Minnesota fishing guide’s tips to catch crappies and bluegill through the ice

Catching crappies and bluegill through the ice

Local fishing guide Matt Johnson shared his tips on catching crappies and bluegill on Lake Minnetonka. Jared Piepenburg was out there with him to learn more. 

LAKE MINNETONKA, Minn. (FOX 9) - Crappies and bluegills are being caught along weedlines and some tall standing weeds.

FOX 9’s Jared Piepenburg joined local guide, Matt Johnson, out on Lake Minnetonka to help anglers quickly locate panfish on the ice and pick up on a few extra helpful tips. 

Johnson was asked about his approach and what anglers may want to think about before heading out on the ice.

Matt Johnson: "You set goals for yourself, like what are your goals? Do you want to catch some bluegills? Do you want to bring home half dozen fish for dinner? Like what are your goals for the day of fishing? I think that's a lot of things we overlook. Oh, a little bit of studying lake maps ahead of time. Where's the wind direction? Where are you going to put yourself in the best spot for success? If it's going to blow 25 miles an hour, you probably don't want to go sit on the south bank if the wind's out in the north. Simple things that we just forget about. I'm always looking at weather and wind direction and all that stuff. I mean, you're not dealing with waves like you do in the boat, but you still deal with wind."

"I always tell people -- don't be afraid to stop in at the gas station on the street that sells bait, swing in there and buy some bait from them, have some small talk. They may give you a tip and say, hey, you know, over on Lake Minnetonka, over in this bay, there's some bluegill being caught. I think a little communication goes a long way."

How do anglers find action on Metro Lakes – and even those outside the Twin Cities?

Johnson: "I tend to tell people to find the weedline, get near it, you're going to have some action. As we've seen today, there's a lot of fish here, a lot a little ones, but it's action. Sometimes it's better to be around fish than to not be around the fish. I always tell people that too. It's like, well, if you're around small ones and you’ve got to weed through some small ones to get some nice ones for dinner, that's kind of typical of a lot of our metro lakes. But if you are not around any fish, you're not going to catch anything."

What baits do you suggest for those chasing down crappies and bluegill?

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Johnson: "It depends on the day, and I still come at them with the same approach. I'm pretty aggressive and let the fish kind of tell me. I mean, I'm fishing a spoon, no bait. We may have to switch a little bit. I brought maggots, sometimes just a little tungsten jig with maggots catches a bunch. But in our Metro lakes here, we're on Lake Minnetonka, when you start putting on a maggot, you start to really play with a lot with the little bluegills. Like your bigger fish that we want to catch, if you're trying to cook some for dinner, they'll take the spoon generally. Now, I'm not saying you can't catch a really nice fish on a maggot too. We have a lot of smaller fish in these lakes. So one of the reasons I go to the spoon is I can kind of weed out some of these smaller ones.

"And you know, fish your confidence. I mean, pick up some live bait. I mean I know we're talking about spoons and no bait and plastics, I get it. But you need to have some confidence. And a lot of guys I take out fishing, I mean if they're into jigs and maggots, jigs in minnows, jigs on wax worms, I'm definitely going to let them start with that. I might teach them throughout the day, some other options."

Matt usually runs an assortment of rods and baits. He has a few he has designed at Thorne Bros in the Custom MJO Series that are purposely designed for some of the applications he uses guiding out on the lake.

Lately, a few baits have been standing out for him. The first being the Clam Pinhead. He says aggressive sunfish and crappies will hit the pinhead without tipping with a minnow head. We also used a small tungsten jig tipped with niku bolt minnow. The day we were out on the lake we used a chartreuse color, but days before, Matt said the black was the only bait bringing fish topside.

What about depth when fishing these weedlines?

Johnson: "So when I fish shallow, I don't like to bomb it down to the bottom. I'm halfway down right now. A lot of these crappies have come through this far off the bottom, so if you drop it down to bottom, you kind of miss them. So I kind of feather it down. "

"We were in 10 feet of water that day we were out. Matt was fishing around four feet off the bottom. This would keep the bait away from the small bluegill down near the weeds on the bottom and when crappies were present, they’d come up and take the bait."

You’ve mentioned a few things that can help to make your day more enjoyable when out ice fishing.

Johnson: "You know my biggest advice for anybody getting into ice fishing is number one you need to be warm. That is 100% priority number one. I don't care if you’ve been doing it for 40 years. If you're not warm and comfortable on the ice you're not going to want to do it. Doesn't matter what rod you have, lure you have, electronics you have so I think one of the most underappreciated aspects of ice fishing is really stressing being warm"

"And then from there, it's sweat equity. I mean, cutting holes, moving around, that alone being mobile, I think is probably one of the biggest things a lot of anglers don't do. Is they settle for just, oh, I cut two holes, I set up a fish house, I'm not going to move, or I cut a hole, I am on a bucket, I hunkered down, I think being mobile is probably as important as anything."

We are chasing crappies and panfish today, but do you have any suggestions for ice fisherman want to chase down some flags for pike using tip-ups?

Johnson: "Your metro area pike are probably eating younger-to-year bluegill and perch. And a lot of times, the bigger fish run shallower than we think. So when I'm tip-up fishing, I'm generally running probably shallow weed beds, shallow weed flats, things like that. I've had better success getting pike to go there. Not that you can't get a pike in deeper water, but it seems like they push up onto structure to feed."

What about the weekend warriors bringing the kids out on the ice? How do you like to keep them entertained if fishing is slow?

Johnson: "Snacks, a football, underwater camera. I have a little micro underwater camera they can walk around with and look and see what's going on. And honestly, when you're bringing the little kids, you want to be around probably this kind of bite, right? Quantity is important. Keep them going."