a time when it NEVER gets above freezing and single digit temperatures are the norm. In fact, temperature numbers with a “minus sign” in front of them are common. I honestly wasn’t sure my southern body and psyche was prepared for it. But off we went.
The first afternoon we hit it lucky – a rarity for me on road trips. The temperature was actually hovering right around the freezing mark, with sunshine. As far as Scott was concerned, it was almost beach weather. Barbara and I, however, still “layered up.”
Initially it was quite comfortable as Scott drilled the first holes in the ice and we began fishing, I didn’t even wear my outer layer. But a few minutes in, a breeze came skittering across the ice. It was exactly like cranking the air conditioner on “High,” and I was quickly seeking out the additional outer layer. Gloves felt good to us, but we could take them on and off as needed without any painful repercussions. That would change, however, in the coming days.
ICE FISHING LESSONS
The first thing I learned was the level of mobility. I envisioned that drilling holes in the ice was a laborious process you really would not want to have to do too much. And once you were settled in on a spot, you were there for long haul.
Wrong!
Scott pulled out a relatively small auger driven by an electric power drill. He said the ice we were on was 14-inches thick, maybe more in places. Scott’s auger bored through the ice literally in seconds. In no time at all, he had ten holes drilled all around us in a 30-yard circle.
Our targets would primarily be crappie and bluegill. Walleye and/or northern pike are a common ice fishing target as well, but this lake didn’t hold many of those.
“If we don’t find fish here, we’ll just load up and drive across the lake to another area,” he said.
Scott MacKenthun is a lifelong ice fisherman from Minnesota and is proud to show off his state and the outstanding fishing available, year-round. (Photo: Richard Simms)
On his first time fishing on “hard water,” CrappieNOW Editor Richard Simms was surprised to learn how important it is to have a good electronic flasher unit, allowing you to actually watch fish and see how they react to your lure. (Photo: Scott MacKenthun)
Being able to safely drive out onto thick ice was awesome. All extra clothes, equipment and even a heater were just a few steps away. Scott even threw up his portable, insulated ice house/tent that broke the wind and held in the propane heater’s warmth. I was learning that even the hardcore ice junkies really don’t have to suffer in the cold too badly, if they’re properly equipped and clothed.
The next thing I learned about ice fishing was an angler’s heavy dependence on electronics. I fully expected to just sit by a hole, blindly jigging, hoping a wayward bluegill or crappie would wander by.
Instead, I quickly learned that virtually every ice angler has a portable “flasher style” fish finder you move with you from hole to hole. The flasher allows an angler to see your lure, raise or lower it to the proper depth and watch as a fish appears, moving toward your bait. In the South we hear occasionally of “video game” fishing situations. But when ice fishing these days, it is the norm, not the exception.
Scott said like any style of fishing, advances in ice fishing technology have been huge.
“Oh, my goodness! The technology has just gotten so much better,” he said. “When I was a kid, you couldn’t buy a good rod and reel off the shelf – the quality of the line, the clothes, the ice houses with insulation. It’s just become a more comfortable experience all the way around.”
Minnesota native and lifelong ice angler Scott MacKenthun says the quality of equipment available for ice fishing has improved dramatically in recent years. “Oh, my goodness! The technology has just gotten so much better,” he said. (Photo: Richard Simms)
About that time our interview on the ice was interrupted by a crappie and Scott gently set the hook. Of course, even watching Scott’s rod, I had seen absolutely no indication of a strike.
That’s the third thing I learned – panfish under the ice have a VERY light bite!
I am a pretty good finesse fisherman and when casting to bluegill or crappie, I am excellent at detecting strikes even without the telltale “thump.” However, when vertical fishing small jigs under the ice, I learned that fish will literally ease up to a bait, take a lure ever so gently with absolutely no telltale “thump,” and then literally NOT MOVE.
On more than one occasion I would see the two lines on my flasher merge into one. One line was my jig, the other line was the fish. They would melt into a single mark, indicating the fish had likely taken the bait. But I felt nothing, saw nothing or detected nothing – yet Scott would say, “Set the hook.” Lo and behold a fish would be there.
“Maybe because I’m standing off to the side, I can barely see your rod tip bow,” said Scott. “I don’t know for sure. I just know I could tell he was there.”
The next day we fished with guide Adam Griffith. His rod tips included a special device called a “spring bobber.” Basically, it is a short length of ultra-thin wire extending off the rod tip that helps an angler detect what Adam and Scott called “up bites.” That is when a fish gently takes the lure and the ONLY indication of a bite is the rod tip actually straightens, or in essence, bends up.
The smaller bluegill were the worst about “up bites.” When more, and larger, crappie started firing up at sunset, bites were a bit easier to detect.
Adam also shared how to read a fish’s “mood.”
