Spinner Fishing Tips for Steelhead

Size Matters

The professional fishing guides at Piscatorial Pursuits in Washington State report success in getting steelhead to strike using modified size 2, 3 and 4 brass vibrax spinners. They recommend taking a lit candle and a pair of pliers, then hold the spinner with the pliers while holding the propellers over the open flame to char and discolor the spinner. The end result should be a bronze-looking spinner, something the guides report success with steelhead.

Moving Water

When fishing with spinners in moving water, remember this adage, "the faster the water, the slower the retrieve." Steelhead tend to congregate in the faster moving water and rapids, because the water there is rich in oxygen. As the water speed increases, cast out the spinner and slowly begin the reel-in. The guides at Piscatorial Pursuits write this is a successful method of steelhead fishing that they teach to their clients and use themselves.

Spinner Hooks

The folks at Steelheader.net, a site dedicated to steelhead fishing, state that using a Single Siwash hook is better than using a single or triple hook because the Single Siwash holds the fish better. They suggest tying a small piece of yarn to the hook and scent it to attract steelhead. The Steelheader.net experts also suggest not using nickel spinners in murky or cloudy water because the nickel will appear black under two feet of murky water and will not attract steelhead.

Mille Lacs Lake, Minnesota Fishing Tips

Guide

Chapmans Mille Lacs Resort & Guide Service is located on the southeast corner of the lake and provides private half-day, full-day, and overnight packages.

630 West Main Street

Isle, MN 56342

320-676-8664

Millelacsresort.com

McQuoids Inn is located on the east side of the lake. They offer half-day and eight-hour guided fishing trips for one to four persons per boat.

1325 Highway 47 North

Isle, MN 56342

800-862-3535

mcquoidsinn.com

Nittis Hunters Point Resort is located nine miles north of Isle, MN on the east side of Mille Lacs Lake. There are eight guide services associated with this resort to fit your fishing needs.

5436 479th Street

Isle, MN 56342

320-676-3227

hunterspointresort.com

T and T Guide service is located in Isle, MN but will bring you anywhere you want to go on Mille Lacs Lake. Enjoy the half century of combined experience during all-day and half-day fishing trips and fall night fishing.

255 115th Lane

Isle, MN 56342

320-224-1731

tandtguideservices.com

Nelson Guide Service offers Mille Lacs Lake fishing at its finest. Choose from half-day, full-day, or sunset cruise fishing trips for up to five individuals.

3421 Vista Road

Isle, MN 56342

763-234-0057

nelsonguideservice.com

Launch

Twin Pines Resort offers launch service for open fishing and private charters aboard spacious launches or a deluxe pontoon.

7827 U.S. Highway 169

Garrison, MN 56450

800-450-4682

twinpinesmillelacs.com

Hunter Winfields Resort provides launch/charter services out of Isle Bay on Lake Mille Lacs. Choose from three- to five-hour launch fishing trips and private group charters for four- to eight-hour trips.

510 West Lake

Isle, MN 56342

800-414-4298

hunterwinfields.com

Fishermans Wharf Resort has 1800 feet of protected inland harbor and the Captain of the launch has a reputation for finding the hot fish spots. Choose from two launch boats that accommodate 30 passengers or more.

5101 Whistle Road

Isle, MN 56342

800-645-3593

wharfmn.com

Ice Fishing

According to Millelacs.com, You can do it yourself or take advantage of the ice fishing packages around the lake, offering anything you want from overnight lodging and transportation to and from the ice house, to bait, tackle, and meals.

Chapmens Mille Lacs Resort & Guide Service offers half-day, full-day, and overnight ice fishing packages. Guides, fish house, and fishing equipment are available for day trips.

630 West Main Street

Isle, MN 56342

320-676-8664

millelacsresort.com

Captain Hooks Guide Service provides fishing rods, bait, and a portable ice house, and will guide you to where the fish are biting, all in a day trip.

5357 Whistle Road

Isle, MN 56342

320-679-4295

fishmillelacs.com

Phils Myr-Mar Marina offers ice house rentals. There are holes drilled for ice fishing, a heater is included, and the ice house provides enough room to sleep up to eight people comfortably.

44033 Conifer Street

Aitkin, MN 56431

800-892-5539

philsmyrmarmarina.com

How to Ice Fish For Pickerel

Instructions

How To Ice Fish For Pickerel

1

When fishing for pickerel, the time of day doesn't matter as they will hit a shiner from morning until nightfall. Pickerel can hit in spurts, meaning there will be a flurry of action and then a down time, or they will attack your shiners with regularity during the day.

