We wrapped up the open-water TV filming season recently with some fast smallmouth bass action from western Minnesota and with a hot walleye bite from Pool 2 of the Mississippi River. This action will be part of coming episodes of Fishing the Midwest TV, 2019 on our traditional carriers and, we are excited to add another TV carrier airing our shows this coming season too! Now, of course, the focus quickly shifts to ice fishing as waters across the Midwest are freezing.
In this REEL-TIMES presented by Larson FX we’ll preview the coming TV show season and take a look at some hot early ice fishing ideas too!
REEL GOOD TV COMING YOUR WAY!
Fishing the Midwest, 2019!
“Rollin’ on a River”
Jeff Hannay, of Hannay’s Marine, and metro fishing guide Josh Stevenson joined Fishing the Midwest co-host Mike Frisch on the Mississippi River in early November and the guys had some awesome walleye action while filming an upcoming segment of Fishing the Midwest TV!
The guys relied on UV color-patterned Fire-Ball Jigs and minnows to catch a bunch of walleyes from the turbulent waters of the Mighty Miss. They were fishing a unique “barge pattern” as several barges anchored close to Josh’s productive shoreline from the day before which forced the guys to improvise!
Fishing slack water as close to the barges as they could put a bunch of nice fish in the boat, with many caught within easy sight of the 494 bridge in St. Paul!
Jeff is an owner of Hannay’s and Josh is one of the top guides in the metro area. You can learn more about both guys, watch their fishing skills in action, and see those awesome “new for 2019” Fire-Ball colors catch a bunch of walleyes this winter on our “Rolling on the River” TV episode.
WORLD FISHING NETWORK TO AIR FISHING THE MIDWEST!
Just as this REEL-TIMES was going to press, Fishing the Midwest founder Bob Jensen was putting the final pen strokes to an agreement with the World Fishing Network (WFN)! This means another provider joins Fishing the Midwest’s extensive list of show carriers for the 2019 TV season. More details of the agreement will be announced soon, but we can say that Fishing the Midwest will air on WFN at least 3 times each week during first quarter, 2019! In the next REEL-TIMES we’ll publish show titles for the coming TV season along with a complete listing of carriers and viewing time schedules. Stay tuned!
SMALLIES GALORE!
The smallmouth bass population explosions that we are seeing on lots of Midwestern waters continues. That’s good for anglers because these fish offer some of the most acrobatic, string-stretchin’ action gals and guys who like to fish will find! We are highlighting these fish on several TV segments this season. The smallie action was so good for us this year, in fact, that we let one of our “camera dudes,” Chad Peterson, pick up a rod and reel and catch a couple this fall. The cover photo above is of a drop-shot fish Chad put in the boat in late October.
The day Chad caught his big smallie, we were cruising around a series of small rock humps keeping a careful eye on our Raymarine Axiom sonar unit looking for fish, which were often tight to bottom.
When found, we’d immediately drop down with drop-shot rigs and often quickly get bit! The new Baby Z-Too from Strike King was simply deadly for this fishing style as this soft jerk bait is made from ElazTech which is a super durable material that also produces incredible action. In fact, it’s hard to put this bait in the water without it moving! As we said, we’ll have awesome smallmouth fishing on drop-shots and also dragging tubes on several TV segments this winter.
REEL GOOD ICE FISHNG SPOT!
BIG STONE LAKE!
We had a very recent phone conversation with Artie Arndt from Artie’s Bait & Tackle in Ortonville, MN on the shores of Big Stone Lake. Artie says Big Stone is starting to ice over and, depending on the weather in the next few days, ice fishing action on this MN/SD border water may get going very soon!
Big Stone is one of the Midwest’s hottest perch fishing destinations and, has a sleeper population of big bluegills and lots of crappies too!
Tanner Arndt guides for his dad, Artie, and has been a frequent guest on Fishing the Midwest TV the past several years. Last winter, in fact, we followed Tanner for a day as he scouted for perch for the rental fish house business that he and Artie run during winter. To view that episode and see the methods Tanner uses to find, “call in” and catch Big Stone’s winter perch, simply click on his picture here. Please note, that the ice fishing action occurs in the episode’s back half. To read current fishing reports and updates on Big Stone’s ice conditions, click on the following link to be directed to Artie’s Bait and Tackle Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/BudsBaitOrtonville/
REEL COOL (actually warm!) HOUSES
CORE ICE KEEPS BUILDING ‘EM!
Our friends at CORE ICE keep designing and building the lightest, most durable, and most angler-friendly fish houses on the market. Check out the Wide Body Adventure Series in these photos. We can’t wait to get out on the ice and chase fish in our new model this year!
To learn more about CORE ICE, including the opportunity to configure your own version, just click on the top house photo above!
WIN REEL COOL GEAR!
We are giving away more cool Fishing the Midwest gear and it’s simple to enter to win! Two easy steps gets you entered:
1) subscribe to this newsletter using the “SUBSCRIBE” icon in the upper left-hand corner.
AND
2) like us on Facebook here https://www.facebook.com/fishingthemidwest/
We will draw one name from our subscriber list on Monday, November 26 and, if that person is also a Fishing the Midwest Facebook follower, they will be the winner! We’ll keep drawing until we have a winner.