Target Walleye/Ice email

Break into my fish house, Definition of an ice-head, Spring bobber vs hi-vis line

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Everyone welcome Mission Tackle to the Target Walleye/Ice emails! Lookin’ forward to trying out more of their walleye stuff. Can already tell you their Rigged Lake Trout Tubes work…more on that later. 😉

Today’s Top 5

When it’s okay to break into someone’s fish house….

I’ve got no time for someone that can’t respect other people’s property…but this time it was a necessary kind of “breaking and entering”:

Check the caption under that @panoramic_outdoors post:

> “A few years ago K-dog (have yet to discover his or her actual name) used our ice shack for an overnight shelter while in a blizzard on Lake Winnipeg.

> “Most of the time our shack is broken into with the intent of theft or destruction…this time it was not the case…glad to see there are still some good folks out there! Our response to these visitors: Anytime k-dog!”

Pretty cool. But might also be a good reason to keep a pen and paper in your Yetti Fish House, instead of a Sharpie lol.

Hardwater hawgbellies of the week!

New PB alert! Yup, that’s my wife (Amanda) sticking a Manitoba Master Angler lake trout outta Bakers Narrows Lodge. Pounding the rocky bottom in 34′ with a 3/4-oz Mission Tackle Rigged Lake Trout Tube and a strip of sucker belly.

Watched it circle the chum for 10 minutes on our Aqua-Vu HD7i Pro before beelining to the bait…video comin’ later-ish:

Jordan Beuckens stuck himself a FREAK [!] on a Northland Tackle Predator Rig:

@nick_redlin whacked this Green Bay tanker fishin’ a #7 Rapala Jigging Rap on a gravel breakline in 15′. No matter if it’s spring, summer, fall or winter…#Works

Hot bait for Kevin Ellman’s crew on Lake of the Woods was the “mellon” color Someday Isle Tackle Water Puppet. Post said the biggest fish on the day was this 31″ bruiser…they don’t get much bigger than that, man!

How the UPL was won.

Reminder: You should care ‘cuz the caliber of panfish these teams grind out on heavily-pressured waters — in brutal conditions — is downright impressive. No matter how tough the bite is, someone always figures ’em out….

The second Ultimate Panfish League tourney was held on Lake Sarah (near Greenfield, MN). Can’t control Mother Nature, so the teams were welcomed with brutal air temps and rough conditions…yet the total-field weight was just 2 lbs shy of breaking the all-time record.

Matt Milbrandt and Adam Griffith took home the ‘dubyah’ with an 8.19-lb bag on 8 crappies and 7 ‘gills. This is back-to-back wins for Matt…Adam filled in for his usual partner Matt Waldron, who was busy smashing big perch on Lake Cascade (more on that later). Here’s how the duo got it done:

> Matt Milbrandt: “For our crappies, we targeted 20′-ish in areas close to rock/hard bottom structure. Right away all we were catching were typical metro crappies…8-9” fish from the bottom to 13′.

> “Only way we could get the big ones to bite was by jigging super high (4′ below the ice)…this got the roaming high-fliers and pulled the bigger aggressive fish out of the school…all of our crappies were 11+ inchers, while other teams were catching 8- and 9-inchers.

> “Our go-to jigs were black chartreuse Clam Drop-Kick Jigs tipped with a black Panfish Plastics Chigger Fry. When the bite was hot, we got a few nicer ones on a 1/16-oz Clam Pinhead Mino with no bait.”

> “After the bite got [even more] tough, we switched over to a 3mm ball-head tungsten jig…that subtle switch made a big difference.

> “We chased our ‘gills on a breakline in that 10’ area…they were flying through super fast so we wouldn’t even fish a hole if we didn’t mark a fish in it.”

Congrats! The next UPL is happenin’ this Sunday on Lake Pokegama…believe it’s the one near Pine City, MN. #KeepItRolling #3peat?

Someone needs to let the In-Depth Outdoors crew know…

…that Striker Ice has a pile of balaclavas designed for ice-heads…speaking of “ice-heads” (lol):

Striker’s balaclavas cost anywhere from $9.99 to $29.99…bet they would’ve paid a lot more for one of ’em that day:

Btw that shot’s from when the IDO crew was out chasing Green Bay whitefish with Paul Delaney — can watch the full episode here on their YouTube channel.

New way to BBQ walleyes.

Mick Broughton’s recipe calls for 1 cup of crushed corn flakes and an Okuma Low-Pro Line Counter:

For sure looks tastier than this lol:

Felt sorta bad for Mick’s reel at first, ’til I realized there’s lots of Okuma Cold Water Line Counters out there that don’t have a warm place to sleep at night. #FrostHammers

News

1. MB: Travel Manitoba is hiring….

…a Fish and Hunt Marketing Specialist. Solid crew over there that’s super passionate about what they have to offer, which is a lot! Lookin’ forward to seeing who lands in the spot.

