Recent happenings have me thinking about and looking forward to open water fishing. A lot! The Super Bowl is over. College and high school basketball seasons are entering the homestretch. On a recent Sunday morning air temperatures at various locations across the Midwest ranged from 10 to 25 degrees below zero, and the wind was gusting up to 30 miles per hour. I really enjoy ice fishing, but these older-than-they-used-to-be bones don’t enjoy those conditions as much as they used to, and they never enjoyed them that much before now. For those reasons, I am looking forward to and thinking about open water fishing. A lot! Following are a few things relative to open water fishing that I’m thinking about.
Warmer weather. I don’t mind moderately cold days. In fact, I enjoy them. But I like moderately warm days even more. There aren’t many things that I enjoy more than spending time with a friend or family member on a moderately warm day in a boat or on a shoreline trying to catch a few fish. That’s just a nice place to be. That’s probably why this consideration is what I’m looking forward to the most.
Another thing. When I moved to Minnesota in the early 80’s, I went fishing for largemouth bass. On purpose! Most of my fishing friends at the time were avid walleye anglers and, although they caught a largemouth every now and then by accident, they couldn’t understand why anyone would intentionally fish for bass in the land of the walleye. Things have changed in Minnesota and across the Midwest big time. Walleye is probably still the king fish in most regions of the Midwest, but bass, both of the largemouth and smallmouth variety, have become very popular. For good reason. There are lots of them and their range continues to expand. Best of all, much of the time, they have the right attitude: They don’t mind getting caught. They can be caught using a variety of techniques during all seasons, and when hooked, they give the angler a good account of themselves. They jump out of the water, then bulldog for the bottom. They put excitement into the battle between angler and fish. I’ve had the opportunity to fish with a lot of beginning anglers over the years, and after sharing with them bass and walleye trips, given the choice, they usually prefer to go after bass.
I’ve been fishing for a long time. Way over 50 years. I’ve been fortunate to have been able to employ a lot of fishing techniques and even have been in on the ground floor of the development of some of those techniques. One of the techniques that I was introduced to early in its inception was a bass method called drop shotting. Here’s a memory from the 90’s. Angling innovator Barry Day and I shared a boat for a day on West Lake Okoboji in the Iowa Great Lakes. Barry had just returned from a trip to California where he was introduced to drop shotting. He told me that, when fishing was tough, drop shotting would catch’em. Barry was right. Drop shotting did and continues to catch’em. And I intend to do more of it this next open water season.
Last year I got the opportunity to try some new fishing rods. They were from a series of walleye rods and were created by the folks at Lew’s. They’re technique specific, which means there are rods designed for specific walleye techniques. There are rods for trolling, jigging, live-bait rigging, etc. I was only able to try a couple of the jigging rods last year, but they did an outstanding job, and a very attractive feature is that they’re affordable. That’s important! An outstanding rod at an outstanding price.
There are several more ice fishing trips on my schedule and I look forward to them. I also look forward to open water for the reasons just detailed. Maybe we’ll see each other on the water.
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By Bob Jensen