2

Hook your shiners right behind the dorsal fin on the back, an inch from the end of the tail. Medium-size shiners are sufficient to attract pickerel. Pickerel are pigs and will sometimes eat like there is no tomorrow. Pickerel have been caught on a shiner and found to have a full-grown sunfish still in their gullet! They also will attack and eat other smaller pickerel.

3

Concentrate your tip-ups where you are having success. Ice fishing is all about location, regardless of the species you're targeting. If you have six tip-ups in the water and two are seeing no hits at all, move them to other areas. Every time you catch a pickerel, grab a tip-up that has not been producing and set it up 10 yards from your last catch.

4

Set your shiners shallow. Pickerel will grab a shiner that is right under the ice and, when fishing in this manner, you won't have to worry about measuring your line to have the bait a foot off the bottom. You also avoid dealing with weeds in which your shiner can become entangled. You will find that you can catch pickerel with the bait just 2 feet beneath the ice.

5

If you get a bite but the shiner is gone, or if you have the pickerel on for a brief time but the hook isnt set properly, dont sweat it. Pickerel will return. Reset the tip-up with another shiner and dont stray too far from it. That flag will be up before you know it in most cases.

6

Dont be fooled if the flag trips on a tip-up but the line isnt moving when you get to it. Pickerel will often grab a shiner and go into the weeds to eat it. Just because the line isnt flying off the reel doesnt mean a pickerel isnt home. Set the hook if the line doesn't continue to not move and be ready. Even large pickerel, those over 20 inches, may not necessarily take off after grabbing your shiner. Take nothing for granted!

7

Watch out for those teeth. Pickerel have tiny razor-sharp teeth designed to grab prey and not let go. Your fingers will bleed for quite a while if you put them in the pickerels mouth after hauling one onto the ice. Stay clear and use a hook remover or needle-nose pliers to get the hook out. Pickerel almost never swallow a hook, so they can be removed and the fish sent back down the hole or brought home for dinner.

Tips on Bank Fishing Salmon in Alaska

Plunking for Salmon

Plunking for salmon means bottom fishing near the shoreline. Experienced plunkers rig their 1/0 to 4/0 sized hook with cured salmon eggs, the bait of choice. Just above the snelled hook (a hook pre-tied with a loop of fishing line that attaches to your main line), many anglers like to add a Spin-N-Glo, which is a short plastic spinner blade in fluorescent colors that creates both water movement and visual enticement for hungry salmon.

Short casts into pools and ebbs in the river are good plunking strategies. The idea is to get the bait near the river bottom in areas of slow-moving water. During the migratory months, cast to the downstream end of the pool, so your bait is the first thing incoming fish will encounter as they move upriver.

With plunking, you can use a rod holder and a strike signaler such as a small bell on the rod tip.

Casting to Salmon

Casting from shore with a spinning reel is an effective way to cover large areas of water from a fixed position. Lure choices expand beyond salmon eggs to include spoons and spinners resembling bait fish and surface plugs that may resemble wounded bait fish or insects. Vary your retrieval between a steady crank to a slow, jerky, stop-and-go motion to make the lure twitch.

Flipping to Salmon

This variation of casting is really a drift-fishing method. Thread a red plastic bead onto the end of the line and tie a short piece of yellow-green (chartreuse) yarn to your bare hook. Add a few split-shot sinkers about 12 inches up the line for a bit of heft when flipping to the salmon.

To flip, peel off enough line so that your lure is off the ground when holding the rod straight up. Pull off more line with your free hand and hold the line out from the rod so your hook remains off the ground, then swing your rod tip toward an upstream position, releasing the line in your free hand at the same time. With a correct flip, the line will straighten and drop your hook upstream so it can drift past you and downstream again. Aim your rod tip at the line and follow it as it passes by you moving downstream.

Tips on Catching Bass in Ponds

Quiet

It is vital to keep quiet when fishing in ponds for bass. Approaching the pond from shore will require some stealth. You do not want to alert the fish to your presence. You should speak in a low voice or not talk at all.

Often a pond will have a good amount of vegetation surrounding its edges. Being able to wade through the shallows without alarming the fish can give you access to spots that you may not be able to access from the shore. An inner tube or a small inflatable boat also gives you the advantage of fishing the pond from the middle and lets you cast toward the shore and the weed beds without raising too much commotion.

Baits

Try to match your bait with what creatures the bass feed on in a small pond scenario. Crickets, grasshoppers, minnows and crayfish all fall victim to bass in a pond. Keep your offerings small and do not bother to bring along your larger lures such as stickbaits.