2. Can now get MEGA Down Imaging transducers…

…built in to your Minn Kota bow mount. No cluttered wires, clamps or electrical tape. And now buddy can’t break your transducer off trying to fetch a jig from those shallow rocks they shouldn’t have been casting at:

Oh and MEGA Down Imaging because:

3. MN has a festival celebrating…burbot.

Yup, for real! Called the International Eelpout Festival and happenin’ on Walker’s Leech Lake Feb 21-24. Been running 40-years strong, so you know it’s a good time. Else we all just have nothing better to do?

4. IA: Walleye season closes Feb 14…

…on Spirit, East and West Okoboji lakes.

5. ND: ShiverFest youth ice fishin’ tourney happenin’ Feb 16.

Out of Woodland Resort on Devils Lake, ND. Good luck kiddos!

6. IN’s looking for Conservation Officers.

7. Have you put together a fishing equipment inventory?

Probably should for the sake of insurance…can save you from a big headache if something should ever happen (fire, theft, wreck, etc). Check out this post to see how and why — would be terrified to see those final numbers though $$$:

8. Sam Sobi’s branchin’ out.

If you don’t know Sobi (great dude!) he’s a videographer/fishin’-maniac who was most recently shooting and editing for YouTube monsters @apbassing, and the Googan Squad.

Sobi just announced he’s gonna be doing his own thing now: focusing on his fishin’ Vlogs with the #1 goal being to grow the sport of fishing. Best of luck, dude! I’ll be following along….

9. Was hipped to a cool new product…

…called the Flack Jaket by TW fan Matt Ristow. Company makes bow guards and windshield protectors. Could probably pay for themselves with one bad hop of a rock? Diggin’ it:

10. WA DNR wants to raise salmon for…killer whales?

Wonder how many orcas buy fishing licenses each year??

11. MN: Gitcha current Lake of the Woods fishing reports here.

Updated weekly with what’s hot and where. Though some days the fishing’s so good on LOW I don’t think it matters.

12. Have you entered yet?

Only 4 days left to get in on the action:

Have a shot at winning this $300-ish buffet of walleye candy from our friends at Salmo! Be the FIRST to get your hands on the new Salmo Freediver 9s and Rattlin’ Hornet 3.5s that won’t hit most stores until this spring!!

If you haven’t heard of Salmo’s Freediver series before, they have cranks that can be trolled down to dang near 50′ on their own (without leadcore, snap weights, etc)!

Same deal as before: Click here to enter. Can share the link you get for bonus entries. Good luck, fish-heads!

Tip of the Day

Hi-vis line for sure can save the day when the fish get fussy. A spring bobber can help, but only with the slight down or up bite, not sideways.

ND guide Cody Roswick especially likes to use the “hi-vis chartreuse” color Berkley NanoFil when fishing for deep-water jumbos:

Quote of the Day

“I’ve had lots of trips where the walleyes kind of give you the middle fin.”

That’s Brian “Bro” Brosdahl venting about negative fish — no doubt we can all relate! No matter how tough the bite is, there’s always a way to make ’em bite….

This killer AnglingBuzz video has some of the best ice fishing pros from across the ice belt talkin’ how they catch fish during the worst bites of the year:

Almost positive this Lake of the Woods walldawg was giving Bro that same “middle fin” a couple days ago lol:

Caught that one shallow (about 15′) on a Northland Glo-Shot Spoon. If you’re heading that way soon, here’s a few colors that should be on your grocery list: “ladybug,” “metallic gold” and “wonderbread.”

Meme of the Day

Easy come, easy go:

Today’s ‘Eye Candy

Alex Reslock (@alexreslock) cracked this Devils Lake, ND humpback on a Lindy Rattl’N Flyer Spoon. Thing is shaped like a dang brick [mind-blown emoji]!

Sign up another fish-head!

If you’re forwarding Target Walleye/Ice to a friend who loves to walleye-fish or want your fishing buddies to get these emails, just send us their email addresses and we’ll take care of it! (We won’t sell the addresses, use them for spam, etc.)

Check this stuff out!

Who is Target Walleye/Ice
Target Walleye/Ice — walleye during open water and all species during hardwater — is brought to you by Al and Ron Lindner, Jim Kalkofen, Brett McComas and other diehard fish-nuts like you! #fishheads
Brett McComas is the main man for Target Walleye/Ice. He was discovered in Brainerd, MN after years of wondering how in the heck people break into the fishing biz. He’s in it now, but still can’t answer that question…. Brett is one of those guys who majored in marketing, only because there was no such thing as a “fishing degree” at the time…. Get him at brett@targetwalleye.com

To send us walleye pics, ice shots or whatever, just respond to this email or click here to email us. Or post it on the Target Walleye Facebook page.

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