WHEN THEY WON’T BITE

My fishing partners and I had a very interesting, and a little frustrating, fishing experience recently. We were ice-fishing on a Midwest lake that is noted for excellent perch, walleye, and northern pike action. We arrived at our fishing location shortly after noon. Reports from anglers on the ice were that action had been good all morning, but had tapered off. We drilled our holes and started fishing.

After a couple of hours of absolutely no action, all of us were trying different lure colors, lure styles, and lure sizes. We tried jigging aggressively, and also tried barely moving the bait. Nothing was working. We had Zercom sonar units down the hole and could see fish coming into the area. We thought maybe they were suckers or some other specie of fish that wouldn’t go for baits like we were using. We had an Aqua-Vu underwater viewing system with us, so we lowered it down the hole. We should have done that a lot sooner. What it revealed to us was amazing. The fish that were looking at our lures were perch and walleyes, and many of them were nice-sized. Some would come in, look at the bait, watch it for up to thirty seconds, then slowly back away.

Other fish would move in and swim right past the bait, appearing to ignore it. Still others would look at the bait, flare their gills, and move on. A few swam up to the bait and hit and spit so quickly there was no chance to set the hook. These fish were just shut off.

Most of the time the fish aren’t this selective. Next time you’re on the ice or the water and think you’re on fish but they just won’t take, here are some things you might want to try.

The first thing to try for finicky fish is a smaller lure presentation. If you’re using an eighth ounce jig, try a sixteenth ouncer. Panfish are notorious for preferring tiny jigs when the bite is off.

Try lighter line. Sometimes line visibility spooks wary fish. The new Vanish line is virtually invisible to the fish, so spooking from line visibility is reduced dramatically with this line.

Fish can also suck the bait in easier when the bait is attached to light line. This can be a big factor for spooky fish.

Sometimes a slower presentation, sometimes a faster presentation will trigger reluctant fish. If the speed you’re using isn’t working, try speeding up or slowing down.

The best rule of thumb when you’re not catching fish is to try something different. Of course there have to be fish present for us to be successful. If they are there, most of the time you can trigger a few. However, on our recent trip, they just didn’t want to get caught. That happens too. And, even though they didn’t bite, it was very interesting watching them on the sonar and Aqua-Vu, which made the trip a good learning experience. 

Our Team | Message Board | Links | TV Show | Contact Us | Walleye Central | Articles