Downsize lures such as plastic worms. Rig them Texas style to make them skip through the weeds that invariably grow in ponds. Slip a bullet weight onto your line with the tapered end facing away from the end of your line. Tie on an offset worm hook and stick the point of the hook through the very end of it. Cause the point to come out through the side of the worm just 1/2-inch from where it entered. Turn the hook toward the worm's body. Push it all the way up snug to the eye of the hook, and jam the sharp point into the worm's body. Make sure the worm is dangling straight down when you do this and push in the hook in the middle of the worm.

Floating lures like surface plugs and plastic frogs can appear very life-like to bass in a small pond. Fish these slowly with a single jerk of the line followed by a wait of as long as 20 seconds before making the lure move again.

Cover

Bass are the type of fish that likes to ambush its prey. Finding spots in a pond that bass can do this from is important to your success. These may not be the obvious places in a pond that there are in a lake or river. By looking at every structure carefully you can determine if it is cover that is capable of holding bass. Remember that a small insignificant bush growing halfway in the water may not hold bass in a river or lake but could be a major hiding place in a small pond. Rocks, overhanging branches that provide shadows and shade, and any type of water weeds or grass are all likely spots for a bass to be planning its next attack.

Ice Fishing

Do not overlook a small pond if you are an ice fisherman. These ponds can be covered much more thoroughly than a larger lake. They also will tend to freeze quicker and offer safe ice long before a larger body of water. By drilling holes near the same places that offered cover to bass before the ice came along can give you a chance to catch bass. Use small- to medium-size minnows and shiners and keep moving around on the pond until you find where the bass are holding. Late afternoon is the best time for small pond ice fishing.

Tips for Main Lake Fishing Rigs

Proper Equipment

Select the rod and reel combination that best suits the type of fishing you plan to do. Anglers who target species like crappie, perch, sunfish and walleye should use a spinning rod and reel, while those who target muskie and northern pike should use a baitcasting combination. Bass anglers can use either a spinning or baitcasting combination, depending upon individual preference.

Artificial Bait Rigs

Artificial lures are staples among fishermen who chase bass, muskies and pike in main-lake areas. If you fling lures for muskies and pike, it is a good idea to attach a wire leader to the end of your fishing line, and then attach the lure to the leader. If you do not use a leader when targeting these species, you run the risk of their sharp teeth nicking the line and causing it to break. Bass anglers rarely use steel leaders, primarily because they do not have teeth like muskies and pike do.

Lindy Rig

Main-lake areas structure , such as drop-offs, humps and reefs are the domain of walleye fishermen. The best way to catch these fish is with a live-bait rig known as a Lindy rig. The rig includes a No. 4 or No. 6 hook, a 36- to 48-inch leader, swivel and a sliding sinker heavy enough to keep the rig on the bottom. Leeches, minnows or nightcrawlers are the best live baits to attach to the rig. Troll or drift Lindy rigs slowly through areas that walleyes are likely to be.

Bobber Rig

Beginning anglers, or those who pursue crappies and sunfish, should consider using a bobber rig. These rigs are especially productive around the beds of vegetation that grow on main-lake humps and reefs. The bobber rig includes a hook, split shot sinker and bobber. Attach the bobber so it suspends the bait at the level at which the fish are holding. If they are five feet below the surface, for example, there should be five feet of fishing line between the bobber and the hook. A variety of live baits work on bobber rigs, but waxworms, crappie minnows, small leeches, and bits of nightcrawler tend to be best.

Snap Swivel

Select a snap swivel to fish with artificial baits. The snap swivel lets you change baits as often as you like without retying your line. If you plan to use the same artificial bait for extended periods of time, tie the line directly to the hook.

How to Land a Fish on the Rapala Fishing Wii Game

Instructions

1

Select Boat Mode to drive your boat to the fishing location of your choice.

2

Go into the fishing mode by pressing the -- button on the controller.

3

Go into casting mode by holding down the reel release. Adjust the direction of your cast using the four way directional button on the Wii remote.

4

Cast your line. Swing the Wii remote up and down and let go of the reel release to cast. The perfect cast takes practice.

5

Slowly reel your line in to attract fish to your lure. The Rapala Tournament Fishing Instruction Booklet suggests you try moving your line at different speeds and experimenting with lure movement to make your lure appear to be live bait. The better your bait looks the more fish you will attract.

6

Set the hook by jerking your Wii mote up all the way up. This motion will set the hook in the fish's mouth. You will know when it is time to set the hook based on the Set Hook Timer that pops up when you get a bite. If you wait too long the fish will spit the lure out.

7

Reel the fish in by moving the Nunchuk in a circular "reeling in" motion. Keep an eye on the Tension Indicator as you reel your fish in. Adjust the drag and reel as needed to keep the arrow in the green to avoid losing the fish or breaking your line.

8

Press the number two on the Wii remote to view the Livewell and see the fish that you have caught.