“The biggest thing I teach about ice fishing is cadence – how you jig your jig,” he said. “You have to learn to read the fish’s attitude.”
Watching the flashing line of a fish on his Vexilar flasher, Adam could tell if a fish is “pulsing” or excited.
Pointing to the mark on his flasher, he said, “See how that one is coming in and he’s pulsing like that. That’s his fins doing that. That means he’s excited and he’s probably going to bite it.”
Which of course it did and a healthy bluegill came flopping through the ice.
“Raising and lowering your jig can allow an angler to actually gauge a fish’s interest and adjust your presentation accordingly,” said Adam. “Once you learn to do that and read their mood, you’re going to catch ten times as many fish.”
A CRUEL QUESTION
I asked Scott which is better – ice fishing or warm weather fishing on regular water.
“What kind of cruel person would ask such a question,” he said with a laugh. “I probably couldn’t give up the summer fishing but I really do love the ice fishing. It’s a lot more work but at the end of the day, it’s such a unique experience.”
MORE TO MINNESOTA
After a couple ice fishing trips, Barbara and I needed to see more of Minnesota outdoors. We pointed our rented Jeep nearly 300 miles northward toward Babbitt and Ely, not far from the Canadian border and much colder temperatures than even southern Minnesota.
For the very first time in our lives, we experienced sub-zero temperatures. Even on a clear day, tiny ice crystals danced through the air. Sometimes it is called Diamond Dust. The coldest we saw in Ely was minus 16 degrees, but locals regularly see the thermometer fall much farther. I am glad we didn’t.
This tiny wire extending from the end of Adam Griffith’s rod is called a “spring bobber.” The sensitive thin wire enables an angler to see the extremely light bites characteristic of fish under the ice. (Photo: Richard Simms)
We were generally well prepared in the clothing department and as long as the wind didn’t blow hard, we could hold up reasonably well. I learned, however, that you do NOT take your gloves off for very long.
Uncovered hands in sub-zero temperatures for 30 seconds or a minute begin to hurt, at least for this southerner. The afternoon we headed out for a snowmobiling adventure it was two degrees at 1 pm. When we returned near dark, it was well below zero. We were immensely thankful for the heated hand grips and heated seats on the rented snowmobile.
THE HIGHLIGHT
About half way through our 50-mile snowmobile ride, Barbara, seated behind me, began pounding my shoulder. I quickly came to a stop and she pointed into the woods behind us.
I saw movement and at first thought it was a deer. But then the animal stepped forward and I saw it was a canid – and a very large canid.
We had actually seen a coyote in Babbitt earlier and my first thought now was another coyote – until I realized it was almost solid black and would have weighed more than 80 pounds, maybe much more.
I was shocked. I knew timber wolves existed in Northern Minnesota but the thought of actually laying eyes on one had never entered my mind. But there it was – at least for a short time. Once we stopped, the wolf wasted no time melting away into the nearly 4-million-acre Superior National Forest.
MORE WOLVES
The next day we learned much more about wolves during a visit to the International Wolf Center in Ely.
There we learned there are approximately 2,700 wolves in Minnesota, most in the northern part of the state. Their diet is 80 percent whitetail deer and each wolf needs five or six pounds per day to stay healthy.
Anywhere wolves live, there are diverse and often controversial opinions about them. People seem to love them or hate them. Currently they are completely protected in Minnesota. However, the MN Dept. of Natural Resources is working on a new management plan which MIGHT include a limited hunting season in the future.
This wolf was in captivity at the to the International Wolf Center in Ely, MN. However, CrappieNOW Editor Richard Simms and his wife were fortunate enough to see one in wild on a snowmobile ride through the Superior National Forest. (Photo: Richard Simms)
Minnesota is known as “The Land of 10,000 Lakes.” Many of those lakes are considered private. However, thousands are public, managed by the Minnesota Dept. of Natural Resources. Guide Adam Griffith said Parley Lake isn’t necessarily known for numbers of crappie but it holds good numbers of trophy fish. (Photo: Richard Simms)
HARDY SOULS
Our short visit to Northern Minnesota taught these southerners that the folks who live there year-round MUST be hardy souls. Living months out of the year with snow and sub-zero temperatures is not for the faint of heart.
Another of my friends, Jennifer Zup Hayes, lives near Ely. I met Jennifer and her family duck hunting on Tennessee’s Reelfoot Lake. She said, “I love that y’all are experiencing Ely and up north! Not many people from down south want to come during this time of year. It truly is so beautiful during the winter.”
Jennifer is exactly right about that. Our excursion to the wintertime North Woods was a wonderful adventure.
I cannot tell a lie, however. Upon returning home Barbara smiled and said, “Maybe we should consider a visit to Key West next winter.”
Are there crappie in the Keys?
